Our Miss Brooks
Our Miss Brooks is an American sitcom starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast on CBS from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television (1952–56), it became one of the medium's earliest hits. In 1956, the sitcom was adapted for the big screen in the film of the same name.
 Eve Arden as Connie Brooks | |
| Country of origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Language(s) | English |
| Starring | Eve Arden Gale Gordon |
| Announcer | Bob LeMond Verne Smith Hy Averback |
| Created by | Al Lewis |
| Written by | Al Lewis |
| Directed by | Al Lewis |
| Produced by | Larry Berns |
| Original release | July 19, 1948 (October 3, 1952 on CBS-TV) – May 11, 1956 |
Characters
- Constance "Connie" Brooks (Eve Arden) is an English teacher at fictional Madison High School.
- Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon) is the blustery, gruff, crooked, and unsympathetic principal of Madison High, a near-constant pain to his faculty and students. (Conklin was played by Joseph Forte in the show's first episode; Gordon succeeded him for the rest of the series' run.) Conklin would often abuse his authority to make teachers work extra hours or perform personal favors for him.
- Philip Boynton (Jeff Chandler on radio, billed sometimes under his birth name Ira Grossel; Robert Rockwell on both radio and television), is a Madison High biology teacher, the shy and often clueless object of Miss Brooks' affections.
- Walter Denton (Richard Crenna, billed at the time as Dick Crenna), is a Madison High student, well-intentioned and clumsy, with a nasally, high-pitched voice, which he can disguise when making mischief, often driving Miss Brooks (his self-professed favorite teacher) to school in a broken-down jalopy. Perfectly aware of Miss Brooks' feelings, he tirelessly tries to help her snare Mr. Boynton, despite the latter's cluelessness.
- Margaret Davis (Jane Morgan), Miss Brooks' absentminded landlady, has two trademarks— a penchant for whipping up exotic and often inedible breakfasts, and a tendency to lose her train of thought midsentence.
- Harriet Conklin (Gloria McMillan) is a Madison High student and daughter of Osgood Conklin. A sometime love interest for Walter Denton, Harriet is sweet, honest and guileless, unlike her father.
- Fabian "Stretch" Snodgrass (Leonard Smith) is a dull-witted Madison High athletic star and Walter's best friend. For part of the first and the entire second TV season, the character is replaced by Stretch's equally dim brother Bones (Eddie Riley).
- Daisy Enright (Mary Jane Croft) is a Madison High English teacher and a scheming professional and romantic rival to Miss Brooks.
- Ruth Nestor (Isabel Randolph) was introduced as the new school principal in the episode "Big Ears" (November 4, 1955).[1]
- Minerva is Mrs. Davis' cat. In the radio series, Minerva had the habit of sleeping inside Mrs. Davis' parlor piano, leading to a running gag of an impressive piano riff anytime something startled her awake.
Radio
Our Miss Brooks was a hit on radio from the outset; within eight months of its launch as a regular series, the show landed several honors, including four for Eve Arden, who won polls in four individual publications of the time. Arden had actually been the third choice to play the title role. Harry Ackerman, at the time CBS's West Coast director of programming, wanted Shirley Booth for the part, but as he told historian Gerald Nachman many years later, he realized Booth was too focused on the underpaid downside of public school teaching at the time to have fun with the role.[2]
Lucille Ball was believed to have been the next choice, but she was committed to My Favorite Husband and did not audition. CBS then-chairman Bill Paley, who was friendly with Arden, persuaded her to audition for the part. With a slightly rewritten audition script—Osgood Conklin, for example, was originally written as a school board president, but was now written as the incoming new Madison principal—Arden agreed to give the newly revamped show a try.[3]
Produced by Larry Berns and written by director Al Lewis, Our Miss Brooks premiered on CBS on July 19, 1948. According to radio critic John Crosby, her lines were very "feline" in dialogue scenes with principal Conklin and would-be boyfriend Boynton, with sharp, witty comebacks.[4] The interplay between the cast—blustery Conklin, nebbishy Denton, accommodating Harriet, absentminded Mrs. Davis, clueless Boynton, and scheming Miss Enright—also received positive reviews.
