Wonderfully droll comedy, with a clever script by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum and superb deadpan performances by Wally Cox and the rest of the cast. Kudos to the UCLA Film & Television Archive for preserving many episodes of Mr. Peepers.
Mr. peepers was an innovative program from the very early days of television. For years people thought that there were no Kinescopes made of it. It’s principal actors died believing that the program had just gone off into the stratosphere never to be seen again. The acting was very well done the writing was phenomenal and when you consider they had to come up with this every day the script these actors have to get this down and rehearse it and memorize it it’s just amazing. They handle all different types of comedy in this program. Site gags verbal jokes back-and-forth the character development monologues dialogues and slapstick. It was all there. And it was a very low budget. The NBC television network did not have very many television stations with this program aired. It did not go across the country is people have come to believe. I can’t put the number but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was under 10. People who own television set in New York City and we’re home at the noon hour you’re probably watching Mr. peepers. Televisions were expensive but there were schools which had TV sets in the early 1950s. I would imagine not very many but there were some. And thus we have stories of school teachers who did not have to watch the students during the lunch hour gathering together and watching the shows at the lunch hour. These programs should have signal Hollywood that television was going to grow into something monumental. But they just didn’t accept it. Remember to that what they had out of the West Coast was mostly The kinescopes from New York television. And there’s looked pretty bad. For Wally Cox his career was pretty well typecast after this program. Nearly everything he did for the rest of his life would be similar to Mr. peepers. He played college professors school teachers of course, all different Chi characters bumbling fellows wallflowers etc. how sad it is that he believed that this masterpiece was lost to television history. Not all of the programs survive. But many of them have been found and were released on DVD in the early 2000s. He shines more than anyone else with his timing in this program. When would have to say where did he learn this from? How did he develop this character? Right from the get-go he is pulling this off expertly. By the way check out the blocking in the camera work. It’s better than most programs today.
I was too young to see this, but I have early memories of my older brother and sister still talking about it in the early Sixties. Obviously it impressed them, just as it did you.
The comment about Cox being typecast would more or less be true for Tony Randall and Ms Lorne in their future . Rex Marshall seemed to be the Reynolds spokesman for a long time . I remeber him doing that well into the 1960s along with ESSO gasoline !
I believe the show was either broadcast live, while being filmed, and the film or kinescope was flown out to be shown on the west coast the next day, in the early days of television.
@@chrisfreeman9960 Agreed, in some early network cases . I know there were limited TV programs on local New York stations on what became WCBS and WNBC before TV networks began , circa 1941-1948 . I have read about a few of these programs but have never seen them , perhaps there are kinescopes by someone still to be discovered .
I was 12 years old in 1953 and loved this show. I later stopped watching TV and have never owned or regularly watched since then. I tried to watch this, but found it tedious and boring. Obviously, this says more about me than about the show or Wally Cox. I'm an 81 year old retred research scientist. I was a beta tester for Wolfenstein 3D and like to play Fallout 4.
Fritzelle and Greenbaum wrote a lot of early scripts for The Andy Griffith Show a decade later , they were good writers . A lot of Wally Cox meekness and Tony Randalls know it all characters seemed to came out in the later Don Knotts Barney Fife character on TAGS .
surprised to see Wally so obviously reading from cue cards in the 'teamwork" scene with the boys ... seems he blanked on the name of the Golden Gate Bridge and that threw him off for the rest of the schpiel
Not knee slapping funny but funny in a charming way. Before my time but I like them, I wish the rest would be cleaned up a bit and released. This is one of the funniest, that smoking guy in the home movie gets me every time.
Marlon Brando's friend from childhood . I read in a bio of MB that Wally Cox ' mother did not want her son to play with MB because MB was too rough . MB took care of Cox buriial arrangements , a friend to the end . So many of the lost early TV programs have been found in old trucks . in somebody's attic , garage , some shorage unit of an old TV station . Good thing for us . bad thing for the artists who died thinking their work was " lost " .
A similar story exists for movies from the silent era...and beyond. So much of value has either been lost, or destroyed. And rare surviving films have turned up in the strangest places.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION. MY MOM ONCE SAID THAT IF TV WAS AS BAD THEN AS IT IS NOW IT NEVER WOULD HAVE LASTED. ALSO MY MOM MET MARION LORNE IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 1948. ( SHE DIDNT STUTTER IN REAL LIFE MOM SAID)
Bewitches Aunt Agatha? ( Ms gurney?) Help me out peepers😀. First smart phone I bought had same crappy vids n pics hehe " stop the machine"! 😂 Priceless
An aluminum barn makes farm animals more "productive"?!? Also: the reference to Ben Hur must have been to the silent film version, because the Charlton Heston version was made six years after this program aired.
