Those Websters
Encyclopedia
Willard Waterman
Willard Lewis Waterman was a character actor in films, TV and on radio, remembered best for succeeding Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve at the height of that show's popularity.Peary was unable to convince sponsor and show owner Kraft Cheese to allow him an ownership...
and Constance Crowder as George and Jane Webster. The program was launched in New York and then moved to Chicago for a short spell before finishing its run from Hollywood.
The series replaced That Brewster Boy (1941-45), which starred a teenaged Dick York
Dick York
Richard Allen "Dick" York was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as the first Darrin Stephens on the ABC television fantasy sitcom Bewitched...
. Several Brewster cast members continued on with Those Websters, and the two situation comedies were quite similar. The transition is evident in the near-anagram: Brewster=Webster. In a 1991 interview with John Douglas, Dick York explained how That Brewster Boy morphed into Those Websters:
- Pauline Hopkins and Owen Vincent were the writer and director of That Brewster Boy. They were sending bundles to the Communists to help fight the Nazis, so naturally they were branded as Communists. The advertising agency came around, hired everyone from under them, and they were going to change the name of the show and get rid of Pauline and Owen. Well, I was fresh out of the slum. It was the first time I ever had any money, but I went to Pauline and Owen and told them straight out that I didn't know what it was all about, but that I was with them. I wouldn't sign with the agency. Of course, I was taken off the show.
Those riotous Websters were heard Friday evenings at 9:30pm on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from March 9, 1945 to February 22, 1946 with Quaker Oats as the sponsor. On March 3, 1946, the series moved to Mutual where it aired Sundays at 6pm until August 22, 1948.
Cast and characters
The Webster family lived at 46 River Road in the Chicago suburb of Spring City where George Webster often attended the lodgehall meetings of the Sons of the Mustangs of the Moonlight Mesas. Attempting to prove that "families are fun," those hapless Websters continually encountered confusion, and plans usually went astray during their chaotic misadventures.The children were Liz Webster (Joan Alt) and Billy Webster (Arthur Young, Gil Stratton Jr.), with Bill Idelson
Bill Idelson
Bill Idelson was an actor and scriptwriter best known for his teenage role as Rush Gook on the radio comedy Vic and Sade and his later, recurring television role on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s, before making a distinguished third career as a television writer, director and producer....
as Billy's friend Emil, Jerry Spellman (as Jeep) and Jane Webb (as Belinda Boyd). Fran Allison
Fran Allison
Fran Allison was an American television and radio comedian, personality and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC-TV puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which ran from 1947 to 1957, occasionally returning to the air until the mid 1980s...
was heard as a family cousin, and the cast also included Clarence Hartzell, Parley Baer
Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in film, television, and radio.-Radio:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL...
and Eddie Firestone Jr. (1921-2007). Charles Irving announced the program, scripted by Priscilla Kent, Albert G. Miller and Frank and Doris Hursley. Frank Worth led the orchestra.
Two years after this series came to an end, Waterman replaced Harold Peary
Harold Peary
Harold Peary was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P...
as the title character in The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve , initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first Introduced to...
in 1950.
Sources
- The Great Gildersleeve Journal: "Those Websters: Willard Waterman’s Other Family Sitcom."