Jeff Chandler played Boynton and stayed with the role for five years, even after becoming a movie star. He ultimately resigned because it was too exhausting to juggle a regular radio role with his film commitments.[5][6] Others in the cast included Anne Whitfield as Conklin's daughter, Harriet.[7]
Arden won a radio listeners' poll by Radio Mirror magazine as the top-ranking comedienne of 1948–49, receiving her award at the end of an Our Miss Brooks broadcast that March. "I'm certainly going to try in the coming months to merit the honor you've bestowed upon me, because I understand that if I win this two years in a row, I get to keep Mr. Boynton", she joked. She was also a hit, with the critics; a winter 1949 poll of newspaper and magazine radio editors taken by Motion Picture Daily named her the year's best radio comedienne.
For its entire radio life, the show was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, promoting Palmolive soap, Lustre Creme shampoo, and Toni hair-care products. The radio series continued until 1957, a year after its television life ended. This content is now available for download at the Internet Archive here.
Television
The show's full cast, minus Jeff Chandler, played the same characters in the television version (with most of the scripts adapted from radio), which continued to revolve largely around Connie Brooks' daily relationships with Madison High students, colleagues, and principal. Philip Boynton was played by Robert Rockwell, who also succeeded Jeff Chandler on the radio series. The television show, sponsored by General Foods, shifted focus later in its run, moving Connie Brooks and Osgood Conklin from a public high school to an exclusive private school in the fall of 1955. It also changed the title character's romantic focus; Gene Barry was cast as physical education teacher Gene Talbot, and Connie was now the pursued instead of the pursuer, although Mr. Boynton reappeared in several episodes before the season ended.
Our Miss Brooks ran for 130 episodes on television and won an Emmy Award before it was cancelled in 1956. In the 1954–55 season, it overpowered Dear Phoebe, its NBC competition, starring Peter Lawford and Charles Lane, which failed to be renewed for a second season. Our Miss Brooks finished in Nielsen ratings that season at number 15 overall after previously ranking at number 23 in 1952–1953 and number 14 in 1953–1954.[8] For the 1955–56 season, with the format change and Rockwell (as Boynton) replaced by Gene Barry, the ratings fell. To rectify their mistake, the producers brought back Rockwell as Boynton in midseason, but it did not help. The show was cancelled in the spring of 1956. However, in the theatrical film Our Miss Brooks released by Warner Bros. in the same year, Connie and Mr. Boynton were finally engaged to be married. The television series was seen for several years thereafter in rebroadcasts.
Awards
Both the radio and television shows drew as much attention from professional educators as from radio and television fans, viewers, and critics. In addition to the 1948–49 poll of Radio Mirror listeners and the 1949 poll of Motion Picture Daily critics, Arden's notices soon expanded beyond her media. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, she was made an honorary member of the National Education Association and received a 1952 award from the Teachers College of Connecticut's Alumni Association "for humanizing the American teacher."
Our Miss Brooks was considered groundbreaking for showing a woman who was neither a scatterbrained klutz nor a homebody, but rather a working woman who transcended the actual or assumed limits to women's working lives of the time. Connie Brooks was considered a realistic character in an unglamorized profession (she often joked, for example, about being underpaid, as many teachers are), and who showed women could be competent and self-sufficient outside their home lives without losing their femininity or their humanity.
