ComicWeb Old Time Radio
Program: Great Gildersleeve
Episode: 010 Minding the Baby
Original Airdate: 11/02/1941
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The Great Gildersleeve was created by the actor who played the part, Harold Peary. Gildersleeve was a character on the highly popular Fibber McGee and Molly show from 1937-1941. Peary played a number of roles on the Fibber McGee and Molly show, but eventually became the next door neighbor that Fibber had a constant rivalry with. Usually a rivalry to see who was more comedically pompous.
But Harold Peary was growing a bit tired of his work on the Fibber McGee and Molly show. He was a good singer, but his talents weren’t being used to full effect. So in true show business fashion, they created a spin-off show for the Gildersleeve character. It is believed that this is the first, and certainly the most successful, spin-off radio show.
In 1941, the comedy show The Great Gildersleeve hit the airwaves, and there it lasted until 1958. Peary was an ultimate radio professional. He could voice act, had a great deep radio voice, and could sing. Before Gildersleeve and Fibber he bounced around doing various radio jobs, sometimes playing half a dozen parts in for one show, or singing, and the character of Gildersleeve was his idea.
In the Great Gildesleeve, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve left on a train from the town of Wistful Vista (home of Fibber McGee and Molly) and set up shop in Summerfield. In Summerfield, Gildersleeve set about to raise his niece, Marjorie, and his nephew Leroy. Gildersleeve became the water commissioner, eligible bachelor extraordinaire, and general all around windbag. As nephew Leroy would say "What a character!"
The rivalry that worked so well on Fibber McGee and Molly, between Gildersleeve and Fibber was recreated between Gildersleeve and Judge Horace Hooker (known as "the Old Goat" by Gildersleeve), played by Earle Ross. The feud between these two started on the first day of the program and lasted until the end. Other characters included Peavey the pharmacist, playing the sympathetic friend for Gildersleeve’s problems and schemes. Peavey’s line "Well, I wouldn’t say that" became one of the best remembered lines from the show. Gildersleeve’s, cook, Birdie Lee Coggins, could be counted on to pop Throckmorton’s self important bubble on occasion.
Throckmorton was a man constantly on the prowl for romance. His various pursuits included the widow Lelia Ransom, the school principal, Eve Goodwin, the overly interested Adeline Fairchild, and nurse Kathryn Milford among others.
In 1951 Harold Peary left the show. He had been playing the same role for about 13 years and simply grew tired of it. Usually a show will die if the main actor, who in fact created the show, leaves, but actor Willard Waterman came on board to play Gildersleeve. Waterman and Peary had a very similar voice and they had gotten similar roles in the past, often taking one job away from another. Waterman did such a fine job that hardly anyone noticed the change, and The Great Gildersleeve lasted until 1958.
The show was produced by Cecil Underwood, directed by Frank Pittman, announced by Jim Bannon. The writing was done by John Whedon and Sam Moore starting in the second season. Some of the writing was unusual for radio, in that there were season long story arcs. In the 1944 season Gildersleeve ran for mayor, some of his romantic entanglements, including a near proposal lasted months. As a side note: John Whedon, one of the writers, is the grandfather of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon.
The show changed up its format in the 1954-1955 season, going to daily 15 minute episodes, but then in 1956 it went back to its normal half hour.
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