My Favorite Husband
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My Favorite Husband is the name of an American radio program and an adapted network television series. The original radio show, co-starring Lucille Ball, was the initial basis for what evolved into the groundbreaking TV sitcom I Love Lucy.
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[edit] Radio
My Favorite Husband began as a radio sitcom on CBS Radio, with Lucille Ball and Richard Denning as Liz and George Cooper (Cugat in a very few early episodes, until bandleader Xavier Cugat was said to be edgy about the radio couple sharing the name). The couple lived at 321 Bundy Drive in the fictitious city of Sheridan Falls, and were billed as "two people who live together and like it." The main sponsor was Jell-O, and an average of three "plugs" for Jell-O were made in each episode, including Lucille Ball's usual sign-on, "Jell-O, everybody!" The program ran from 1948 through 1951, throughout which 124 episodes were aired.
The program initially portrayed the couple as being a well-to-do banker and his socially prominent wife, but three new writers — Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and Jess Oppenheimer — took over the writing, changed the couple's name to Cooper, and remade them into a middle-class couple, believing average listeners would find them more accessible.
Lucille Ball was asked to do a television version of the show (with Jell-O remaining as sponsor) and CBS insisted on Richard Denning continuing as her co-star, but Ball refused to do a husband-and-wife television show without real-life husband Desi Arnaz playing her on-screen husband. The network reluctantly agreed, reworking the concept into I Love Lucy after Ball and Arnaz took a show on the road to convince the network audiences would respond. But Jell-O dropped out of the show in favor of Philip Morris for television.
Carroll, Pugh, and Oppenheimer agreed to do the switch to the "I Love Lucy" show. They subsequently reworked a few My Favorite Husband episodes into I Love Lucy episodes, especially early in the TV show's run. For example, the 1948 radio episode entitled "Giveaway Program" inspired the I Love Lucy episode called "Redecorating," with some lines being exactly the same. Many of the actors who had done My Favorite Husband radio show also appeared on I Love Lucy, sometimes in episodes where they reprised their roles using a reworked Husband script.
[edit] Characters
- Liz Cooper; happily married housewife
- George Cooper; Liz's husband, works for Mr. Atterbury
- Mr. Rudolph Atterbury, played by Gale Gordon; George's boss, friend of the Cooper family, refers to male acquaintances as "boy", as in "George-Boy"
- Mrs. Iris Atterbury, played by Bea Benaderet; wife of Rudolph and friend of the Cooper family, refers to female acquaintances as "girl", as in "Liz-Girl"
- Katy, played by Ruth Perrott; the Cooper's maid, presumably enjoys making Jell-O
- Mrs. Leticia Cooper, played first by Benaderet and in subsequent episodes by Eleanor Audley; George's aristocratic mother, who typically looks down on Liz.
Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet were both given first consideration for the roles that would become Fred Mertz and Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy", but both had contract conflicts that forced them to turn down the roles.
[edit] Television
CBS finally brought My Favorite Husband to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The couple now resembled their earliest radio version, with George Cooper a well-to-do bank executive and plots dealing with the couple's society life. The television version ran two-and-one-half seasons, from 1953 to 1955 and was done live for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.
[edit] Characters
- Liz Cooper; the housewife
- George Cooper; Liz's favorite husband, and bank executive
- Gilmore Cobb, played by Bob Sweeney; the Coopers' wealthy next-door neighbor (first two seasons)
- Myra Cobb, played by Alix Talton; Gilmore's social-climbing wife (first two seasons)
- Oliver Shepard, played by Dan Tobin; the Coopers' neighbor in the third season
- Myra Shepard, Oliver's wife (third season). Played by the same actress who earlier played Myra Cobb
[edit] CD/DVD Releases
- Though the radio show was never commercially released on its own CD or DVD collections, at least one episode can be found on each disk from the I Love Lucy DVD releases.
- In 2003, two episodes were released together on a CD in the UK.
[edit] Audio
- Download episodes of My Favorite Husband in mp3 format
- My Favorite Husband radio shows (35 episodes)
- My Favorite Husband (Cheezylu Productions)
[edit] References
- Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, ISBN 0-345-45542-8
- Lance, Steven. "Written Out of Television", ISBN 1-56833-071-5
- Andrews, Bart. "The 'I Love Lucy' Book", ISBN 0-385-19033-6
