The Farmer’s Daughter(1963-1966): Bill’s first regular vehicle after a rural pilot in “The Donna Reed” show didn’t get off the ground. This show was based on the 1947 movie of the same name. In January 1962 NBC re-made the movie for TV and it starred Lee Remick and Peter Lawford. That same year the series was given the green light, but by ABC. This time Inger Stevens played Katy Holstrum, the farmer’s daughter. She comes to Washington, D.C. with hopes that her Minnesota Congressman, Glen Morley (Bill), will help her get to Africa to help with underprivileged children. We also learn that Glen is a widower with two sons and an elderly mother and he needs a lot of help. He asks Katy to be governess and she turns the idea down at first but by the end of the episode she agrees to stay. However, a fight occurs and Katy leaves. Glen cools off and realizes how much he and his family need Katy, so she returns. Glen was not the typical Congressman. He is in love with the ideals of helping his fellow man but isn’t a fan of playing politics (The Art of the Possible, he calls it). Cathleen Nesbitt played his mother, Agatha, with charm and wit. Mickey Sholdar and Rory O’Brien rounded out the cast as Glen’s sons Steven, age 12/13 (often called Steve) and Danny, age 7/8. Philip Coolidge appeared in the first season only as Glen’s advisor and confidant, Mr. Cooper. He didn’t appear in the second season, and there was no reason given. It’s possible that production or the network didn’t think the character was needed. Since Mr. Cooper wasn’t around, Glen often received advice from Senator Ames, who started playing a regular role in the show. The 30 minute pilot was shot in 1962 for the network executives. At the end of the episode, Inger Stevens introduced herself and made a few comments about the show. The network picked up the show and the script was finalized by April 1963. The original script had a few changes: Mr. Cooper was called Mr. Clancy, Glen called his mother by her first name and the episode was called Steve’s Speech. The series kicked off with a two-part episode called The Speechmaker. Essentially the network pilot was divided into two episodes and included scenes that were edited out of the network pilot. This way they got two, 30 minute episodes out of the material filmed. What’s great about this episode is, at the end, when Glen is asking Katy to comeback both actors are so overcome with emotion that Inger is crying and Bill clearly gets choked up. Both actors had great chemistry and enjoyed working with each other. Katy was a charming and strong willed woman. She spoke her mind while also being gentle. Glen could be stubborn and chauvinistic but Katy (and sometimes Glen’s mother Agatha) usually made him see the error of his ways. To make him appear younger than he was, Bill had his hair dyed during the episodes. You can see this in some of the publicity photos where his hair is gray at the sides or completely gray.
(CONT.) In the beginning, the crew shot 17 episodes just to make sure the show was popular. Then it went on hiatus and when the ratings were in, the network ordered another 17 more for season 1. The show’s first two seasons were shot in B&W and changed to color in the third season except for two episodes that were shot in B&W. The show had no less than 5 openings. The first was for the premiere episode and showed Katy getting off a bus and walking to the Morley house. The second theme, used for season 1, started with a shot of Katy and then showing the Morley household and a shot of each cast member. After Philip Coolidge left the show his shot was replaced with a shot of the boys at the front door. By Season 3 the intro and music changed to a Bossa Nova tune. The first few episodes opened with a medium shot of Inger smiling and then proceeded with shots of each cast member. This theme was re-shot with new angles of Katy: a head shot of her looking at the camera followed by her profile with the show title. The rest of the of the cast stayed the same.
(CONT.) The show was popular but never in the top 25. Season 2 was probably the best and became the most dramatic of the three. First, there was rumor that Katy herself would run for office and there’s even a publicity photo showing Inger holding a “Vote for Katy” sign. That didn’t happen but Glen was running for re-election and many episode plots were written around how his re-election could be in jeopardy. Second, more dramatic music was added for certain scenes as the season took a closer look at Glen and Katy’s relationship and the mistakes made along the way. There were several instances where Glen and Katy came close to ending up with other people. Another plot change was that the boys were getting older which meant Katy wasn’t needed as much. So the writers had Katy spend a lot of time working at a children’s home. One of the most dramatic episodes of Season 2 was called “Past Perfect.” Inger took on extra work playing Katy and playing Anne Carpenter Morley, Glen’s first wife. The plot involves Katy accidentally finding a journal kept by Anne. The audience sees Glen and Anne’s relationship through Katy’s eyes and what she imagines Anne to be like. Inger wore a brunette wig and dropped the Swedish accent to become Anne, a bright and vivacious women who develops cancer (it’s hinted at but not directly mentioned) while pregnant with Danny. The episode was a stand out and Inger was nominated for an Emmy that year (the second of her career). Katy and Glen’s “Will They, Won’t They?” relationship created some harmless sexual tension that Bill admitted he and Inger liked to play off. It was at the end of Season 2 when Glen finally proposed to Katy. Season 3 started with a new Bossa Nova theme song and preparations for Glen and Katy’s wedding. When Katy and Glen married, the episode put the show at #19 in the Nielsen Ratings. Even after Katy and Glen married, Screen Gems was still concerned about the relationship. In the honeymoon episode, “Crisis at Crystal Springs” Glen and Katy arrive at their room and the camera reveals two beds. Screen Gems, which produced the show, was adamant that Katy and Glen not overreact or even mention that their honeymoon suite had separate beds. They could only show confusion and mild frustration. When Glen goes down to the front desk he couldn’t even say the word “beds,” he had to say “accommodations.” The script also referred to the suite having two twin beds but it clearly had two double beds. Later in the episode, Katy and Glen find a new room…with a double bed that they didn’t seem to mind. After the wedding episode the show dropped in the ratings and was cancelled.
