What is the show "It's a Great Life" about? I was just wondering because I usually think the old sitcom shows, especially the ones from the '50s and '60s are quite funny to watch.

first of all, the title "It's a Great Life" is misleading, as the show SHOULD have bbeen caled "IT'S A HORRIBLE SITCOM" !!! It's about three middle-aged men living in a boarding house, and the landlady was played by Francis Baviea (Aunt Bee on "The Andy Griffith show"). That's all I remember, cause I haven't seen the reruns in years, but I do remember what I said above! If you should ever run into it, DON'T, I repeat DON'T ever watch it!!!!

Would like to know.





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I have not seen this sit-com since it last aired, and that was 49 years ago!
While it was not a great show, it certainly wasn't "horrible," either (or it would
not have lasted two full seasons on NBC). A brief synopsis (courtesy of THE
COMPLETE DIRECTORY TO PRIME TIME TV SHOWS): Denny (Michael O'Shea)
and Steve (William Bishop) were two discharged soldiers who decide to be
roommates while looking for civilian jobs. Frances Bavier ran the boarding house, and James Dunn was her brother, Uncle Earl, a conman who was
always trying to lure them into his moneymaking schemes.

well, as my fathers old college professor used to say "Well, great minds differ!"

Was this ever put on DVD? It may be worth checking out because today's shows really suck.

...was created, produced, and most written by Ray Singer & Dick Chevillat, two very talented writers who also wrote the majority of "THE PHIL HARRIS AND ALICE FAYE SHOW" radio scripts from 1948 through 1952 (a few of those they adapted for "IT'S A GREAT LIFE"). Their best scripts took a "normal" situation and embellished it into an absurd one {"Denny Buys a Steer", for example}- in fact, some of those scripts they adapted for "THE LUCY SHOW" in the mid-'60s (two of them were "the vacuum cleaner salesman" episode, and the one with Joan Crawford {silent film star Laura LaPlante was featured in the original 1955 version}). The chemistry between Jimmy Dunn, Michael O'Shea and William Bishop was great! However, two factors were responsible for the show lasting just 78 episodes: a change in day and time in season two [with NBC moving it from Tuesdays at 10:30pm(et) to Sundays at 7pm in the fall of 1955, directly opposite CBS' "LASSIE"], and the recession of 1956, which caused the show's sponsor, Chrysler, to drop some of its sponsored series at the end of the 1955-'56 season because the market for its automobiles had "flattened"...and with the mediocre ratings "IT'S A GREAT LIFE" was gettting, that was the one that got the ax. It did well in syndication for several years (as "THE BACHELORS"), but it disappeared by the late '60s....

:tv:

Ironically, that's the only thing I remember about "It's a Great Life" ... the opening, which proclaimed "CHRYSLER and your Chrysler dealer, presenting the great new 1956 PowerStyle Chrysler, present..."

Of course, Chrysler was also sponsoring "Climax!", "Shower of Stars," "You Bet Your Life," and "Lawrence Welk," so they could still sell tons of Plymouths, Dodges, DeSotos, Chryslers and Imperials elsewhere.

I just read my post in this thread from15 years ago and just want to say: my opinion of this show hasn't changed.