I DREAM OF JEANNIE
Long before Larry Hagman was mean-old womanising oil baron J R Ewing in ’Dallas’, he was clean living Captain Tony Nelson of the US Air Force in this highly successful sitcom that was NBC's answer to rival network ABC's series Bewitched. When Nelson crash-landed on a desert island in the South Pacific, he stumbled upon an old bottle containing a genie. On releasing the genie he found that she was a beautiful blonde who instantly fell in love with him. Jeannie (as he so named her) accompanied Nelson back to his Florida home where she was happy to serve his every need (no, not that...this was the 1960's), and call him 'Master.' The beautiful Barbara Eden played the spirit from the bottle who, in spite of wearing a skimpy chiffon outfit had to keep her navel covered by order of the Network Bosses. In order that the viewer should be left in no doubt as to the wholesomeness of Tony and Jeannie's relationship, he was given a fiancé in the early episodes. However, the 'other woman' was soon dropped and eventually, after Jeannie's many attempts to please had dropped Tony in a number of tricky situations, the two main characters finally 'tie the knot'. Tony's best friend and confidante was Captain Roger Healey (Bill Daily). There have been several revivals of ’I Dream of Jeannie’, the first was a one-off TV movie imaginatively entitled ’I Dream of Jeannie Fifteen Years Later’, but former ’M*A*S*H’ star Wayne Rogers stepped into Hagman's shoes when the latter's ’Dallas’ commitments precluded him from the special. A shame really, because the viewers -and Tony- finally got to see her navel!
139 episodes of 30 minute duration. (30 Black & white). NBC 1965-70.
I MARRIED JOAN
Bradley Stevens served as a judge in domestic court. Each week the case he was trying reminded him of an incident that happened between himself and his dizzy wife, Joan, and this was the cue for him to explain how he had dealt with it. At this point the picture would fade into his home and the situation would be enacted. 'I Married Joan' was one of the many US sitcoms that tried to reproduce the phenomenal success of 'I Love Lucy' with -in this case, actress Joan Davis doing a more than passable job for three years. During the first season Joan's partner in crime was next door neighbour Minerva Parker (Hope Emerson), but for the next two seasons Joan's real-life daughter (Beverly Wills) joined the cast as her younger college student sister, Beverly. Jim Backus, the man who voiced the myopic cartoon character Mr Magoo, was Judge Stevens.
98 shows of 30 minute duration. Black and White. 1952-1955.
I SPY
This slick espionage drama was notable for the fact that it was the first TV series on a national network to feature a black actor playing alongside a white one on a regular basis. It was not, however, the first TV series to do so. In 1953 WOR-TV, a New York station aired a series called 'Harlem Detective', a half-hour crime series featuring William Marshall and Owen Jordan as two plainclothes heroes. The series was written by Jay Bennett and directed by Bob Erle and Lawrence Menkin. So when 'I Spy' came along in 1965 it was not exactly going into untested territory. Bill Cosby (later to become a major TV star in his own right), starred as agent Alexander Scott, who alongside Robert Culp as Kelly Robinson toured the four corners of the world travelling to exotic locations under the guise of tennis ace and coach. Although outwardly liberal minded, NBC ensured that Culp took the superior role of player and that Cosby never appeared opposite a white woman. Even so the show set became a great hit and Cosby was awarded three Emmy's for his role. The show ran for four season's finishing in 1968, although the two paired up again in 1972 for the movie ’Hickey & Boggs’, in which they played two down-and-out private eyes.
82 episodes of 60 minute duration. NBC. 1965-68.
THE INFORMER
Disbarred barrister Alex Lambert (Ian Hendry) used his connections with the underworld to pass information onto the police -for a price! This tense, pithy thriller lasted for two seasons and followed Lambert as he trod the precarious path between both sides of the law whilst keeping his wife (Heather Sears) ignorant of his true profession, posing instead as a business consultant. This wasn't the only secret he kept from her -as he was also having an affair with the girlfriend (Jean Marsh) of an unsuccessfully defended client, (whose case led to his disbarment). His one contact with the police was through DS Piper (Neil Hallett). Tony Selby also starred. The series was created by John Whitney and Geoffrey Bellman and produced by Stella Richman (series 1) and Peter Collinson (series 2). Directors included Michael Lindsay-Hogg and a young Ridley Scott.
21 episodes of 25 minute duration. ITV 1966-67.
INSIDE GEORGE WEBLEY
The late great Roy Kinnear starred as George Meredith Webley, in this Yorkshire Television produced sitcom about a bank clerk who was guaranteed to add the word pooper to party and crushing to bore. George worked for the aptly named Meanside and Beestley Savings Bank in Leeds and in his spare time (actually in his work time, too) thought it his duty to bore everyone rigid, including his long-suffering wife, Rosemary (Patsy Rowlands), with trivia, perpetually worrying about everything in the world and complaining that he had suffered every illness known to man. George was the eternal pessimist and approached life with the attitude that if something was going to go wrong - it would! The series was the first of several collaborations between Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, which included a TV adaptation of the latter's solo novel 'Billy Liar' ('Billy'), Diana Dors' sitcom 'Queenie's Castle' and an adaptation of Barbara Euphan Todd's eternal scarecrow stories featuring 'Worzel Gummidge' (as played by Jon Pertwee). It was also notable for including something of a who's who of British character actors and comedians such as James Bolam, Peter Butterworth, Les Dawson, Clive Dunn, Hattie Jacques, Roy Hudd, Dandy Nichols, Graham Stark and Max Wall.
