''Dear Phoebe'' is an American situation comedy about a male former college professor who poses as an elderly woman to write a newspaper advice column. It aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from September 1954 to April 1955. The series stars

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford ( Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary '' Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the " Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president John F. Kennedy and se ...

and

Marcia Henderson Marcia Anne Prestlien (née Henderson; July 22, 1929 – November 23, 1987) was an American actress. She made her Broadway debut as Wendy in the musical ''Peter Pan'' (1950), for which she won a Theatre World Award. Henderson also appeared in fi ...

Synopsis

Bill Hastings, a college professor in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, leaves his job at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

to pursue a career as a journalist.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, Fourth Edition'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, , p. 209.Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (Sixth Edition)'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, , p. 251.nostalgiacentral.com DEAR PHOEBE
/ref> He lands a job with the ''Los Angeles Daily Star'', where his duties include writing the newspaper's advice column "Dear Phoebe," supposedly written by a fictitious elderly woman named Phoebe Goodheart. At the newspaper, Bill meets sportswriter Michelle "Mickey" Riley. They both reside in Los Angeles, Bill at 165 La Paloma Drive and Mickey at 34 West

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

. They share a mutual attraction which Bill is open about, but their romance is a rocky one because Mickey prefers to hide her feelings for Bill by competing strongly with him for plum writing assignments from the newspaper's stingy and crusty old managing editor, Clyde Fosdick. Bill thus finds himself advising the readers of "Dear Phoebe" about their problems while having to deal with romantic ones of his own. Also at the paper is Humphrey Winston Humpsteader, a stereotypical young

copy writer Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

trying to make it big in the newspaper business who likes to spend time at Ye Olde Malt Shoppe, where the slogan is "Teenage Spoken Here." Humphrey is a strong young man able to rip

telephone book A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

s in half and often gets into fights, although even a slight slap across his face is enough to put him out of action.

Cast

*Bill Hastings...

*Michelle "Mickey" Riley...

*Clyde Fosdick... Charles Lane *Humphrey Winston Humpsteader... Joe Corey

Production

Alex Gottlieb Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple peo ...

created and produced ''Dear Phoebe'', which was a Chrislaw Production. The show was produced without a

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

."Gottlieb Tosses Out The Canned Laughter," ''The Paducah Sun'', November 19, 1954, p. 12.
/ref> Peter Lawford's wife

Patricia Kennedy Lawford Patricia Helen Kennedy Lawford (May 6, 1924 – September 17, 2006) was an American socialite, and the sixth of nine children of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. She was a sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Senat ...

, sister of future

U.S. president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

, makes a cameo appearance in an episode of ''Dear Phoebe''.

Broadcast history

''Dear Phoebe'' premiered on September 10, 1954, and ran for 31 episodes, airing on

at 9:30 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

on Fridays throughout its run. It was cancelled after a single season, and its last original episode aired on April 8, 1955. Reruns of the show then continued in its regular time slot until September 2, 1955. During the summer of 1956, NBC broadcast reruns of ''Dear Phoebe'' in prime time from June to September. The 1956 reruns aired at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays, the last of them on September 11. NBC also aired reruns of ''Dear Phoebe'' in the afternoon during the summer of 1957 and again during the winter of 1958.

Episodes

Original episodes

Other episodes

Although sources agree on ''Dear Phoebe''′s 31-episode original run, they also list two additional episodes aired as reruns during 1955 after the broadcast of the show's last original episode, neither of which have titles or plot descriptions easily attributable to any of the 31 original episodes.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0046591, Dear Phoebe
''Dear Phoebe'' opening credits on YouTube

''Dear Phoebe'' alternative opening credits on YouTube

''Dear Phoebe'' episode "The Christmas Show" on YouTube
1954 American television series debuts 1955 American television series endings 1950s American sitcoms Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows NBC original programming Television shows set in Los Angeles