How to Marry a Millionaire

. . . but she made the show. Young, beautiful and the quintessential "dumb blonde" you hear about so often, Barbara Eden made this series work.

The entire show was fast and sweet and quite enjoyable. It loosely followed the movie and provided some laughs.

Filmed in black and white, with the canned laugh track fully operational, it followed the exploits of three young ladies - Mike, Loco and Greta - as they tried to snare themselves three very rich husbands. They could hardly afford to eat (and yet, in each episode, they wore more designer clothes per minute then you'd see on any Paris runway), but they managed to afford a penthouse apartment on the right side of the track. As this was not shown on network television, they never benefitted from syndication or a reunion special but as it was so sweet and funny, I sort of wish there could be one.

I was curious about this series, so I watched a few episodes. It was after all based on the first Cinemascope film of the same title directed by Jean Negulesco. That was no masterpiece but enjoyable, but what I saw was pitifully badly acted especially by Barbara Eden in the Marilyn Monroe role, and both Merry Anders and Lori Nelson were almost as bad. If this is an example of American family viewing of 1957 then I am sorry America was so hypocritical in what ' families ' should see. A threesome of gold diggers seeking rich men is not exactly a subject for families - or was it ? The series probably had no realisation that it was leading the way into ' normalised ' prostitution. As for the direction I noticed none and it was visually drab. The original film was at least witty and well acted. Was this a true example of television of the time ? If it was then I am happy true cinema survived.

"How to Marry a Millionaire" began airing in syndication on October 1957 as one of the first series based on a feature film. It marked the fifth series filmed by 20th Century Fox, who made a number of series based on their films. The sitcom ran for 52 episodes over two seasons. It wasn't widely seen then and remains a rather obscure series, only recently made available in a nice but no-frills, inexpensive MOD release of both seasons.

The series stars Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie") in her first recurring television role as Loco Jones. Rounding out the starring roles are Merry Anders as Mike McCall and Lori Nelson as Greta Hanson (replaced in season two by Lisa Gaye). Like the popular film it was based on, three lovely young ladies move to Park Avenue in New York City determined to find a rich husband. The episodes follows their misadventures trying to meet someone while at the same time avoiding eviction from their posh penthouse. There were some interesting guest stars throughout the series (Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, Ted Knight, and especially Werner Klemperer, twice). The series was canceled after 13 episodes of its second season.

Reflecting upon the series after just watching every episode, "How to Marry a Millionaire" had moments of fine comedy writing, but was more often than not predictable- a mere footnote of 50s sitcoms. When you have a talent like Morey Amsterdam disappear in his lone appearance, you have to question the writing. For a long stretch of the series it felt predictable like "Gilligan's Island", without much comedy. (You know they're not going to achieve their goal when you're watching an episode.) But, there are episodes I'll enjoy watching again and as a fan of classic television, I'm happy to have it in my collection.

The clear pleasure was the zany comedy of Barbara Eden's beautiful but ditzy Loco. Nearly all of the comedy came from her. ("For the Love of Art" was a favorite. In one scene, Loco is trying to impress without her glasses and browsing through an art gallery admiring how realistic this one painting was... She was unknowingly looking out the window.) Merry Ander's Mike was given virtually no character development, just a straight-faced de facto leader of the trio. Lori Nelson's Greta was also a serious character, but given more to be likable. In short, for the characters of Mike and Greta, landing a millionaire was no laughing matter. I liked the gorgeous Lisa Gaye's brief, but wholesome character. Thanks for the entertainment girls.

This was one great TV show. Entertaining, funny, serious and mischievous all rolled into one. Too bad someone can't come up with the shows and make them available. The same goes for 'Jamie' starring Brandon De Wilde. Another show that was made for total home viewing with moral values.

Comedy can be funny without certain words. Just look at all the shows that are in rerun compared to those in prime time spots that are just moving wherever the wind takes them.

So if you're out there and you have these shows on tape, etc... take it some place and make them available to the public.

They are just 2 of many good shows that need to be brought hack and put into the mainstream so the younger generation can see what family values were really all about.

"How to Marry a Millionaire",a light,bright syndicated comedy story of 3 girls on a merry man hunt search for Meeting wealthy millionaires in the hopes of marrying a wealthy millionaire with any schemes they could think of so,help them Fort Knox.