My Little Margie

Have to give My Little Margie a 10 as I find myself laughing out loud several times per episode. Something about a top notch cast of talented / seasoned veterans willing to take prat-falls, being chased by monkeys and donning disguises strictly for the sake of laughter that brings out a refreshing charm. Every character is genuinely funny and love the way each one at times can be pivotal to the storyline or just appear supplying funny fuel to the shenanigans. Plus the show features a multi-generational cast of silly heads who eventually all get into hot water, eat crow and make situations worse by trying to be smart. Even though these characters may be stereotypical, knucklehead father, grouchy cheapskate boss, goofy unemployed boyfriend, feisty old neighbor (the amazing Gertrude Hoffman as Mrs. Odettes), suspicious girlfriend and Margie (always in need of money and a larger allowance) I find these characters and the show itself more honest and well rounded than most TV shows broadcast today .....including dramas. Seems many shows today are focused on it lead stars, same age group, with little character support from others. My Little Margie mixes it up and provides laughter from a creative ensemble of goof-balls and high spirited interaction amongst them. Priceless joy and enjoying these airings on RTV.

Someone said that Margie was almost 30 and still living at home. Actually Gale Storm was playing a 21 year old "taking care" of her "old" father, played by silent screen star, Charles Farrell.

I've bought three of the DVD boxes so far and have enjoyed these episodes in between watching the antics of Joan Davis in "I Married Joan." I enjoy these shows much better than the junk they call comedies on today's TV.

In "Margie," I especially love the episodes with Gertrude Hoffman, who lives across the hall from the Albrights and plays Margie's 'Ethel Mertz' even though she is probably in her 80s! She's a hip old lady who'd look quite comfortable riding a hog with a Hell's Angel.

Once Margie said to Mrs. Odets (Hoffman), "Mrs. Odets, you still have that "certain something" that draws men to you." Odets smiles slyly and says, "Yes, Margie, but I've had it a long, LONG time."

Gertrude Hoffman brings to mind her wonderful performance in the movie "Caged," where she played "Millie, the old lifer." After the prison matron draws her hand back to slap Millie, she stares up at her and says, "Hit me, and I'll put your lights out." And she MEANT it! Why she wasn't nominated for an Oscar for that I'll never know.

Gale Storm is still living as this is being written. If she ever comes to IMDb, I want her to know that I loved her on both of her series, this one and "Oh, Susanna!" Also, I have on video, her surprise by Ralph Edwards when he featured her on This Is Your Life. Gale, you were beautiful and a delight to watch.

Trivia: "My Little Margie" was a summer replacement for "I Love Lucy" and was such a hit with the public, the network picked it up and gave it its own time slot.

Everything in this show is funny! Besides Margie, my two favorite characters are Mr. Honeywell, because he is the J. C. Dithers-type boss who always plays up to the clients now matter how big an idiot he or she might be, treats Vern like a dog, and constantly threatens to fire him. He is the stereotype of the mean-spirited boss. My second-favorite character after Mr. Honeywell is Freddie, because even though he is not technically an in-law, Vern treats him as the father would always treat a son-in-law that he despised. (Of course, the fact that Freddie is really as lazy and as sorry (hapless might be a more apt word) as Vern says he is does not detract from the humor at all.)

I was born in 1953, so I was not old enough to watch the series when it originally aired from 1952 to 1956, yet I remember most of the episodes, so I must have seen them in reruns in the late 50's and early 60's.

I've watched about a dozen of them this week since hearing that Gail Storm passed away last week. I've been surprised by the variable quality. Some of them are ridiculous and poorly written, while others are masterful gems, as clever and inventive as any comedy series that has been on television.

So far I've noticed that one episode is almost the pilot for the Beverly Hillbillies (including the use of the name Ellie Mae for the daughter), while other episodes seem to play riffs on crime, detective, Captain Midnight and quiz shows.

When we are children, we don't know what the world outside our home and school is really like (at least that was the case growing up in the 1950's). I found the world on "My Little Margie" to be quite realistic when I was a child. She wasn't famous, she wasn't rich, and nobody ever got killed or died. So it was like the real world to me. Although people got punched in the world of Margie more frequently than occurred in the real world (generally about two times per episode).

Margie was easily able to fool people with virtually any disguise she chose from episode to episode. However, that seemed realistic to me. For some reason I figured the world would be that way when I grew up. I would put on disguises to fool and trick people into doing things they would ordinarily refuse to do. I am sorry that I grew up and found that the world is not like the world in "My Little Margie". People are not easily tricked and I have never found an occasion to pretend to be anything but what I am.

When I watch the show now, I remember myself being 5 or 6 or 7 and watching and enjoying it. It brought much joy to me then and does so now 50 years later.

Everybody in the cast is a delight and has great comic timing, which I suspect is to the credit of the director Hal Yates.

Of the three top women stars of 1950's American television, Lucille Ball, Joan Davis and Gail Storm, we should remember that Lucy and Joan were in their 40's, while Gail Storm was only 30 when her show started. While I thought that Lucy and Joan would make great moms, Gail was the woman who I really wanted as a wife-girlfriend-playmate. She was my first crush. She often acted the wild child, but could also play sophisticated and sexy really well.

I would love it if someone came out with the full series on DVD. I think it would be the only full series that I would want to watch all 140 episodes again.

The 126 episodes of the screwball situation comedy "My Little Margie" originally ran from 1952-1955 CBS and NBC. The "Vci Video" release "My Little Margie-Vol. #1" contains six of these episodes (150 minutes). I have listed them below with their original airdates. Rather than six consecutive episodes these span the entire time period that the show ran.

The characters are somewhat strange for the period as back then sitcoms were almost entirely about traditional nuclear families (Ricardos, Nelsons, Rileys, Andersons, etc.). This is a notable exception as it features Gale Storm as 21-year old Margie Albright who lives with her widowed father Vern (Charles Farrell). Vern is the standard ineffectual dad of the 1950's. He works for an investment firm and is very much under the thumb of his boss George Honeywell (Clarence Kolb). Their working relationship is very much like the Darrin Stevens- Larry Tate one in "Bewitched" as Vern panders shamelessly to Mr. Honeywell and to the firm's perspective clients. This dynamic makes for some nice comic moments.

Vern also spends a lot of time searching for romance and when Margie is not causing him embarrassment she is trying to keep him out of trouble with the ladies. Some of the best episodes have Margie teaming up with Mrs. Odetts (their busybody neighbor played by Gertrude Hoffman) to keep Vern from falling for the legion of wily widows in their town.

Margie has a boyfriend, Freddie Wilson (Don Hayden) but if there ever was a romantic side to their relationship the spark went out when the series began. Part of the problem is that Storm was 30 years old when the series started and dressed like a teenager trying to affect a grown-up look. This got worse with each year and I did not really appreciate Storm until she started acting her age in her next series, "The Gale Storm Show" (a/k/a "Oh, Susanna").

Volume # includes: Margie's Phantom Lover 28 Oct 1953, The Missing Link 25 October 1952, Hillbilly Margie 12 Feb 1953, Vern's Mother-In-Law 2 Feb 55, Trapped Freddy 12 March 1953, Buried Treasure 2 April 1953.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.