The Great Gildersleeve - Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall

Beginning in 1950, the show's momentum changed as the legendary CBS talent raids of the time began to take their toll. The most painful result of the raids was the jump of Jack Benny and Burns and Allen to CBS, forcing NBC to offer more lucrative deals to Bob Hope, Phil Harris and Alice Faye in order to keep them from defecting. Harold Peary was convinced to move The Great Gildersleeve to CBS, but sponsor Kraft refused to sanction the move. Peary, now contracted to CBS, was legally unable to appear on NBC as a star performer, but Gildersleeve was still an NBC series. This prompted the hiring of Willard Waterman as Peary's replacement, the transition occurring during the show's 1950 summer hiatus between Episode 369 ("Houseboat Vacation") and Episode 370 ("Marjorie is Expecting") with several audience-aware in-jokes noting the change in the first act of the latter episode. Peary, meanwhile, began a new series on CBS which was a rather obvious attempt to reproduce the Gildersleeve show with the names changed. The Harold Peary Show, lasting a single season, included a fictitious radio show within the show. This was Honest Harold, hosted by Peary's new character.

Waterman and Peary were longtime friends from Chicago radio; Waterman had replaced Peary as the Sheriff in The Tom Mix Ralston Straightshooters in the 1930s. His voice was a near-perfect match for Peary's, though he refused to use Peary's signature laugh. Peary reportedly sued unsuccessfully to retain the right to both the Gildersleeve character and vocalisms, but Waterman agreed with Peary that only one man held the patent on the Gildersleeve laugh.

Starting in mid-1952, some of the program's long time characters (Judge Hooker, Floyd Munson, Marjorie and her husband) would be missing for months at a time. In their place were a few new ones (Mr. Cooley, the Egg Man, and Mrs. Potter the hypochondriac) who would last only a month or so. By 1953, Gildy's love life took center stage over that of his family and friends. His many love interests were constantly shifting, and women were coming and going with such frequency that the audience had a hard time keeping up. His adversary, meanwhile, shifted from Mr. Bullard, who disappeared completely from the cast of characters, to Dr. Clarence Olsen (George N. Niese).

1954 saw a drastic change in the show's format. After missing the fall schedule, it finally appeared in November as 15-minute episodes that aired five times a week, Sunday through Thursday from 10:15 to 10:30pm Eastern, immediately following the quarter-hour version of Fibber McGee and Molly. Only Gildy, Leroy and Birdie remained on a continuing basis. All other characters were seldom heard and gone were Marjorie and her family as well as the studio audience, live orchestra and original scripts.