(CONT.) What’s interesting is that, when Katy became Mrs. Glen Morley, her Swedish accent disappeared. She would throw in an occasional “Ja” or “Himel”(a saying similar to “Good Heavens”) but that was it. Gone was the bright, feisty, grass-roots farm girl. Instead Katy became a well dressed, more cool-headed, elegant wife of a Congressman. It was as if Katy had elocution lessons during the hiatus! I asked Mickey Sholdar (Steven Morley) about this and he said he also believes Screen Gems wanted Katy to be more sophisticated when she became a Congressman’s wife. Also, the third season became somewhat boring as the sexual tension was over and the plots were more mundane and domestic such as teenage problems, marriage troubles and mail-order mix-ups. The change in Katy was by far the most noticible change in the show but there were some inconsistencies that were never explained. Only eagle-eyed viewers would have caught them. In at least two episodes Katy talks about when her papa first came to this country. It indicates that Mr. Holstrum came here from Sweden and then started a family. If so, why would Katy and her brothers have a Swedish accent? In a Season 1 episode, Glen (like Bill Windom) was a corporal in the Army but by Season 2 he was an officer in the Navy. Finally, the first episode up until the middle of season two indicates Glen Morley is a newly established and popular congressman. However, in the Season 2 episode, “Past Perfect,” we learn about Glen and his first wife. In this episode Glen gets elected Congressman when Steve is about 6 years old and Danny is less than a year. Those are the children’s ages when Anne dies. When we meet Steve and Danny in episode 1, they’re 12 and 7 years old which means Glen has been a politician for several years.
(CONT.) Bill never considered himself as the star of the show and said he was Inger’s leading man (instead of her being HIS leading lady). Bill Patterson wrote a book about Inger and mentioned the show would not be made unless Inger was the star. She was also promised 20% of the profits while Bill stood to earn 10%. They never got it but rather a lengthy letter each year explaining why they wouldn’t get any profits. Bill and Inger had a lot of fun playing jokes on each other. One time she ate a sandwich full of onions just before kissing Bill. Another time Inger accidentally got too close to Bill during a scene and her breasts landed on his arm. They both realized it but remained in character the whole time. That day, when the crew went over the film, they never noticed it! That episode is called “Marriage is For Real People.” It’s the only time Katy ever helped Glen with his coat and got that close to him. Inger Stevens was born and raised in Sweden and moved to the US at a young age. She taught herself English and lost her accent so she had to re-learn it for the show. Although Bill was never typecast, he preferred not to talk much about the show in the years shortly after it went off the air. Of the 101 scripts, Bill said he only liked about 6 of them. He also called the role dull and drek because he liked to have fun on the set and make jokes, to the dismay of the director. Overall, Glen wasn’t stuffy to the point of annoyance but Bill had to play super reserved. Of course the writers did let Bill blow off some steam by writing in a scene or two where Glen gets drunk or is part of a dream sequence. The show was pre-empted several times during its run, to air other shows. One of the main reasons it was pre-empted, the assassination of President Kennedy. In September of 1966, after the show was cancelled in the Spring, it was replaced by “The Milton Berle Show.”As of now, the only surviving members of the regular cast are Mickey Sholdar and Rory O’Brien. Both men left show business very early on, with Mickey working through his late teens. He became a professional golfer for some time and earned a degree in political science. Rory O’Brien also earned a degree in political science and teaches at a college in Northern California. Inger Stevens died in 1970, reportedly the result of a drug overdose. It’s believe she committed suicide, since she had tried to many years prior. Some suspect foul play but it was never proven. Her estranged husband, African American athlete/actor/producer Ike Jones claimed her estate even though he had no marriage certificate. He claims they got married in Mexico and one of Inger’s brother confirmed this. Bill Windom died in 2012 shortly before his 89th birthday. Cathleen Nesbitt moved back to England and died of natural causes in 1982. Phillip Coolidge died in 1967.
