Vintage TV Binging: “The Trouble With Father” (1950-1955)

TV comedies of the 1950s brought us timeless classics like “The Phil Silvers Show” (“You’ll Never Get Rich”), “I Love Lucy,” and “The Honeymooners,” but there were many others that have not lived on, but still offer good entertainment from the period. An example is “The Trouble With Father,” which is the subject of my Vintage TV Binging for this article.

Also known as “The Stu Erwin Show,” this series features Stuart Erwin and real-life wife June Collyer (sister of radio and cartoon Superman Bud Collyer). Stu and June were already veteran character actors when they signed for this series about a good-natured high school principal who bumbled his way through domestic situations. June played his loving and supportive wife, while Ann E. Todd and Sheila James played their daughters Joyce and Jackie.

The show had typical situations, but because it was one of the very first family-oriented sitcoms, their plots about confusion over birthday gifts, dating woes, arguments with the neighbors, et. al., were new ideas at the time. Most of the teleplays were penned by Charles Shows, who spent most of his career writing for Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Huckleberry Hound, Ruff & Reddy, and The Banana Splits. The performances were all very good, notably Erwin himself, who anchored each episode. His “father” character (using his own name) was capable and respected both at work and at home, but often his decisions would bungle things, in typical sitcom-dad fashion. From penning stories under a pseudonym for the school paper, to flunking an IQ test, Stu amiably went about his way with the supportive help of his wife and kids.

Unlike current sitcoms, the Erwins were a solid family unit with no real conflict. Nobody seemed to ever become angry with each other. The youngest daughter was wisecracking, but never belligerent or rebellious. The oldest one was pretty and understanding.

Gender roles were typical of the 1950s. When the women are away pursuing other interests, the men are incapable of making a sandwich, let alone preparing dinner. In one episode, where June is away for a few days, Stu's inability to maintain the household chores, despite a schedule and the help of the girls, is rife with typical comic backfires. This might be the first sitcom example of this premise.

One significant element to the cast is that black actor Willie Best was a featured player who enjoyed a significant recurring role. He was a custodial worker at Stu’s school, and later was hired to work odd jobs at the Erwins’ home. And while he always addressed Stu was Mr. Erwin, he was clearly an employee and not a subordinate. He had his own comedy scenes, and was shown to be a close friend and respected confidant. In more than one episode, Willie is sought after for advice from one of the daughters, usually the youngest. While stereotyping was an unfortunate part of film and TV during this pre-civil rights era, Willie’s role in this series transcended these limitations.

But what is perhaps most fascinating from a sociocultural perspective is that this series came and went before the rock and roll era. These post-war teenagers are a part of America that had passed by the Andy Hardy era but hadn’t quite reached the Elvis Presley one. There is no real youth culture to speak of, so the impact of the culture is led by middle aged adults.

"The Trouble With Father" was shot at the Hal Roach studios. Since this is such of an early example of a filmed sitcom, its production didn’t have much of a structure. A full 52 episodes were filmed during the first season, and another 26 for the second. As a result, there were no reruns until the third season. By then there was such of a backlog of shows, this entire season was comprised of reruns only. The cast returned for season four to film a new batch of 26 episodes, but without Ann E. Todd, who left acting, and was replaced by Merry Anders.

Because the show dates back so far, the episodes are dotted with character actors from Hollywood’s golden age, like Margaret Dumont, Hank Wodren, Tom Keene, Chester Clute, and James Gleason. Martin Milner plays the oldest daughter’s boyfriend in season one, and shares a scene with newcomer James Dean in a noted episode. Harry Hayden is the next door neighbor, and his wife is played by Effie Laird, who was married in real life to character actor Emory Parnell. Ms. Laird, a noted watercolor artist, lived to be 98 years old.

Records for the series appear to have been poorly kept. Cast lists are incomplete so it is difficult to identify a lot of recurring actors who received no credit and are not represented by any documentation. Even the James Dean cameo was not discovered by fans until the 80s, when cable TV's now defunct Nostalgia Channel started airing reruns of the show and the episode containing his scene was telecast for the first time in decades.

Stuart Erwin and wife June were a real life love story. When Stu died in December of 1967, June lived only three more months before succumbing to bronchial pneumonia. While oldest daughter actresses Ann Todd and Merry Anders have died, youngest daughter Sheila James, who later became even more famous as Zelda Gilroy on the Dobie Gillis series, is still living. She is now Sheila James Kuehl and went on to serve as the first openly gay member of the California State Assembly and, later, Senate. She is currently a member of the Los Angeles board of supervisors.

Sheila recalled in an email to me: "I worked with Stu and June from the age of nine to fifteen and they were truly like a second set of parents to me. They brought wonderful actors like James Gleason to the show from their past work. They were always very generous in a scene, letting the person with the laugh line have the space to claim it and I learned a lot from them.

And in a 2015 interview, Sheila recalled: "This is one of the first episodic series. and it was shot on film, which was the idea of Hal Roach sr. and Hal Roach jr. The show was criticized later, because they felt it was the first show with the not-so-smart father. But if you see the episodes, it really isn't like that. He was looked up to by his family, but not an autocrat. He was vulnerable and sometimes he'd just make some mistakes. "There were no 'characters' in early television. So the character I played was me. The stunt men taught me how to fall. That has stood me in good stead as I've aged. It has probably saved me from breaking stuff my whole life. We'd play ball during lunch. They taught me to play golf. I remember a real camaraderie with Willie Best. He was wonderful to me."

Despite being well over 60 years old, “The Trouble With Father” still comes off as pleasant and disarming, offering relaxed comedy with no controversy. The performers, and the characters, are all appealing, and the situations are amusing. While the reruns don’t appear to be airing in any of the vintage TV markets, several have fallen into the public domain and can be found on DVDs or streaming services.

Special thanks to Sheila James Kuehl for taking the time to answer my email about the series.