A terrific relic of TV's early days, this was one of the first TV sitcoms of the early 1950s, along with "The Life Of Riley" and "I Remember Mama". This program was originally titled "The Trouble With Father" on its first network run, then became "The Stu Erwin Show" in syndication in the late 1950s. Who knows how long it's been since this series was last shown on TV?
The shows were predictable but always fun, kind of a blueprint for TV shows of their kind from "Ozzie and Harriet", "Father Knows Best", "Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show", "Leave It To Beaver", "The Donna Reed Show" to "My Three Sons", among others, as an archetypal Saturday Evening Post-Norman Rockwell look at American postwar life in the suburbs.
This popular sitcom's humor surrounded Stu Erwin's bewilderment with life, his lovely wife June Collyer's simple matter-of-fact acceptance of even the most improbable turn of events, the teenaged lovers whose attraction were a matter of concern for parents Stu and June, and irrepressible Jackie as the rowdy tomboy kid who got into trouble about every other episode. (You may remember Jackie as Zelda Gilroy in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" TV sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman.)
And of course the show wouldn't be complete without comic relief from house servant Willie Best (also in "My Little Margie") who was always a delight, in spite of his typical character for the times. As was the formula in the other popular TV sitcoms, the show relied on the usual stereotypical characters, but was always great fun to watch. Worth it to search the web and buy a few episodes on video, if you love good classic TV of the 1950s. It's really a shame that more classic TV from the early days is still unavailable in good quality on video for people to enjoy today.
(By the way, Stu Erwin and June Collyer were real-life husband and wife, and had acted together for nearly 20 years before they starred in this wonderful old TV show together.) Great fun!