My World and Welcome To It(1969-1970): Bill’s second series after “The Farmer’s Daughter.” It aired on NBC starting in the Fall of 1969. Bill was the third actor to play the John Monroe role. Actors Arthur O’Connell and Orson Bean each played Monroe on two different tv shows but they were not well received. When Sheldon Leonard decided to produce the show he immediately wanted Bill for the role. Bill had just appeared on a show (also created by Leonard) where he played a gay criminal. Bill never could figure how that appearance led Leonard to choose Bill for the Monroe character! I was able to find a script for the pilot episode. It turns out the original description of John was, ” He looks like all Thurber men–vaguely unhappy, righteously unattractive, and frightened to death of Life which is somewhere in the gloom and darkness to the left of the cartoon. He wears glasses and a scraggly moustache and looks scrawny and underfed.” Clearly not the image that Bill portrayed, and the pilot script was changed. What’s also interesting is the Blood hound cartoon and the dog himself were referred to as “Muggs” when in the show he was called “Irving. “My World…” was loosely based on a character created by James Thurber, the cartoonist/humorist featured in “The New Yorker.” Ironically, Bill had been quite familiar with Thurber’s work and used to read it as a teenager. How fitting that HE was able to successfully portray Thurber’s works for the small screen and later on stage.
(CONT.) The John Monroe character was a cartoonist/humorist who works for “The Manhattanite” in New York City and is a husband and father in Connecticut. The show lasted 1 season but won an Emmy as did Bill (thanks to Bill Bixby who pushed for it as he was part of the nominating committee). Bill mentioned the show could never beat “Gunsmoke” (which Bill appeared in 3 episodes) because the Western sold more soap than his show. “My World” was considered ahead of it’s time by some but others would disagree, saying it merely appealed to a very small audience. It was not a typical sitcom and it tackled a lot of real life issues, relied on cartoons to interact with the live actors and allowed John to break the fourth wall. Bill’s character John always seemed like he didn’t belong anywhere and that no one understood him. His daughter was wiser than her young age (played by Lisa Gerritsen who worked with Bill in an episode of “Lancer”). They didn’t have the typical daughter-daddy relationship but they had a love that the viewers could see. Meanwhile, his wife was understanding but John often portrayed her as overbearing.
(CONT.)Bill’s tv wife, Joan Hotchkiss, was the one who encouraged him to take Thurber’s work on-the-road after the show was cancelled (she later toured in two, one-woman shows herself years later). John’s Boss, Hamilton, was played by Harold Stone. He and Bill had first worked together on an episode of the show “The New Breed” called The Compulsion to Confess. Bill also did a tantalizing episode with actress Lee Merriweather as the sexy next door neighbor. She and Bill had played husband and wife in an episode of “The F.B.I.” called The Nightmare. They would later appear together on the “Murder, She Wrote” episode Lady in the Lake. Bill premiered his one man show in San Francisco and then took it to college campuses, high schools and small theaters. Bill enjoyed taking different versions of the show across the country and around the world for many years. Meanwhile CBS tried to renew interest in the tv show by airing the episodes during the summer of 1972, but it didn’t work. When originally cancelled, it was replaced by “The Red Skelton Show.” As of now, Lisa Gerritsen and Joan Hotchkis are the only surviving members of the regular cast. Lisa left acting in her teens after appearing in the short-lived show, “Phyllis.” She changed the spelling of her first name to be Lissa and she is involved in computer networking. She’s married and has a son. There is very little word on Joan Hotchkis but she is in her 90s and may not be living on her own anymore. As previously mentioned, she won accolades for several of her one-woman shows. One was made into an independent film in 1975 in which she starred in. It was about a rich woman angry with what she considers a horrible life. In some commentary about the film, Hotchkis says the anger and raw emotion in her character was likey due to a brain tumor she had. Another one-woman show was about her life growing up in a wealthy California cattle baron family. She learned about performance art and took her shows to Europe and Asia. Later, she raised eyebrows in the 1990s with another one-woman show in California. It was named, “Elements of Flesh or How Screwing Saved My Life.” The poster featured Hotchkiss sitting naked with her backside bare and her body covered in a thin piece of silk. The show featured her real-life conversations with senior citizens about their sex life. She included many excerpts from her own including a time she advertised as being a dominatrix and had a bondage-sexual relationship with a married man. In all her projects, she frankly discussed her sexuality and her sexual escapades.
