''It's Always Jan'' is an American

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

during the 1955-1956 television season. The series stars

Janis Paige Janis Paige (born Donna Mae Tjaden; September 16, 1922) is an American retired actress and singer. Born in Tacoma, Washington, she began singing in local amateur shows at the age of five. After high school, she moved to Los Angeles, where she b ...

as a widowed nightclub singer struggling to make ends meet.

Synopsis

Janis Stewart is a war widow and struggling nightclub singer who lives in an apartment in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on the East Side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with her 10-year-old daughter Josie.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, Fourth Edition'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, , p. 416.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. 511.The Classic TV Archive It's Always Jan Accessed 29 October 2020
/ref>Nostalgia Central IT’S ALWAYS JAN Accessed 29 October 2020
/ref> Jan faces the challenges of raising Josie as a single mother, and her finances are precarious. To help pay the rent, Jan and Josie share their small apartment with two women who are friends of Jan: Pat Murphy, a secretary for a theatrical producer, and Val Marlowe, an aspiring actress and model. Harry Cooper is Jan's longtime agent and loyal friend. Stanley Schreiber is the 20-year-old son of the man who owns the neighborhood

delicatessen Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...

and works as a delivery boy there. Jan performs regularly at Tony's Cellar, a nightclub in Manhattan. She is talented and hopes for bigger things in her career, but never gets the big break in show business she hopes for. Jan, Pat, and Val often bicker with one another over the eligible bachelors they meet and compete with one another for the men's attention.

Cast

...Janis Stewart * Patricia Bright...Pat Murphy *

Merry Anders Merry Anders (born Mary Helen Anderson; May 22, 1934 – October 28, 2012) was an American actress and model who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972. Early life Ander ...

...Val Marlowe * Jeri Lou James...Josie Stewart *

Arte Johnson Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American comic actor who was best known for his work as a regular on television's ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''. Biography Early life Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in ...

...Stanley Schreiber *

Sid Melton Sidney Meltzer (May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011), known professionally as Sid Melton, was an American actor. He played the roles of incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom '' Green Acres'' and Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor ...

...Harry Cooper

Production

Desilu Productions Desilu Productions () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', ''The Lucy Show'', ''Mannix'', ''The Untouchabl ...

and Janard Productions, a partnership of Janis Paige and series producer Arthur Stander, co-produced ''It′s Always Jan''.Hyatt, Wesley, "Comedy Time! Network TV's First — And Wildest — Daily Series of Reruns, Part Three," tvparty.com, undated Accessed 10 December 2020
/ref> Paige sang a song in most episodes. Her Jan Stewart character′s hairstyle resembled that of

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...

′s Lucy Ricardo character on the hit series ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...

'', also filmed at Desilu. Each episode ended with the Jan Stewart character turning to the camera and saying "Good night" to the television audience. In mid-December 1955, Patricia Bright broke her right kneecap and Merry Anders had to leave the show to have a baby. Episodes were written so that Bright's Pat Murphy character could appear only while sitting down, and Anders's Val Marlowe character was temporarily written out of the series. After her baby's birth, Anders and her Val character returned to the series. ''It′s Always Jan''′s premise bore similarities to the plots of two hit movies, 1953′s ''

How to Marry a Millionaire ''How to Marry a Millionaire'' is a 1953 American screwball comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and written and produced by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays ''The Greeks Had a Word for It'' (1930) by Zoe Akins and ''Loc ...

'' and 1954′s '' Three Coins in the Fountain'', both of which also featured three man-chasing women. Merry Anders, who portrayed Val Marlowe in ''It's Always Jan'', went on to star in the 1958–1959 syndicated television series ''

''.

Broadcast history

''It's Always Jan'' premiered on

on September 10, 1955. It lasted only a single season, and its last original episode aired on April 28, 1956. CBS broadcast reruns of ''It′s Always Jan'' in prime time during 1956 from May 12 to May 26 and from June 9 to June 30. The show was broadcast from 9:30 to 10:00 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 port ...

on Saturdays throughout its prime-time run. After ''It′s Always Jan''′s CBS run ended,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

aired reruns of the show on weekday afternoons as episodes of the network's ''Comedy Time'' series from August 12 to September 21, 1956.

Episodes

SOURCE imdb.com It's Always Jan (1955–1956) Episode List
/ref>

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0047743
''It's Always Jan'' opening credits on YouTube

''It's Always Jan'' episode "Guilty Conscience" at archive.org
1950s American sitcoms 1955 American television series debuts 1956 American television series endings Black-and-white American television shows CBS original programming Television series by Desilu Productions Television shows set in New York City English-language television shows