The Bob Cummings 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.

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.

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.

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...

"Hold it, I think you're gonna like this one." To really appreciate this show I guess you had to be there, the late '50's I mean. Television was laced with action/ adventure westerns, detective/ private eye shows and screwball comedies. Then there was Love That Bob, a show about a playboy photographer living every mans dream of being surrounded by beautiful models in bathing suits, tight form fitting dresses, high heels .... well you get the picture. Add to this Ann B. Davis who could of been the prototype for Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films as his lovelorn receptionist/ secretary and Nancy Kulp as a geeky naturalist who wanted to commune with Bob. Rosemary DeCamp was wonderful as his sister and Dwayne Hickman was great as his nephew, a teenager with over active glands who wanted nothing more than to follow in his uncles wake and date Bob's model girlfriends. Bob's some time duel roll as Grandpa Collins, an elderly gent who like his grandson was a still flying high himself (in the show he flew his own bi-plane)and had his share of comic adventures with the ladies. Yeah, you had to be there for this one to really get the picture.