Brothers & Sisters(1979): The highly successful film “Animal House” led to the creation of 3 Frat House sitcoms at the same time. “Brothers and Sisters” aired on NBC, CBS aired “Co-ed Fever” and ABC aired “Delta House” which was the only show to resemble the film and feature some of the same characters/ actors (D-Day and Dean Wormer). “Brothers & Sisters” focused on the college high jinx at a particularly troublesome frat house. Bill played Dean Larry Krandall, a rich Texan who buys the college and makes himself Dean, Professor and anything else he can think of. He was married 5 times (just like Bill) and his third wife also left with his bulldog. Krandall loved the fact that he could do what he wanted because he had money. Bill would be performing his Thurber show and he would have to fly back every week to film his appearance. However, he did not appear in every episode. Like his other shows, Bill was able to get his love of chess included in one of the plots. Also co-starring in the show Mary Crosby, the daughter of Bing Crosby. She and Bill would work together on an episode of “Automan” called Staying Alive While Running a Flashdance Fever, an episode of “Murder, She Wrote” called Witch’s Curse and an episode of the new “Burke’s Law” called Who Killed the Tennis Ace? They also worked on the film “Last Plane Out.” Another heir to an entertainment icon, Chris Lemmon, appeared in the show. He’s Jack Lemmon’s son. Bill seemed to have an uncanny connection to Jack Lemmon. First, he played the Nicky Holroyd in the 1958 film, “Bell, Book and Candle” in which Bill played the role in the National Touring show in the early 50s. Second, Jack Lemmon was mentioned in “The Farmer’s Daughter” episode Nej, Nej, a Thousand Times Nej when his film was appearing on the flight Katy and Glen were on. Third, Bill was told Jack Lemmon would play the lead Thurber character in a film version of Thurber’s work because Bill wasn’t a box-office draw.
Murder, She Wrote(1985-1996): One of Cabot Cove’s favorite residents, Dr. Seth Hazlitt. Bill appeared in the show more times than any other actor, except Angela Lansbury. Creator Peter Fischer said actor Claude Akins, who played Jessica’s friend Ethan, wasn’t happy in the role. There was also word he wanted more money. At any rate he was let go and they wanted someone to be Jessica’s confidant in Cabot Cove. So, they brought in Bill, who had guest starred in the episode “Funeral At 50 Mile” as attorney Sam Breen. That episode was the last episode in Season 1 and Jessica and Sam actually walk arm and arm out of the final scene…a sure sign of things to come. Fischer said the two actors were close in age and, lets face it, having a doctor to help Jessica investigate murders made a lot of sense! In the beginning Bill didn’t consider himself as a regular and he was just considered a doctor and not necessarily a Cabot Cove resident. His first appearance as Seth was the Season 2 episode Joshua Peabody Died Here…Possibly. Seth and the Jessica characters had great chemistry and many times it seemed like they were more than friends. When the show almost came to an end after Season 5 there was a hint of such a relationship when Seth was poisoned and Jessica was at his bedside holding his hand. Bill left the show in 1990 when offered a co-starring role on “Parenthood” the tv series. When that series folded after 1 season he returned as Seth but not as regularly since Bill had moved away from LA. Bill actually co-starred with Lansbury on Broadway in the play “Hotel Paradiso” in 1957.
Parenthood(1990): The show tried to capture the success of the Ron Howard film that starred Steve Martin. Bill played Frank Buckman, originally played by Jason Robards (Bill worked with Robards in the western film “Hour of the Gun”). He was the cantankerous but lovable father (plumber by trade) to the Buckman clan. Bill had a magical way of playing a curmudgeon with a soft side that sometimes sneaked out. Bill certainly played the role different from Robards. In fact Bill said he played it much better. Bill and Robards worked together on a film and Bill said it was not an enjoyable experience. Outside of the Glen Morley character, Bill often played parents with that, “You want love? I gave you shelter, food and clothes. That’s love!” attitude. However, he does realize he should have been in his children’s life more so he tries to make up for it with the grandkids. Bill once said his own dad loved him but wasn’t sure if he liked Bill. Co-star Ed Begley, jr. remembers he and Bill talking about their love for astronomy and telescopes. Bill even played a joke on the environmentally-conscious Begley. Bill claimed he rode his bike all the way from his house to the set. In reality, Bill had driven his Jeep and parked it a little ways from the set, took out a bike and showed up as if he rode the whole way in. Bill worked with Begley in the Disney film, “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t.” They also appeared in an episode of “St. Elsewhere” but did not have scenes together. Bill even worked with Begley’s father in an episode of “Name of The Game” called Lola in Lipstick.
Sonic the Hedgehog(1994): Bill appeared several times in this popular cartoon as the voice of Sonic’s Uncle, Sir Charles Hedgehog aka Uncle Chuck.