Our Miss Brooks remained Eve Arden's most identifiable and popular role, with numerous surviving recordings of both the radio and television versions continuing to entertain listeners and viewers. (The surviving radio recordings include both its audition shows.) A quarter century after the show ended, Arden told radio historian John Dunning in an on-air interview just what the show and the role came to mean to her:
I originally loved the theater. I still do. And I had always wanted to have a hit on Broadway that was created by me. You know, kind of like Judy Holliday and Born Yesterday. I griped about it a little, and someone said to me, "Do you realize that if you had a hit on Broadway, probably 100 or 200,000 people might have seen you in it, if you'd stayed in it long enough. And this way, you've been in Miss Brooks, everybody loves you, and you've been seen by millions." So, I figured I'd better shut up while I was ahead.[9]
Television cast
- Eve Arden as Connie Brooks
- Gale Gordon as Osgood Conklin
- Don Porter as Lawrence Nolan
- Robert Rockwell as Phillip Boynton
- Jane Morgan as Margaret Davis
- Jesslyn Fax as Margaret Davis's sister, Angela Devon
- Richard Crenna as Walter Denton
- Nick Adams as Gary Nolan
- Gloria McMillan as Harriet Conklin
- Joseph Kearns as Superintendent Stone (eight episodes)
- William Ching as Clint Allbright (four episodes) [10]
- Gene Barry as Gene Talbot
- William Newell as Dr. Henley
- Philip Van Zandt as Mr. Webster
- Marjorie Bennett as Mrs. J. Boynton
- Joseph Forte as Nolan's butler
- Orangey as Minerva the cat
List of television episodes
Season 1: 1952–53
| Nº | Ep | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Trying to Pick a Fight" | October 3, 1952 |
| 2 | 2 | "The Loaded Custodian" | October 10, 1952 |
| 3 | 3 | "The Embezzled Dress" | October 17, 1952 |
| 4 | 4 | "The Birthday Bag" | October 24, 1952 |
| 5 | 5 | "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton" | October 31, 1952 |
| 6 | 6 | "Living Statues" | November 7, 1952 |
| 7 | 7 | "Madison Country Club" | November 14, 1952 |
| 8 | 8 | "Mr. Whipple" | November 21, 1952 |
| 9 | 9 | "The Big Game" | November 28, 1952 |
| 10 | 10 | "Blue Goldfish" | December 5, 1952 |
| 11 | 11 | "The Stolen Aerial" | December 12, 1952 |
| 12 | 12 | "The Hobby Show" | December 19, 1952 |
| 13 | 13 | "Christmas Show" | December 27, 1952 |
| 14 | 14 | "Aunt Mattie Boynton" | January 2, 1953 |
| 15 | 15 | "The Pet Shop" | January 9, 1953 |
| 16 | 16 | "The Hurricane" | January 16, 1953 |
| 17 | 17 | "Monsieur La Blanche" | January 30, 1953 |
| 18 | 18 | "Old Marblehead" | February 6, 1953 |
| 19 | 19 | "The Model Teacher" | February 13, 1953 |
| 20 | 20 | "Wake-Up Plan" | February 20, 1953 |
| 21 | 21 | "The Cafeteria Strike" | February 27, 1953 |
| 22 | 22 | "Mister Casey's Will" | March 6, 1953 |
| 23 | 23 | "Conklin's Love Nest" | March 13, 1953 |
| 24 | 24 | "The Honest Burglar" | March 20, 1953 |
| 25 | 25 | "Fisher's Pawn Shop" | March 27, 1953 |
| 26 | 26 | "Lulu, the Pin-Up Boat" | April 3, 1953 |
| 27 | 27 | "The Yodar Kritch Award" | April 10, 1953 |
| 28 | 28 | "Madame Brooks DuBarry" | April 17, 1953 |
| 29 | 29 | "Marinated Hearing" | April 24, 1953 |
| 30 | 30 | "The Festival" | May 1, 1953 |
| 31 | 31 | "Suzy Prentiss" | May 8, 1953 |
| 32 | 32 | "Conklin Plays Detective" | May 15, 1953 |
| 33 | 33 | "Public Property on Parade" | May 22, 1953 |
| 34 | 34 | "Mrs Davis Reads Tea Leaves" | May 29, 1953 |
| 35 | 35 | "The Stolen Wardrobe" | June 5, 1953 |
| 36 | 36 | "Cure That Habit" | June 12, 1953 |
| 37 | 37 | "Capistrano's Revenge" | June 19, 1953 |
| 38 | 38 | "June Bride" | June 26, 1953 |
Season 2: 1953–54
| Nº | Ep | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | 1 | "Clay City Chaperone" | October 2, 1953 |
