Bachelor Father (American TV series)

Bachelor Father follows the adventures of Bentley Gregg, a wealthy bachelor attorney living in Beverly Hills who assumes the responsibility of raising his niece, Kelly (Noreen Corcoran), after her parents died in an automobile accident.[2] Other members of the cast included houseboy Peter Tong (Sammee Tong), teenage neighbor and Kelly's on and off boyfriend, Howard Meechum (Jimmy Boyd), Kelly's best friend, Ginger Farrell (Bernadette Withers) and Jasper, the dog.[2] Withers appeared in 51 episodes from 1957-1962; Boyd in 37 from 1958-1962. Plots center on Bentley's adjustments to his new role as an adoptive parent, his search for the right woman to share his life,[2] Kelly facing the usual problems of adolescence and young adulthood and her ritual of passage from high school to college and Peter's misadventures with his family, love life and financial schemes.

Asian rights activist Guy Aoki has praised the show for prominently featuring Asian actors and storylines, including "feisty" comedian Sammee Tong and Victor Sen Yung, the scheming "Uncle Charlie," "a slick, Americanized character. I thought it was great that way back in the ’50s, audiences saw a Chinese American who acted just like anyone else."[3]

The program's final season storylines led to Kelly's impending marriage to Bentley's junior partner Warren Dawson (Aron Kincaid).[4] The two met, became engaged, interacted with other couples and even met Dawson's parents (who flew in from New York on short notice), all in a span of three episodes. Without mention or explanation, Kincaid's character was dropped after four episodes and by the series finale, Kelly is seeing a different man with no marriage plans. Meechum (Boyd) appears in several Season 5 episodes, but he is never developed as a serious romantic interest for Kelly. As the series was canceled after 157 episodes, Bachelor Father did not have a formal series finale.

According to John Forsythe, the Bentley Gregg character was based on two well-known Beverly Hills bachelors at the time. He combined their names and used it for the character's in the program. Because of the implication in the program of Gregg's aversion to marriage, no serious thoughts were given to casting a 'regular' or steady woman for him. Instead, Gregg is forever dating different women with only a handful ever getting a 'second' date with him.

Forsythe noted that casting the main characters took considerable effort. Then actor (and future California governor and United States president) Ronald Reagan, who hosted General Electric Theater from 1954-1962, suggested Corcoran for the role, believing her to be a 'typical teenager' and closer to what a normal 13-year-old was like, which Forsythe agreed. Corcoran was already an experienced actress with movie and television roles to her credit. She was 18 years old when the program left the air and had virtually 'grown up' into a young woman during the show's run.

Casting Bentley Gregg's houseboy was difficult as well. Sammee Tong was cast based primarily on his experience as a stand-up comedian. Forsythe believed much of the program's success resulted from the interaction between Tong and himself and that Tong had great comic timing. He also stated that Tong's character was unique for the time and that he was not the "typical" Asian house servant. Forsythe insisted on Tong being a major character on the program. Several of the program plots center around Tong, many dealing with his attempts to improve his position in life. Although none ever pan out (much like Bentley or Kelly) he does develop as a character through the life of the program.

Kelly's (Noreen Corcoran) best friend was Ginger, played by Bernadette Withers.[5]

The series' pilot episode, "A New Girl in His Life", originally aired on General Electric Theater on May 26, 1957.[1] The series was first telecast on CBS on September 15, 1957.[2] It originally aired on Sunday evenings on alternating weeks with The Jack Benny Program (Benny guest starred on one episode) opposite NBC's Sally and ABC's Maverick.[7] The show moved to NBC as a weekly series on Thursday nights in June 1959 (the Summer 1959 run on NBC were reruns of previous CBS episodes) and concluded its run on that network in September 1961.[8] The series then moved on to ABC on Tuesday nights in 1961 for its final season. The last "first run" episode (the 157th unique episode) aired on June 26, 1962, with the remainder of the summer being reruns.[2]

Bachelor Father is the only series to ever run in consecutive seasons on all three major TV networks of the time (ABC, CBS and NBC). On November 22, 1963, a re-run episode of Bachelor Father was airing on several NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone (including the main WNBC network in New York), when all of a sudden, Don Pardo broke in at 1:45 PM EST with the first bulletin of the shooting of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Bachelor Father was filmed at Revue Studios. It was primarily sponsored by American Tobacco (Tareyton cigarettes) and American Home Products Corporation (Anacin, Dristan and Chef Boyardee) throughout its original run.[8] The series was produced by Forsythe's "Bachelor Productions" in association with MCA's Revue Studios.[9] Bachelor Father pilot and broadcast season were produced by Harry Ackerman, who left Revue/MCA after the first season to produce other sitcoms like Hazel, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie for Screen Gems/Columbia. He was later replaced by Everett Freeman for the rest of the show's run.[10]

Reruns of Bachelor Father were syndicated on the Retro Television Network until October 2011. The show then began airing on Antenna TV where it remained on the schedule until January 2015.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bachelor Father (U.S. TV series).

• Bachelor Father at IMDb
• Bachelor Father at TV.com