This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Solar22~enwiki (talk | contribs) at 16:47, 3 July 2006 (add audio link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 16:47, 3 July 2006 by Solar22~enwiki (talk | contribs) (add audio link)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Our Miss Brooks, an American situation comedy, began as a radio hit in 1948 and migrated to television in 1952, becoming one of the earlier hits of the so-called Golden Age of Television, and making a star out of Eve Arden (1908-1990) as comely, wisecracking, but humane high school English teacher Connie Brooks.
The show hooked around Connie's daily relationships with Madison High School students, colleagues, and pompous principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), not to mention favourite student Walter Denton (future television and Rambo co-star Richard Crenna, who fashioned a higher-pitched voice to play the role) and biology teacher Philip Boynton ( Jeff Chandler), the latter Connie's all-but-unrequited love interest, who saw science everywhere and little else anywhere.
Arden's earlier career in hard-boiled film roles informed half her character, but she wedded it neatly to a gentility that rounded both character and actress memorably. She also had a disarming comic timing that made it impossible to conceive the witty Connie in anyone else's hands. Miss Brooks also lived with her absentminded landlady, Mrs. Davis, whose cat Minerva was one of classic radio's few regular animal characters, with a repertoire of meows timed perfectly to various Brooks comments.
The show drew as much attention from professional educators as from radio and television listeners, viewers and critics. Eve Arden was voted the top ranking radio comedienne in a poll of Radio Mirror listeners in 1948-1949---but her notices soon expanded beyond her media. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Arden was made an honourary member of the National Education Association, received an award from the Teachers College of Connecticut's Alumni Association (in 1952) "for humanising the American teacher," and even received teaching job offers at the height of the show's popularity.
Jeff Chandler's move to films prompted Robert Rockwell to be cast as Philip Boynton for the television version of the show, but the rest of the radio cast made the transition. Connie Brooks and Osgood Conklin graduated from public high school to an exclusive private school for the television version's final season, with future Bat Masterson star Gene Barry joining the cast as physical education teacher Gene Talbot. He also introduced a new romantic twist into Connie Brooks's life: he pursued Connie, previously the persuer of Mr. Boynton.
Written with intelligent wit---and giving Arden a departure from her former image as the heroine's friend---Our Miss Brooks was groundbreaking in its way for showing a woman who was neither a scatterbrained klutz nor a homebody but, rather, a working woman who transcended the actual or assumed limits to women's working lives of the time. Connie Brooks was a realistic character with an unglamorised profession (she often wisecracked, for example, about being underpaid, as many teachers were at the time) who showed women could be competent and self-sufficient outside their home lives without losing their femininity or their humanity.
Our Miss Brooks ran for 154 episodes before the television version was cancelled in 1956; the show ran concurrently on radio until 1957. A feature film version of the show was also released, and the original radio show has become a favourite among old-time radio collectors. A decade after Our Miss Brooks finished, Arden became a television star again, teaming with Kaye Ballard in the title roles of the late-1960s series, The Mothers-In-Law. A decade after that, she returned to school as the befuddled principal in the films Grease and Grease 2. But it's Our Miss Brooks that remains her most identifiable and popular role.