The Bob Cummings Show

Lively series that could occasionally sparkle with comedy and high spirits. This is a role the handsome, slightly smug Cummings was born to play. As a high-fashion photographer, there was always a parade of shapely girls passing through his studio each week. I'm guessing teen- age boys like me made up a lot of his steady audience. But that's not to say glamour was the only draw. The scripts, by and large, were surprisingly good, usually centering around a romantic predicament Bob would then have to fast talk his way out of. Maybe secretary Schultzy (Davis) or sister Margaret (DeCamp) would help. More likely, they would standby amused, while Bob was getting some kind of minor comeuppance. And what a fine supporting cast they were, including a pre-Dobie Dwayne Hickman. Nothing special or substantive here, just solid light-hearted entertainment that wears surprisingly well.

The "Bob Commings Show" (retitled for syndication, "Love That Bob") had eroticism, patriotism, and family values. The character of Bob Collins was a World War II veteran who was living with and supporting his war-widowed sister and her college student son, Chuck. Bob Collins was both a shameless, one could say addicted, womanizer, and an admirable role model and mentor for his nephew Chuck, played by Dwayne Hickman. "The Bob Cummings Show" was ahead of its time, representative of its time, and influential on its time. It was especially influential on a lot of subsequent shows. "The Dobbie Gillis Show", for instance was almost a direct rip-off of the "Bob Cummings Show" with Dwayne Hickman doing a recreation of his Chuck character with a lot of Bob Collins mixed in. In the "Bob Cummings Show" Dwayne Hickman as Chuck would try to date one of Uncle Bob's models, such as the French bombshell Collette duBois, played by Debra Paget's sister, Lisa Gaye. Collette would consult Bob, asking him about the idea of accepting a date with college student Chuck, "Don't you think it would be like you Americans say, 'stealing the bed?'. " A bit stunned at the expression, Bob would do one of his "takes" and then gasp, "You mean 'robbing the cradle?'" In "Dobbie Gillis" Dwayne Hickman got an awful lot of mileage out of using the same Bob Commings type gasp to yell, "That's Dobbie! With a B!" every time some character called him "Dopie." And Hickman as Dobbie was forever doing a take and responding with some gasp in response to some remark made by either Maynard G. Krebs or Zelda. Zelda, of course, was a rip-off of the Shultzy character on the "Bob Commings Show." Part of the charm of the Commings series was in its predictability of situation and the way the characters played off of one another. College student Chuck would periodically stop by Uncle Bob's photo studio, become ga-ga at the string of gorgeous models parading in and out of the studio in various stages of undress, and stutter, "Ah, ah, Uncle Bob, I feel guilty using your money to go to college. I think it is time I learned a trade. Like, ah, photography." To this, Uncle Bob would chuckle and respond, "No, Chuck, you need to get an education so that you don't end up a tradesman like your uncle. You continue in school and become a doctor." Whether he realizes it or not, I think the American who most of all refined and capitalized on the "take" and on characters playing off one another as influenced by the Commings show was Johnny Carson who captivated the American night audience for 25 years with jokes, takes, and character banter which to me, all seemed to originate on "The Bob Cummings Show."

Watch this if you get a chance. It was made 40+ years ago when double entendres were the order of the day and you weren't hit over the head by crude expressions of sexuality disguised as humor. One commenter said that the women were "fat" - maybe compared to some of the anorexic women on television NOW, they were. But when women on television looked like women, they weren't "fat." I consider it to have been ahead of its time...

I watched this show when it first aired and in many reruns over the following decade. Bob Cummings demonstrated impeccable comic timing while supported by an equally outstanding ensemble. Especially noteworthy for me were Dwayne Hickman, Ann B. Davis, Nancy Kulp and King Donovan. This show has often been criticized as "sexist" whereas it was, in fact, just the opposite. The primary theme of the show centered around Bob's constant womanizing which almost always ended in his getting his comeuppance. Bob often poked fun at himself in this series for example: making fun of health-foods through Nancy Kulp's character even though he was himself a health-food "addict" long before such became fashionable or portraying himself (i.e. Bob Cummings the actor) as an arrogant egotist. I strongly disagree with the "if you liked this" suggestions. This is hardly in the same category as Mr. Ed. Better choices would be Dobie Gillis or the Phil Silvers show.

"The Bob Cummings Show" -- I knew it as "Love That Bob" in syndication -- was a mid-'50s TV show starring Bob Cummings, Ann B. Davis, Rosemary DeCamp, Dwayne Hickman, Joi Lansing, King Donovan, Lyle Talbot, Rose Marie, Nancy Kulp -- you couldn't ask for a better cast.

Cummings was 45 when he started this show - playing a bachelor photographer, no less - but he could get away with it. While he wasn't a superstar in films, he was a star and later became a superstar in television, due to his comic timing, charm, and good looks. On the show, Rosemary DeCamp plays his sister, Hickman his nephew, Davis his secretary, and Kulp a strange woman who constantly throws herself at him. She's hilarious. Cummings occasionally played his grandfather as well.

The comedy is wonderful, not only because of the lines, but because of the characters and the line readings. The show was probably considered a little risqué for the time -- after all, Bob had a lot of girlfriends -- but it was a more innocent time, at least as far as television was concerned so while there was some very veiled innuendo, that was about it.

I loved going back in time with this show and seeing the cigarette commercials - wow. Amazing. The show is available on Netflix. Check it out.