| 40 | 2 | "Bones, Son of Cyrano" | October 9, 1953 |
| 41 | 3 | "Spare the Rod" | October 16, 1953 |
| 42 | 4 | "Faculty Band" | October 23, 1953 |
| 43 | 5 | "The Little Visitor" | October 30, 1953 |
| 44 | 6 | "Trial by Jury" | November 6, 1953 |
| 45 | 7 | "Phone Book Follies" | November 13, 1953 |
| 46 | 8 | "Thanksgiving Show" | November 20, 1953 |
| 47 | 9 | "Vitamin E-4" | November 27, 1953 |
| 48 | 10 | "Swap Week" | December 11, 1953 |
| 49 | 11 | "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" | December 18, 1953 |
| 50 | 12 | "The Magic Tree" | December 25, 1953 |
| 51 | 13 | "Hospital Capers" | January 8, 1954 |
| 52 | 14 | "Postage Due" | January 15, 1954 |
| 53 | 15 | "Do It Yourself" | January 22, 1954 |
| 54 | 16 | "Bobsey's Twins in Stir" | January 29, 1954 |
| 55 | 17 | "The Jockey" | February 12, 1954 |
| 56 | 18 | "Brook's New Car" | February 19, 1954 |
| 57 | 19 | "The Hobo Jungle" | February 26, 1954 |
| 58 | 20 | "The Wild Goose" | March 12, 1954 |
| 59 | 21 | "Hello, Mr. Chips" | March 19, 1954 |
| 60 | 22 | "The Parlor Game" | March 23, 1954 |
| 61 | 23 | "A Dry Scalp Is Better Than None" | April 9, 1954 |
| 62 | 24 | "The English Test" | April 16, 1954 |
| 63 | 25 | "Second Hand-First Aid" | April 23, 1954 |
| 64 | 26 | "The Egg" | April 30, 1954 |
| 65 | 27 | "The Bakery" | May 14, 1954 |
| 66 | 28 | "Old Age Plan" | May 21, 1954 |
| 67 | 29 | "The Hawkins Travel Agency" | May 30, 1954 |
| 68 | 30 | "The Bicycle Thief" | June 11, 1954 |
| 69 | 31 | "Just Remember the Red River Valley" | June 18, 1954 |
Season 3: 1954–55
| Nº | Ep | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | 1 | "The Miserable Caballeros" | October 1, 1954 |
| 71 | 2 | "Blood, Sweat and Laugh" | October 15, 1954 |
| 72 | 3 | "Life Can Be Bones" | October 22, 1954 |
| 73 | 4 | "Two-Way Stretch Snodgrass" | October 29, 1954 |
| 74 | 5 | "Angela's Wedding" | November 5, 1954 |
| 75 | 6 | "Van Gogh, Man Gogh" | November 12, 1954 |
| 76 | 7 | "The Jewel Robbery" | November 26, 1954 |
| 77 | 8 | "Space, Who Needs It?" | December 3, 1954 |
| 78 | 9 | "The Novelist" | December 10, 1954 |
| 79 | 10 | "Four Leaf Clover" | December 17, 1954 |
| 80 | 11 | "The Citizen's League" | January 7, 1955 |
| 81 | 12 | "Buddy" | January 14, 1955 |
| 82 | 13 | "Noodnick, Daughter of Medic" | January 21, 1955 |
| 83 | 14 | "The Stuffed Gopher" | January 28, 1955 |
| 84 | 15 | "Safari O'Toole" | February 4, 1955 |
| 85 | 16 | "The Weighing Machine" | February 11, 1955 |
| 86 | 17 | "Public Speaker's Nightmare" | February 18, 1955 |
| 87 | 18 | "The Auction" | February 25, 1955 |
| 88 | 19 | "The Mambo" | March 4, 1955 |
| 89 | 20 | "The Dream" | March 11, 1955 |
| 90 | 21 | "The Return of Red Smith" | March 25, 1955 |
| 91 | 22 | "Le chien chaud et le mouton noir" | April 8, 1955 |
| 92 | 23 | "Kritch Cave" | April 15, 1955 |
| 93 | 24 | "Mister Fargo's Whiskers" | April 22, 1955 |
| 94 | 25 | "The Great Baseball Slide" | April 29, 1955 |
| 95 | 26 | "Turnabout Day" | May 6, 1955 |
| 96 | 27 | "Here Is Your Past" | May 13, 1955 |
| 97 | 28 | "Madison Mascot" | May 20, 1955 |
| 98 | 29 | "The Big Jump" | May 27, 1955 |
| 99 | 30 | "Home Cooked Meal" | June 3, 1955 |
Season 4: 1955–56
| Nº | Ep | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 1 | "The Blind Date" | October 7, 1955 |
| 101 | 2 | "Transition Show" | October 14, 1955 |
| 102 | 3 | "Who's Who?" | October 21, 1955 |
| 103 | 4 | "Burnt Picnic Basket" | October 28, 1955 |
| 104 | 5 | "Big Ears" | November 4, 1955 |
| 105 | 6 | "Have Bed – Will Travel" | November 11, 1955 |
| 106 | 7 | "Protest Meeting" | November 18, 1955 |
| 107 | 8 | "The King and Brooks" | November 25, 1955 |
| 108 | 9 | "Mad Man Munsey" | December 2, 1955 |
| 109 | 10 | "Connie and Bonnie" | December 9, 1955 |
| 110 | 11 | "Music Box Revue" | December 23, 1955 |
