My Hero

The 1952 American sitcom 'My Hero' was the second Yank comedy series transmitted on British television. (The first was "Amos 'n' Andy", airing on the BBC fortnightly from April 1954. 'My Hero' made its UK debut on ITV in September 55. The third Yank sitcom to show up in Britain was some unfunny piece of gudge about a redhead and a conga player.)

American actor Robert Cummings worked under several different names. He started out in the theatre as a fake Englishman under the stage name Blade Stanhope Conway. When that gambit failed to get him any bookings, he adopted a Southern accent and made his Broadway debut as Brice Hutchins. Eventually he got work in films as a dramatic actor under his real name, Robert Cummings (notably in Hitchcock's 'Saboteur' and 'Dial M for Murder'), but he billed himself as BOB Cummings when he played comedy roles.

'My Hero' stars Bob Cummings in comedy mode as Bob Beanblossom (ouch!), a charming but incompetent estate agent in Los Angeles. The 'My' in the title is his attractive secretary Julie Marshall, who for some reason idolises Bob even though she is constantly rescuing him whenever he screws up a deal. Bob's hot-tempered boss is Willis Thackery.

'My Hero' isn't very funny, although it's a lot less painful to watch than an unrelated British sitcom of the same title, made nearly 50 years later. Bob Cummings was a charming, easy-going actor, and his presence brought pleasance, rather than hilarity, to the proceedings.

Robert Cummings was one of the first 'Big Screen' stars to venture into television, his first SitCom, 'My Hero', was his best! Several other screen stars have played the handsome, well meaning, but bumbling character, Cary Grant, Fred MacMurray to name two, but none did it better than Robert Cummings, and never better than in 'My Hero', for some reason it only ran for 33 episodes, but what gems of comedy they are, and although a few of them are available on DVD, they are usually not very good in the picture quality department, if the originals are still in existence, someone should put the entire series out in a good quality boxed set! This series deserves it! Not long after this series, Robert Cummings for some inexplicit reason changed his billing to Bob Cummings, and for some reason, to me, was never quite as funny again? Maybe it's just me? But if you want to see Robert Cummings at his funniest, check out 'My Hero'!