''Okay, Mother'' is an American

daytime Daytime or day as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences Daylight, natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the ...

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

which originally aired on

WABD WABD (97.5 FM broadcasting, FM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the city of license, community of Mobile, Alabama. The station, established in 1973 as WABB-FM, is owned and operated by Cumulus Media. Its studios are on Dauphin ...

in New York City in 1948.

Broadcast history

The series, hosted by

Dennis James Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other televi ...

, began on WABD. On December 12, 1949, it went on the

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...

weekdays from 1pm to 1:30pm ET. The director was Lou Sposa. After receiving good ratings and largely positive reviews the show, originally titled ''Mothers Inc.'', aired nationally from 1 pm to 1:30 pm ET on the DuMont from early 1949 to July 6, 1951.McNeil, Alex (1996). ''Total Television'', p. 615. Penguin Books. .

Premise

The show was a "tribute to

mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

s" featuring a mix of interviews, game show segments, sketch comedy, and viewer letters. Recurring games included the "Mother-Grams," a series of poems that alluded to a historical or fictional character that the mother had to guess in order to win a small prize, and "Rhyme Games," in which James would canvass the audience, get a mother to start a sentence, and James would have to finish it with a rhyme or else give the mother a prize (in the lone surviving episode, James complains that the same difficult-to-rhyme "trick words" would often come up day after day, which he would often reject if caught). The series was an early example of demographics and

dayparting In broadcast programming, dayparting is the practice of dividing the broadcast day into several parts, in which a different type of radio programming or television show appropriate for that time period is aired. Television programs are most oft ...

: as

daytime television Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning ...

audiences were expected to be mostly stay-at-home mothers, Dumont commissioned the series specifically to target that audience. The series was sponsored by

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

, who advertised Phillips'

Milk of Magnesia Magnesium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2. It occurs in nature as the mineral brucite. It is a white solid with low solubility in water (). Magnesium hydroxide is a common component of antacids, such as milk o ...

Toothpaste, Double Danderine dandruff shampoo, and Bayer Aspirin on the existing 1950 episode. James often addressed the TV audience as "Mother", a practice he had begun when discussing the finer points of wrestling during his sports broadcasts. By addressing the TV audience this way, James avoided insulting male sports fans at home or elsewhere about their knowledge of sports.Dennis James
/ref>

Episode status

One DuMont episode, recorded on kinescope and with a slightly damaged audio track, survives: the July 18, 1950 episode (dated based on contemporary mentions in ''The New York Times'') with "honor mother" Judith Doniger Lipsey (1912–2007) mentioning her upcoming

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

recital on October 12. The episode in question likely came from Dennis James's personal collection, which held samples of several of the shows he hosted. Clips of this episode were shown during ''Pioneers of Television: Game Shows'' (2008), the last episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

miniseries' first season. As no copyright was registered or renewed on the kinescope, it is available on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

and numerous other places.

References

Bibliography

* David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2004) * Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1980) * Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'', Third edition (New York:

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

, 1964)

External links

* * {{Internet Archive, id=Okay_Mother, description=episode of ''Okay, Mother''
DuMont historical website
DuMont Television Network original programming 1940s American variety television series 1950s American variety television series 1948 American television series debuts 1951 American television series endings 1940s American comedy game shows 1950s American comedy game shows 1950s American sketch comedy television series Black-and-white American television shows Lost television shows American English-language television shows Motherhood