IMPROMPTU
Devised by David Croft this was an unscripted thirty minute comedy series in which the five members of the cast were presented with cards bearing the characters, situations and first lines which would form the basis of that week's show. From then on the rest was up to them. The performers were Betty Impey, Peter Reeves, Anne Cunningham, Victor Spinetti and Lance Percival and the 'card giver' known as Boss Man was Jeremy Hawk. The music was supplied by John Barry. The series only ran from April to June before disappearing from our screens but years later was revived in a somewhat altered form for BBC radio before returning to television as 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' in which different guest performers each week would improvise short sketches suggested by a live studio audience.
6 shows of 30 minute duration. BBC2. 1964
INTERPOL CALLING
Made between 1959 and 1960, Interpol was based on the cases of the International Criminal Police Organisation, based in an office building in the Rue Paul Valery, just across from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The organisation began in 1914 when Prince Albert of Monaco invited police officers and lawyers to lay down the foundation of an international crime-busting organisation. However, plans were cut short by the start of World War 1 and it wasn't until 1923 that the organisation set to work as the International Criminal Police Commission, with headquarters in Vienna. In this series Hungarian born actor Charles Korvin appeared as Inspector Paul Duval, the central character who week in and week out sought out the perpetrators of criminal activity. Although only 39 half-hour episodes were filmed the series managed to tackle everything from murder to blackmail, drugs to hijacking and assassination to slavery. The show is perhaps best remembered for its opening title sequence in which a car crashes through a check-point barrier, setting the scene for the action packed
adventures to follow.
39 episodes of 30 minute duration. Black & white. 1959-60.
INTRIGUE
Industrial espionage series starring Edward Judd who, as investigator Gavin Grant, was called upon to ferret out industrial spies in the world of big business. Based on an idea by Tony Williamson and made by ABC, the series never made it beyond the first season of 12 episodes largely due to the fact that the central character failed to capture the imagination of the viewing public. Grant was helped by his assistant/girlfriend Val (Caroline Mortimer). Producer Robert Banks Stewart would go on to bigger and better things.
12 episodes of 55 minute duration. ITV 1966.
THE INVISIBLE MAN
Directed by Pennington Richards who had previously worked on ’The Buccaneers’ and ’Ivanhoe’ and produced by ’Danger Man’ creator Ralph Smart, ’The Invisible Man’ was Dr Pete Brady, a scientist who had become victim of his own experiments into light refraction, leaving him permanently transparent. Unable to find a cure, Brady went to work for the British government. The series was notable for its special effects such as the self-smoking cigarette, and the self-drinking glass of wine. A self-driving car caused one motorist to almost have an accident when it pulled up alongside him at a set of traffic lights during location filming. An actor ran across to the car and, on opening the door, recoiled from an invisible blow. The onlooker’s reaction was so genuine that the production team kept it in the transmitted programme. The actor who played Brady never received a credit although his voice belonged to Tim Turner, and Lisa Daniely starred as his sister. Other cast members were Deborah Watling (who later went on to star as travelling companion Victoria Waterfield in ’Doctor Who’), as Brady's niece, and Ernest Clark (who would become Prof. Loftus in the sitcom ’Doctor In The House’), as Brady's boss Colonel Ward. There was a US version in 1975 with ’Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ star, David McCallum.
Official Films/ITP/ATV. Black and white. 1958-59.
THE IRISH RM
The Irish RM starred Peter Bowles in a series of lively stories based on three novels by Irish cousins Edith Oenone Somerville and Violet Martin Ross, the first of which, 'Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.' became an international success when it was first published in 1899. Bowles starred as Major Sinclair Yeates, a retired British Army officer who moves to the west of Ireland at the turn of the century, to become a Resident Magistrate (a Justice of the Peace who assists local magistrates) and enjoy the quiet life. However, any thoughts he had of a peaceful existence are soon shattered by narrow-minded disputes, arguments about livestock and large portions of blarney. The gullible Yeates soon finds himself in hot water and being taken advantage of by his sly scheming landlord, Flurry Knox (Bryan Murray).
26 shows of 30 minute duration. C4 1983-85
IT'S A LIVING
placed long-time comedy double-act Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris in a small general store where they had to be hard-working, thrifty and law-abiding if they wanted to make a living. Jimmy and Ben took over what they were told was 'a little gold mine,' but the only thing they struck really rich was trouble. Fanny Carby and 13-year old Adrienne Poster (later Posta) played the roles of Warris's wife and daughter. Poster had made her television debut a year before in the drama series 'Harper's West One', and had also appeared in the detective series 'Top Secret.' In her later teens she became a very familiar face in the kind of British movies that typified the 'swinging 60s'. Also in this series was Lance Percival as a rather shifty character called 'Foxy.' Only four episodes were made and it was the last TV series for the two cousins who had first teamed up in 1934, although the act didn't finally break up until 1967. At that time both men planned to retire, but an offer from the BBC became the springboard for a second (and arguably more) successful run for Jimmy Jewel (the most memorable of which was the role of Eli Pledge in 'Nearest and Dearest'). Ben Warris came out of retirement for one more TV appearance, the televised Royal Variety Show of 1980, and passed away at the age of 85 in 1993. Jewel (also born in 1909) survived him by two years.
4 shows of 30 minute duration. Associated Rediffusion. B&W. 1962.
IZEENA
Izeena lives in her magic tree house in a world of animal friends. The animals share their secrets and adventures with Izeena and she alone can take you into the strange world of Charlie and Charlotte Chimp, Goodsense Gibbon, Huggable Potto and all her friends. This offbeat series from Anglia Television, shot on location in Africa, mixed fantasy with a wildlife conservation message in an attempt to educate viewers to the world around them. While its style was more Lewis Carroll 'Izeena' was most likely influenced by Disney who excelled in this type of production. Playing Izeena, the zany girl who could talk to the animals, was Fenella Fielding who did not have the luxury of visiting the exotic locations in the filmed sequences. She was studio bound and looked at the animals through her telescope from her treehouse.
ITV 1966
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