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Updated: New MPI DVD for 2012 (Now with more Lucy!)


mark bale

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Seems that MPI are to release the first half of the single 1964 season sitcom MY LIVING DOLL next year. The fantasy sitcom starred Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar. Seems that extras are being prepared. I recall Julie Newmar hinting on facebook earlier this year that "missing" episodes were being sought after for a DVD release. Hopefully all the episodes will surface via MPI.

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Seems that MPI are to release the first half of the single 1964 season sitcom MY LIVING DOLL next year. The fantasy sitcom starred Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar. Seems that extras are being prepared. I recall Julie Newmar hinting on facebook earlier this year that "missing" episodes were being sought after for a DVD release. Hopefully all the episodes will surface via MPI.

 

 

My Living Doll was filmed at Desilu Studios, according to the information I have included in the Chronology. Thanks for this information; I'll add it as well, giving you credit, of course, marc bale....

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My Living Doll was filmed at Desilu Studios, according to the information I have included in the Chronology. Thanks for this information; I'll add it as well, giving you credit, of course, marc bale....

 

"My Living Doll" comes under the category of "What was CBS THINKING??" These high concept shows usually had a good pilot, setting up the situation, but how to get a decent run of episodes was the problem. For those who don't know, Bob Cummings was a scientist and, I don't remember how but suddenly he inherits the responsibility for a ROBOT named Rhoda with a mind of her and the body of Julie Newmar. It was like they took "Major Fun Fun" and tried to build a series around that character, because a lot of comedy came from Rhoda's literal interpretation of things like "Well, isn't that a kick in the pants!". This is 1964 so the racier aspects of this are left untouched.

And "What was CBS thinking?--part 2, the scheduled the show opposite Bonanza, the #1 show at the time.

Evidently the fur (or metal---this is before everything was plastic) flew between Julie and Bob, so much so that Bob walked off the show with only a few episodes left in the season. I've never read anything about their conflict but I would guess it was a clash between an old pro vs. rude newcomer. For Bob Cummings, not tempermental by any accounts I've read, conditions must have been unbearable because leaving the producers in the lurch at that late date was unprofessional. If this happened today, there would be a flurry of lawsuits---don't know what happened.

The ratings of the show were high enough that CBS switched it to another night mid-season. Bob's absence was explained by a note left on Rhoda for his assistant Jack Mullaney that he had to go to Pakistan suddenly! (He might as well have married Vern Bunson). There were a few more episodes before it was canceled.

CBS was at the time riding high with 14 of the top 15 shows in 1964 (Bonanza being the only NBC entry). And they go with "Doll" and other sillies and turn down Desilu's "Ethel Merman Show"??

1964 was a turning point for sitcoms starting a trend towards the ridiculous: Gilligan, Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched (the only really classy one of the bunch)all debuted that season followed closely by My Mother the Car and I Dream of Jeannie. And come to think of it, MLD is sort of a combination of those two shows!

I would have to assume that Cummings didn't need the money because of how well "The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob" did in syndication. I don't know if this action did any damage to his career which at age 57 may have run its course anyway. It was his last series (also Julie's). After that, it was dinner theater and guest shots. Cummings doesn't seem to be revered like a lot of other 50s TV superstars.

Well, I didn't mean for this to turn into a history lesson...Just want to pass these 'eye witness' observations on to anyone interested. I'm Margaret Mitchell and my book is "Gone Off the Air"!

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"My Living Doll" comes under the category of "What was CBS THINKING??" These high concept shows usually had a good pilot, setting up the situation, but how to get a decent run of episodes was the problem. For those who don't know, Bob Cummings was a scientist and, I don't remember how but suddenly he inherits the responsibility for a ROBOT named Rhoda with a mind of her and the body of Julie Newmar. It was like they took "Major Fun Fun" and tried to build a series around that character, because a lot of comedy came from Rhoda's literal interpretation of things like "Well, isn't that a kick in the pants!". This is 1964 so the racier aspects of this are left untouched.

And "What was CBS thinking?--part 2, the scheduled the show opposite Bonanza, the #1 show at the time.

Evidently the fur (or metal---this is before everything was plastic) flew between Julie and Bob, so much so that Bob walked off the show with only a few episodes left in the season. I've never read anything about their conflict but I would guess it was a clash between an old pro vs. rude newcomer. For Bob Cummings, not tempermental by any accounts I've read, conditions must have been unbearable because leaving the producers in the lurch at that late date was unprofessional. If this happened today, there would be a flurry of lawsuits---don't know what happened.

The ratings of the show were high enough that CBS switched it to another night mid-season. Bob's absence was explained by a note left on Rhoda for his assistant Jack Mullaney that he had to go to Pakistan suddenly! (He might as well have married Vern Bunson). There were a few more episodes before it was canceled.

CBS was at the time riding high with 14 of the top 15 shows in 1964 (Bonanza being the only NBC entry). And they go with "Doll" and other sillies and turn down Desilu's "Ethel Merman Show"??

1964 was a turning point for sitcoms starting a trend towards the ridiculous: Gilligan, Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched (the only really classy one of the bunch)all debuted that season followed closely by My Mother the Car and I Dream of Jeannie. And come to think of it, MLD is sort of a combination of those two shows!