Interesting. So far back that even NBC, the "full color network", was still in black-and-white. Maybe, because it was shown at noon, it was in black-and-white (along with their newscasts), and the more prestigious evening shows were shown in color. Is anyone familiar with that? NBC was experimenting with color at that time. And how many people actually had color sets at home at that early time? I know "The Adventures Of Superman" was filmed in color, on also in 1953, but I don't know if was on NBC. Interested in anyone's knowledge of history.
It wasn't until the following year that NBC began showing programs regularly in color...and it wasn't until 1966 that the episodes of SUPERMAN filmed in color were seen that way
@@tomservo56954Thank you for that information. Appreciated. The first season when all three networks were completely in color was the fall of 1966. I remember that TV Guide had a splashy cover with a collage of colors (resembling colors splashed on a revolving surface), in celebration of all three networks going full color. I tead that around 1960, the ABC network spent quite a lot of money upgrading their camera equipment, and their system in general....but it was all in black and white. Which is why it took them several years before they were able to go full color. Hiwever, I never mind seeing television shows from the black and white era, especially the early 1950's. Black and white just represents that time so well, and has the feeling of the time.
Thank you (belatedly) for answering my question. I believe CBS was experimenting with color at that time (but not broadcasting in it). And ABC (also known as the "Almost Broadcasting Company" in the 1950's) really didn't begin full color broadcasting until the fall of 1966. Appreciate also the information on "Superman." I had written a note of appreciation at the time you answered me, but for some reason, it didn't take. So I'm finally getting to it now.
I always thought it was interesting how Brandi was such good friends with Wally Cox. Two completely different types in many ways. Known for very different traits. Not that that should preclude a friendship.
![Round The Horne! Series 4.1 [E1 to 6 Incl. Chapters] 1968 [High Quality]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xP-wbnRNISY/mqdefault.jpg)
Wonderfully droll comedy, with a clever script by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum and superb deadpan performances by Wally Cox and the rest of the cast. Kudos to the UCLA Film & Television Archive for preserving many episodes of Mr. Peepers.
Was Mr Peeper a teacher.?
@@brookehanley3659 Yes, Robison Peepers, a schoolteacher and amateur ornithologist.
Mr. peepers was an innovative program from the very early days of television. For years people thought that there were no Kinescopes made of it. It’s principal actors died believing that the program had just gone off into the stratosphere never to be seen again. The acting was very well done the writing was phenomenal and when you consider they had to come up with this every day the script these actors have to get this down and rehearse it and memorize it it’s just amazing. They handle all different types of comedy in this program. Site gags verbal jokes back-and-forth the character development monologues dialogues and slapstick. It was all there. And it was a very low budget. The NBC television network did not have very many television stations with this program aired. It did not go across the country is people have come to believe. I can’t put the number but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was under 10. People who own television set in New York City and we’re home at the noon hour you’re probably watching Mr. peepers.
Televisions were expensive but there were schools which had TV sets in the early 1950s. I would imagine not very many but there were some. And thus we have stories of school teachers who did not have to watch the students during the lunch hour gathering together and watching the shows at the lunch hour. These programs should have signal Hollywood that television was going to grow into something monumental. But they just didn’t accept it. Remember to that what they had out of the West Coast was mostly The kinescopes from New York television. And there’s looked pretty bad.
For Wally Cox his career was pretty well typecast after this program. Nearly everything he did for the rest of his life would be similar to Mr. peepers. He played college professors school teachers of course, all different Chi characters bumbling fellows wallflowers etc. how sad it is that he believed that this masterpiece was lost to television history. Not all of the programs survive. But many of them have been found and were released on DVD in the early 2000s.
He shines more than anyone else with his timing in this program. When would have to say where did he learn this from? How did he develop this character? Right from the get-go he is pulling this off expertly. By the way check out the blocking in the camera work. It’s better than most programs today.
I was too young to see this, but I have early memories of my older brother and sister still talking about it in the early Sixties. Obviously it impressed them, just as it did you.
The comment about Cox being typecast would more or less be true for Tony Randall and Ms Lorne in their future . Rex Marshall seemed to be the Reynolds spokesman for a long time . I remeber him doing that well into the 1960s along with ESSO gasoline !
I believe the show was either broadcast live, while being filmed, and the film or kinescope was flown out to be shown on the west coast the next day, in the early days of television.
@@chrisfreeman9960 Agreed, in some early network cases . I know there were limited TV programs on local New York stations on what became WCBS and WNBC before TV networks began , circa 1941-1948 . I have read about a few of these programs but have never seen them , perhaps there are kinescopes by someone still to be discovered .
It’s interesting he was so typecast when few people saw it when it first aired, and it was thought lost for years.
Never thought I'd see an episode of "Peepers."
Me neither !
I used to watch this show all the time when I was 4 or 5.😊
Nothing like Watching Mr. Peepers. It good for the Soul.
Indubitably !
Definitely
I was 12 years old in 1953 and loved this show. I later stopped watching TV and have never owned or regularly watched since then. I tried to watch this, but found it tedious and boring. Obviously, this says more about me than about the show or Wally Cox. I'm an 81 year old retred research scientist. I was a beta tester for Wolfenstein 3D and like to play Fallout 4.
