''The Betty Hutton Show'' is an American

sitcom 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 from October 1, 1959, until June 30, 1960, 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 ...

's Thursday schedule (8-8:30 pm Eastern). The show was sponsored by

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

Post Cereals Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota. The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...

, and was produced by

Desilu 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 Hutton Productions. The series, which was originally entitled ''Goldie'', would retain its original title during its

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

run.

Synopsis

Hutton stars as Goldie, a

showgirl A showgirl is a female dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show intended to showcase the performer's physical attributes, typically by way of revealing clothing, toplessness, or nudity. History Showgirls date back to the late 180 ...

-turned-

manicurist A manicurist or nail technician is a person whose occupation is to style and shape a person's nails. This is achieved using a combination of decorating nails with coloured varnish, transfers, gems or glitter. Basic treatments include manicures a ...

. One of Goldie's regular customers is a millionaire, Mr. Strickland. After he suddenly dies, Goldie discovers that he has left everything he owns, including his $60 million fortune and his three children, to her. The children were a 12-year-old boy and girl and boy teenagers.

Cast and characters

Guest stars included

Don Grady Don Louis Agrati (June 8, 1944 – June 27, 2012), also known as Don Grady, was an American actor, composer, and musician. He was known foremost as one of the Mickey Mouse Mouseketeers and as Robbie Douglas on the long-running ABC CBS tele ...

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

Phil Harris Wonga Philip Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American actor, comedian, musician and songwriter. He was an orchestra leader and a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with ''The Jack Benny Program'', then in '' The Phil Harr ...

, and

Cesar Romero Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in c ...

Production

In addition to being the star, Hutton "insisted on creative control of everything from writing to directing to designing", which resulted in the resignations of three producers and two directors. Becker wrote, "by the season's midpoint, Hutton was largely producing the show alone". Stanley Roberts created ''The Betty Hutton Show''., and William Harmon was a producer. Directors included Jodie Copeland,

Jerry Hopper Harold Hankins Hopper (July 29, 1907 – December 17, 1988), known professionally as Jerry Hopper, was an American film and television director, active from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s. Early life Jerry Hopper was born in Guthrie, ...

Richard Kinon Richard Kinon (August 17, 1924 – March 11, 2004) was an American television director. Born in Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, he was hired at his beginning by the studio in Hollywood as a screenwriter. The house he was living in u ...

, and Robert Sidney. Writers included Ralph Goodman, Ed Jurist,

Bob Kaufman Robert Garnell Kaufman (April 18, 1925 – January 12, 1986) was an American Beat poet and surrealist as well as a jazz performance artist and satirist. In France, where his poetry had a large following, he was known as the "black American ...

Kip King Kip King (born Jerome Charles Kattan; August 11, 1937 – July 15, 2010) was an American film, television and voice actor. He was the father of American television sketch comedian Chris Kattan. Life and career King was born Jerome Charles Ka ...

, Philip Lloyd, Laurence Marks, Marvin Marx, and Jack Wilson.

Jerry Fielding Jerry Fielding (born Joshua Itzhak Feldman; June 17, 1922 – February 17, 1980)Redman, Nick"Fielding, Jerry" Jackson, Kenneth T.; Markoe, Karen E.; Markoe, Arnold (1995). ''Dictionary of American Biography; Supplement 10: 1976–1980''. New ...

composed the theme song. Thirty episodes were filmed in black and white with a laugh track. Hutton owned the company that produced the program, which was filmed by

Reception and cancellation

Although Hutton was a popular actress, the show only lasted for thirty episodes before being cancelled, mainly because it was scheduled opposite

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's popular series ''

The Donna Reed Show ''The Donna Reed Show'' is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz co-stars as her pediatrician husband Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children, Mary an ...

''. In a short review of the first episode, John P. Shanley wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', "Miss Hutton worked conscientiously but the show was just another trifling addition to television's roster of mediocre situation comedies." Christine Becker, in her book ''It's the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television'', wrote that the show's premise of combining sudden single parenthood with inheriting millions of dollars "was decidedly unconventional at a time when domestic sitcoms were supposed to feature an approximation of the cohesive, middle-class suburban nuclear family so desired by sponsors and networks."

Episodes

DVD release

Four episodes of the show were released on DVD by

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...

on July 31, 2007.

References

External links

* * Episodes on the Internet Archive
"Goldie Goes Broke" (November 5, 1959)"Art For Goldie's Sake" (December 3, 1959)"Roy Runs Away" (January 21, 1960)"The Seaton Story" (March 10, 1960)"Gullible Goldie" (March 31, 1960)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betty Hutton Show 1959 American television series debuts 1960 American television series endings 1950s American sitcoms 1960s American sitcoms CBS original programming Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Desilu Productions Inheritances in fiction