I would have to assume that Cummings didn't need the money because of how well "The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob" did in syndication. I don't know if this action did any damage to his career which at age 57 may have run its course anyway. It was his last series (also Julie's). After that, it was dinner theater and guest shots. Cummings doesn't seem to be revered like a lot of other 50s TV superstars.

Well, I didn't mean for this to turn into a history lesson...Just want to pass these 'eye witness' observations on to anyone interested. I'm Margaret Mitchell and my book is "Gone Off the Air"!

 

No, actually very enlightening and interesting! :D And I love the "quick save" of the remark about BW being the only classy entry in the bunch -- so true! ;)

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"My Living Doll" comes under the category of "What was CBS THINKING??" These high concept shows usually had a good pilot, setting up the situation, but how to get a decent run of episodes was the problem. For those who don't know, Bob Cummings was a scientist and, I don't remember how but suddenly he inherits the responsibility for a ROBOT named Rhoda with a mind of her and the body of Julie Newmar. It was like they took "Major Fun Fun" and tried to build a series around that character, because a lot of comedy came from Rhoda's literal interpretation of things like "Well, isn't that a kick in the pants!". This is 1964 so the racier aspects of this are left untouched.

And "What was CBS thinking?--part 2, the scheduled the show opposite Bonanza, the #1 show at the time.

Evidently the fur (or metal---this is before everything was plastic) flew between Julie and Bob, so much so that Bob walked off the show with only a few episodes left in the season. I've never read anything about their conflict but I would guess it was a clash between an old pro vs. rude newcomer. For Bob Cummings, not tempermental by any accounts I've read, conditions must have been unbearable because leaving the producers in the lurch at that late date was unprofessional. If this happened today, there would be a flurry of lawsuits---don't know what happened.

The ratings of the show were high enough that CBS switched it to another night mid-season. Bob's absence was explained by a note left on Rhoda for his assistant Jack Mullaney that he had to go to Pakistan suddenly! (He might as well have married Vern Bunson). There were a few more episodes before it was canceled.

CBS was at the time riding high with 14 of the top 15 shows in 1964 (Bonanza being the only NBC entry). And they go with "Doll" and other sillies and turn down Desilu's "Ethel Merman Show"??

1964 was a turning point for sitcoms starting a trend towards the ridiculous: Gilligan, Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched (the only really classy one of the bunch)all debuted that season followed closely by My Mother the Car and I Dream of Jeannie. And come to think of it, MLD is sort of a combination of those two shows!

I would have to assume that Cummings didn't need the money because of how well "The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob" did in syndication. I don't know if this action did any damage to his career which at age 57 may have run its course anyway. It was his last series (also Julie's). After that, it was dinner theater and guest shots. Cummings doesn't seem to be revered like a lot of other 50s TV superstars.

Well, I didn't mean for this to turn into a history lesson...Just want to pass these 'eye witness' observations on to anyone interested. I'm Margaret Mitchell and my book is "Gone Off the Air"!

 

 

THANKS for your input....JK

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However, WE would never have had the news had you not posted it here.... Credit deserves to be credited to you and to the .com outfit....Fondly, JK

 

 

Thanks. Not sure how good this series is though. Also there's also a release coming soon (again, a single season split into 2 volumes) of I'M DICKENS HE'S FENSTER wtih John Astin and Marty Ingels. Another unknown (in the uk) series from the early 60s.

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  • 4 weeks later...

1964 was a turning point for sitcoms starting a trend towards the ridiculous: Gilligan, Munsters, Addams Family, Bewitched (the only really classy one of the bunch)all debuted that season followed closely by My Mother the Car and I Dream of Jeannie. And come to think of it, MLD is sort of a combination of those two shows!

I would have to assume that Cummings didn't need the money because of how well "The Bob Cummings Show/Love That Bob" did in syndication.

 

THE MUNSTERS rocked!!! It's one of the five best sitcoms of alltime IMO. And it's unfair to line most of this group of well-loved, popular shows with the likes of MY LIVING DOLL and the notoriously bad MY MOTHER THE CAR. THE MUNSTERS, ADDAMS FAMILY, BEWITCHED, and I DREAM OF JEANNIE are still hugely famous and popular almost 50 years later and one certainly can't say that about EAST SIDE WEST SIDE, THE NURSES, and other pretentious dramatic shows of the era.

 

Don't quite get the "Cummings didn't need the money" comment. Lucy certainly didn't need the money post 1960 either but both of them like any old show biz warhorse wanted to work, it undoubtably consumed him as much as it did Lucy, Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier, et al.

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TVShowsonDVD.com reports that MPI hopes to release Van Dyke & Company -- including Lucy's appearance -- as part of their 2012 output:

 

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Van-Dyke-Company-DVD-Update/16217

Great, we get another Lucy guest appearance, that's terrific. AND with someone as terrific as Dick Van Dyke too!

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What did Lucy do on this show? I never watched it because it was before I was born.

 

Van Dyke and Company only ran one season, but it won the Emmy Award for Best Variety Show. Lucy's biggest contribution were two pantomime skits with Dick. Another sketch had her as a tempermental TV star whose show is being cancelled and an elderly golddigger whose 100+ year old husband just won't die. Andy Kaufman was a regular on the show and interacts with Lucy.

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