Tony Randall with Wally Cox
Great 👍
I heartily concur !!
Best thing on in 1953! But that's not saying much, lol.
Great actor I love him
Thanks. Love him
Fritzelle and Greenbaum wrote a lot of early scripts for The Andy Griffith Show a decade later , they were good writers . A lot of Wally Cox meekness and Tony Randalls know it all characters seemed to came out in the later Don Knotts Barney Fife character on TAGS .
And in the next decade, a number of episodes of M*A*S*H...they are credited with creating the character of Major Winchester
surprised to see Wally so obviously reading from cue cards in the 'teamwork" scene with the boys ... seems he blanked on the name of the Golden Gate Bridge and that threw him off for the rest of the schpiel
I have the DVDs but they aren't the complete set, I'd love to see more of these from the rest of 1953 and 1954.
Well I counted about 2 yuks. The second "commercial" was mis timed. Always a pleasure seeing Marion Lorne.
Aunt Clara😅
She was the psycho's mother in Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train"
Not knee slapping funny but funny in a charming way. Before my time but I like them, I wish the rest would be cleaned up a bit and released. This is one of the funniest, that smoking guy in the home movie gets me every time.
Marlon Brando's friend from childhood . I read in a bio of MB that Wally Cox ' mother did not want her son to play with MB because MB was too rough . MB took care of Cox buriial arrangements , a friend to the end . So many of the lost early TV programs have been found in old trucks . in somebody's attic , garage , some shorage unit of an old TV station . Good thing for us . bad thing for the artists who died thinking their work was " lost " .
A similar story exists for movies from the silent era...and beyond. So much of value has either been lost, or destroyed. And rare surviving films have turned up in the strangest places.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION. MY MOM ONCE SAID THAT IF TV WAS AS BAD THEN AS IT IS NOW IT NEVER WOULD HAVE LASTED. ALSO MY MOM MET MARION LORNE IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 1948. ( SHE DIDNT STUTTER IN REAL LIFE MOM SAID)
I have the first 2 seasons of this show.
On Amazon?
I want to see the 3rd season
Cox good friends with Brando was very funny on Hollywood squares years later 😊
Great 👍
Louis Camuti was my dad.
And he certainly made the most of his brief appearance in this episode! 😃
Bewitches Aunt Agatha? ( Ms gurney?) Help me out peepers😀. First smart phone I bought had same crappy vids n pics hehe " stop the machine"! 😂 Priceless
Aunt Clara.
Aunt Clara
Aunt Clara, played by Marion Lorne.
wally was a nice man i sold him hos yamaha 80 north hollywood lol
An aluminum barn makes farm animals more "productive"?!?
Also: the reference to Ben Hur must have been to the silent film version, because the Charlton Heston version was made six years after this program aired.
Interesting. So far back that even NBC, the "full color network", was still in black-and-white. Maybe, because it was shown at noon, it was in black-and-white (along with their newscasts), and the more prestigious evening shows were shown in color. Is anyone familiar with that? NBC was experimenting with color at that time. And how many people actually had color sets at home at that early time?
I know "The Adventures Of Superman" was filmed in color, on also in 1953, but I don't know if was on NBC. Interested in anyone's knowledge of history.
It wasn't until the following year that NBC began showing programs regularly in color...and it wasn't until 1966 that the episodes of SUPERMAN filmed in color were seen that way
@@tomservo56954Thank you for that information. Appreciated.
The first season when all three networks were completely in color was the fall of 1966. I remember that TV Guide had a splashy cover with a collage of colors (resembling colors splashed on a revolving surface), in celebration of all three networks going full color.
I tead that around 1960, the ABC network spent quite a lot of money upgrading their camera equipment, and their system in general....but it was all in black and white. Which is why it took them several years before they were able to go full color.
Hiwever, I never mind seeing television shows from the black and white era, especially the early 1950's. Black and white just represents that time so well, and has the feeling of the time.
Thank you (belatedly) for answering my question. I believe CBS was experimenting with color at that time (but not broadcasting in it). And ABC (also known as the "Almost Broadcasting Company" in the 1950's) really didn't begin full color broadcasting until the fall of 1966.
Appreciate also the information on "Superman."
I had written a note of appreciation at the time you answered me, but for some reason, it didn't take. So I'm finally getting to it now.
As seen on Sundays at 7:30pm(et).
I can see why Marlon Brandon fell in love with Mr Peepers. HAha.
I always thought it was interesting how Brandi was such good friends with Wally Cox. Two completely different types in many ways. Known for very different traits. Not that that should preclude a friendship.
Mr. Peepers is pretty cute and Funny . Marlon had great taste .
@@chrisfreeman9960They Say Opposite Attract sometimes.
some unexpected racy implications at the end!
:)
I can't hear the dialog at all, just the background music and laugh track.
Don't gays go with men who look like them?