| 111 | 12 | "The New Gym Instructor" | December 30, 1955 |
| 112 | 13 | "The Skeleton in the Closet" | January 6, 1956 |
| 113 | 14 | "Amalgamation" | January 13, 1956 |
| 114 | 15 | "Reunion" | January 20, 1956 |
| 115 | 16 | "Twins at School" | January 27, 1956 |
| 116 | 17 | "Mrs. Nestor's Boy Friend" | February 3, 1956 |
| 117 | 18 | "Acting Director" | February 10, 1956 |
| 118 | 19 | "Mr. Boynton's Return" | February 17, 1956 |
| 119 | 20 | "White Lies" | February 24, 1956 |
| 120 | 21 | "The Great Land Purchase" | March 2, 1956 |
| 121 | 22 | "Raffle Ticket" | March 9, 1956 |
| 122 | 23 | "Library Quiz" | March 16, 1956 |
| 123 | 24 | "A Mother for Benny" | March 23, 1956 |
| 124 | 25 | "Connie and Frankie" | March 30, 1956 |
| 125 | 26 | "Top Hat, White Tie, and Bridle" | April 6, 1956 |
| 126 | 27 | "24 Hours" | April 13, 1956 |
| 127 | 28 | "Geraldine" | April 20, 1956 |
| 128 | 29 | "The $350,000 Question" | April 27, 1956 |
| 129 | 30 | "Principal for a Day" | May 4, 1956 |
| 130 | 31 | "Travel Crazy" | May 11, 1956 |
Home media
On October 16, 2019, CBS Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD in Region 1, in a two-volume set (19 episodes each), however they are shortened syndicated versions showing approximately 21 minute episodes instead of their original 26 minute broadcasts. They also used only one set of opening and closing credits which they copy and pasted over the rest of the episodes in the season eliminating any guest cast and/or differing crew member information.
Syndication
In the 1980s, episodes aired on independent television stations during afternoons and late nights. The source prints were unfortunately very poor-quality 16-mm prints. Various episodes can be found on YouTube. Occasionally, it airs on MeTV and is part of the regular weekday evening line up on Decades. Tubi has several episodes in their library.
References
- David C. Tucker Eve Arden: A Chronicle of All Film, Television, Radio and Stage (2011); ISBN 0786488107
"This episode introduces Isabel Randolph as Ruth Nestor." - Nachman, Gerald (1998). Raised on Radio. University of California Press, by arrangement with Pantheon Books. p. 218. ISBN 0-520-22303-9. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
- Dunning, John (1998). "Our Miss Brooks (situation comedy)". On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 528. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
Paley proposed that she star.
- Bertel, Dick; Corcoran; Ed (February 1972). "Radio Shows of 1947". The Golden Age of Radio. Season 2. Episode 11. Broadcast Plaza, Inc.. WTIC Hartford, Conn.
- "'Our Miss Brooks' Starring Eve Arden to Make Bow Tonight". Chicago Daily Tribune. September 19, 1948. p. n12.
- "Tony Curtis Trains for Role in Musical". Los Angeles Times. October 24, 1953. p. 10.
- "Jill Corey's Rise A Success Story; Out-Of-Town Hubber Games On KFYO". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Texas, Lubbock. March 11, 1956. p. 70. Retrieved April 15, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "ClassicTVHits.com: TV Ratings". www.classictvhits.com.
- Dunning, John. KNUS (Denver) radio interview with Eve Arden, 1982.
- "William Ching". IMDb.
Further reading
- Arden, Eve. The Three Phases of Eve (1985)
- Buxton, Frank and Bill Owen, The Big Broadcast 1920–1950 (1971) (New York: Avon Books.)
- Nachman, Gerald. Raised on Radio (1998) (New York: Pantheon Books.)
- Ohmart, Ben, It's That Time Again (2002) (Albany: BearManor Media.) ISBN 0-9714570-2-6
- Wertheim, Arthur Frank, Radio Comedy (1979) Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-502481-8
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Our Miss Brooks. |
- Our Miss Brooks radio episodes at Internet Archive
- Our Miss Brooks at IMDb
- Review of radio show at Variety