Remember ‘Mr. Peepers’?
On September 1, 2013
- TV History
Remember ‘Mr. Peepers’?
This photo was taken by Mike Mathews’ mother in 1952 while in the audience of the live show in NBC Studio 8H. After it’s first year, production moved to the Century Theater on Seventh Avenue. The series starred Wally Cox and was not scheduled to air in the fall of ’52, but ‘Doc Corkle’ which was originally on NBC’s schedule was canceled after only 3 episodes. ‘Mister Peepers’, which had scored well with viewers and critics during its summer run, replaced ‘Doc Corkle’ on the schedule. The show did 127 episodes from ’52-’55 and was produced by early TV legend, Fred Coe. Above is a link to the first show of the ’52 season.
Wally, when I worked at Reeves/Teletape in the early ’80’s, I transferred a lot of the Peepers shows from film to videotape. I don’t know where they went from there though. Art, the device on the right is called a ‘stove’. You can find one in nearly every kitchen! 😉
Sweet, gentle humor of a type you just don’t see anymore. The bio or Wally Cox is fascinating. Not a wimp in real life, and a very close friend of Marlon Brando! Who would have guessed?
I’ve seen a few kinescopes of this show. Very gentle comedy, like Wally Cox!
The bedtime routine when I was a child was my father saying,”Put on your sleepers, Mr. Peepers.” Followed by my saying,” Put on your socks,Wally Cox.”
What is the device on the right hand side of the set? It looks like a stand up audio board or possibly a sound effects table from radio days.
While there are some episodes out there, I would love to find just the one episode in which Wally Cox announces near the end of the show the move of WNBK Channel 4 Cleveland to Channel 3 at 7:55 or so April 25, 1954 as it happens right then..Would be kind of cool to see..
I vaguely remember watching it but can remember none of it, after all it was cancelled just three months after my fifth birthday. I think I’ve read that the demise of the show came after Peepers married his girlfriend, the exact same fate of “I Dream of Jeannie,” and “Moonlighting.”
The show starred Wally Cox, and featured Tony Randall.
I thought all of the Kinnes were lost, this is great!