''Oh! Those Bells'' is a 1962 United States

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

starring

The Wiere Brothers Harry Wiere (23 June 1906 in Berlin, German Empire – 15 January 1992), Herbert Wiere (27 February 1908 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 5 August 1999) and Sylvester Wiere (17 September 1909 in Prague, Austria-Hungary – 7 July 1970), ...

about the misadventures of three brothers who work in a Hollywood theatrical supply shop. It aired from March 8 to May 31, 1962.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 614.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. 766.

Cast

Herbert Wiere Harry Wiere (23 June 1906 in Berlin, German Empire – 15 January 1992), Herbert Wiere (27 February 1908 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 5 August 1999) and Sylvester Wiere (17 September 1909 in Prague, Austria-Hungary – 7 July 1970), ...

...Herbie Bell *

Harry Wiere Harry Wiere (23 June 1906 in Berlin, German Empire – 15 January 1992), Herbert Wiere (27 February 1908 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 5 August 1999) and Sylvester Wiere (17 September 1909 in Prague, Austria-Hungary – 7 July 1970), ...

...Harry Bell * Sylvester Wiere...Sylvester "Sylvie" Bell * Henry Norell...Henry Slocum * Carol Byron...Kitty Mathews *

Reta Shaw Reta Shaw (September 13, 1912 – January 8, 1982) was an American character actress known for playing strong, hard-edged, working women in film and on many of the most popular television programs of the 1960s and 1970s in the United Sta ...

...Mrs. Stanfield

Synopsis

Herbie, Harry, and Sylvester "Sylvie" Bell are three gentle-natured brothers who are the last surviving members of a family with a long history of making theatrical props,

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

s, and

wig A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

s. Having moved from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

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 ...

to start new lives, they work in a Hollywood theater supply shop called Cinema Rents, located on Ridgeway Drive, where their irascible and easily flustered boss is Henry Slocum. Although they mean well, they manage to turn even the simplest everyday tasks into slapstick disasters. Slocums secretary, Kitty Mathews, is sweet, understanding, and beautiful, and Sylvie has a crush on her. The Bells live together in a bungalow, where Mrs. Stanfield is their landlady.Nostalgia Central: OH! THOSE BELLS Accessed January 3, 2022
/ref>

Production

A loosely structured show, ''Oh! Those Bells'' attempted to bring slapstick humor to American television. At the time,

– German-

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born Herbert, Harry, and Sylvester Wiere – were internationally known slapstick comedians. Each episode allowed the Wiere Brothers to perform their old

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

act, including their comical musical numbers. Jules White, known for his short-subject comedies starring

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

, created the show. He and Sam White produced the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

episode, known both as "Money Mixup" and "Movie Money." Ben Brady produced the rest of the episodes.The Classic TV Archive Oh Those Bells
/ref> The shows episodes were filmed in 1960, and

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 ...

originally planned to air them during the 1960–1961 season. However, CBS decided to pull the show from the 1960–1961 schedule and instead ran it as a spring replacement series for ''

The New Bob Cummings Show ''The New Bob Cummings Show'' is an American sitcom which was broadcast by CBS during the 1961–62 television season. The series was originally titled ''The Bob Cummings Show'' when it first appeared on the CBS schedule on October 5, 1961; howe ...

'' in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

.Lowry, Cynthia, "Glancing Over TV Bill of Fare," ''The Kingston Daily Freeman'' (Kingston, New York), March 9, 1962, Page 12 Accessed 4 January 2022
/ref>

Reception

In a review of the premiere episode of ''Oh! Those Bells'' published in the ''

Daily Freeman The ''Daily Freeman'' is a seven-day-a-week morning newspaper in Kingston, New York, the Ulster County seat. Serving all of Ulster County and adjacent parts of three other counties in the mid-Hudson Valley—Greene, Columbia and Dutchess counties ...

'' of Kingston, New York, on March 9, 1962, Cynthia Lowry said that ''The New Bob Cummings Show'' had been a disappointment, but that its replacement, ''Oh! Those Bells'', made ''The New Bob Cummings Show'' look like a "blue-white, glass-cutting gem of comedy." She wrote that "From the opening moment when the stuffed head of the

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

caught one Wiere by the seat of the pants to the hilarious climax when the boss was accidentally hit on the head by a golf club, it was one long maladroit bore," adding that ''Oh! Those Bells'' "may achieve the distinction of the year′s worst elevision seriesand certainly the one with the loudest

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 ...

Broadcast history

The last episode of ''The New Bob Cummings Show'' aired on March 1, 1962, and ''Oh! Those Bells'' premiered on

as its replacement on March 8, 1962.IMDb Oh, Those Bells Episode List
/ref> It was cancelled after the broadcast of its thirteenth episode on May 31, 1962. It aired on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. throughout its run.

Episodes

Sources''Schenectady Gazette'', May 31, 1962, p. 23.
/ref>

References

External links

*
''Oh! Those Bells'' opening credits on YouTube

sitcomsonline.com Oh, Those Bells!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oh Those Bells 1962 American television series debuts 1962 American television series endings 1960s American sitcoms Black-and-white American television shows CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series set in shops Television shows set in Los Angeles