Did The Joey Bishop Show Ever Have a Following?

[eddie146]

The reason I ask, this show appears to come out of nowhere. The show is pretty entertaining with some big name stars appearing. I mean Barney Fife even appeared. But there was never any fanfare or talked about for some 50 years. Do you all agree? Am I wrong here?

[Coffeecup]

I saw the show several years ? on Antenna which I no longer get and I thought the first season was the best. I liked Joe Flynn and Marlo Thomas in the cast. Although Joey having Marlo as a sister was a bit of stretch. Must a 20year difference although I over looked that.

[PracTz]

As best I can guess, the ONLY reason it had any kind of a following at all during its run was that Mr. Bishop was a Rat Pack member and none of the others were sitcom regulars. However, the show wound up becoming almost instantly dated and square so there was virtually no interest in it once it was finished (and Marlo Thomas fans would soon be treated to 'That Girl').

[Hazel Anyday]

I've been watching this show once a week for the past couple years and just a week ago I finally finished it off. I don't think there has ever been a series I was more happily delirious to finally stop watching. It was never funny, what it was was extremely annoying and sickening. The main character himself, Joey, was the main offender with those sickening ridiculous supposedly funny hang-dog looks he never got tired of using as he stared like an ugly idiot into the camera.

Antenna showed the first season last when they ran it and I watched them all in the mixed up order Antenna showed them in. I will say one good thing about this mess, the 1st season was far more easy to take than all the later seasons. That 1st season when Joey lived at home with a family with the great Madge Blake playing the mother and the enjoyable to look at Marlo as his sister, yes that was the best year for Joey. Though that dummy "little brother" of Joey's just about tied Joey in sickeningness. But in this 1st season Joey at least didn't have an overblown ego & he wasn't surrounded by lackeys constantly kissing his posterior as he went around like his poop didn't stink.

Madge & Marlo made that 1st season worth watching and I'm grateful it was the last season I saw as it made putting up with that mess of a show standable those last several months that I endured watching. But then that very last episode of the first season was a horrible taste of what the show was going to turn into, Joey was now a "stahh" and he started being treated like King Louis the horrible. The end of some semblance of a good show was at hand. I happily wave good by to a show I will never watch again.

[TV Guy]

I find it mindboggling the number of revamps, production changes, and network switches that went into trying to make a hit show for this unappealing, untalented man. Did he make a deal with the devil to stay on the air?

[stevea]

It's amazing it lasted four seasons. Joey + Guy Marks + Corbett Monica = annoying to the max.

The first season was way more tolerable, with Madge Blake and Joe Flynn. I haven't seen many episodes--was Marlo a regular?

[TV Guy]

Yep - she was. She and Madge Blake were the best things about season 1.

[1960'sTVfan]

I have the opposite opinion, I think the 1st season is the weakest. The way I rate the seasons, from best to weakest, is 3, 2, 4, 1.

Guy Marks is annoying and I can fully understand why Joey Bishop fired Marks mid way into season 2. Corbett Monica is much better in the role and he and Joey Bishop have good chemistry in the episodes.

Zany Joe Besser added a lot to this series, especially from season 2 and forward and I'm not sure if the series would have lasted for four seasons without Besser.

Jillson And The Cinnamon Buns, Double Play From Foster To Durocher To Joey, and Joey The Comedian vs. Larry The Writer are three of the best episodes.

I just found out Abby Dalton recently passed away, sad to learn about this, she was good in the role of Joey's wife Ellie.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by eddie146

The reason I ask, this show appears to come out of nowhere. The show is pretty entertaining with some big name stars appearing. I mean Barney Fife even appeared. But there was never any fanfare or talked about for some 50 years. Do you all agree? Am I wrong here?

I think that you have pretty much hit the nail on the head, the only "power" that this show had was Bishop's ability to draw top tier guest stars. I remember my parents complaining at the time that Bishop was too aloof to be funny.

As a very young child, I remember watching this show as part of the daytime re-runs, and the only part I remember enjoying were the Besser routines. Never knew Besser had been a Stooge until just a few years ago.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by eddie146

The reason I ask, this show appears to come out of nowhere. The show is pretty entertaining with some big name stars appearing. I mean Barney Fife even appeared. But there was never any fanfare or talked about for some 50 years. Do you all agree? Am I wrong here?

The Joey Bishop Show had somewhat of a following in the 1960's when it originally aired, and it must have somewhat of a following now because Antenna TV has been running the episodes non stop since 2017.

Joey Bishop was sort of an unusual choice to star in a sitcom but he had a lot of friends in the entertainment industry and I believe it was Danny Thomas who was basically responsible for Joey getting his own TV show. Joey Bishop's style is an acquired taste but I totally get the way he portrays himself on his TV show. He's funny but usually in a more subtle way. The show needed someone zany to provide the laugh out loud moments and that's where Joe Besser came in. Some of the friendly insults/zingers exchanged between Joey Bishop and housekeeper Hilda are funny also. Another favorite episode of mine is the 3rd season episode with Jack Jones, that's a good one also.

Joey Bishop is at his comedic best during the first half of the episode Joey The Comedian vs. Larry The Writer, where Joey gradually goes into a slow burn, getting increasingly agitated until he eventually loses his cool and blows his top. It's quite funny and is a high point of the series.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I have the opposite opinion, I think the 1st season is the weakest. The way I rate the seasons, from best to weakest, is 3, 2, 4, 1.

Guy Marks is annoying and I can fully understand why Joey Bishop fired Marks mid way into season 2. Corbett Monica is much better in the role and he and Joey Bishop have good chemistry in the episodes.

Zany Joe Besser added a lot to this series, especially from season 2 and forward and I'm not sure if the series would have lasted for four seasons without Besser.

Jillson And The Cinnamon Buns, Double Play From Foster To Durocher To Joey, and Joey The Comedian vs. Larry The Writer are three of the best episodes.

I just found out Abby Dalton recently passed away, sad to learn about this, she was good in the role of Joey's wife Ellie.

There is a very interesting discussion about Joey Bishop and this series on Gilbert Gottfried's podcast this week. As it turns out it was not Joey Bishop who fired Guy Marks it was Abby Dalton complaining to Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas about Marks extremely inappropriate behavior that led to his dismissal. For anyone interested in this series this episode of the podcast is a must listen.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by Duster76

There is a very interesting discussion about Joey Bishop and this series on Gilbert Gottfried's podcast this week. As it turns out it was not Joey Bishop who fired Guy Marks it was Abby Dalton complaining to Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas about Marks extremely inappropriate behavior that led to his dismissal. For anyone interested in this series this episode of the podcast is a must listen.

That's interesting, the story I'm familiar with is that Joey Bishop felt that Guy Marks was upstaging him in the episodes, Bishop didn't like this so it was bye bye to Guy Marks.

Whatever the real reason was, I think it was a good thing for the series when Guy Marks was replaced. Corbett Monica was much better in the role and he and Joey Bishop played well off of each other in the episodes. Corbett Monica was funny without being annoying, while Guy Marks was more often annoying than funny.

[bencasey]

After the 3rd season, NBC cancelled the show. The reason it got resurrected on CBS for a 4th season is this. There was a big party and William Bendix was there. CBS had committed to a show he was starring in that was coming on that fall. A CBS executive thought he looked awful and mentioned it to someone who told him that Bendix had cancer and had only a few months left to live. The exec. went over to Bishop and asked him to put his cast back together for another season. It was in black and white because CBS was fighting color as long as it could because they didn't want to help RCA/NBC sell color television.

Another interesting thing about he series is that it was never put in domestic syndication, and with 123 episodes, it holds the record for most episodes of a series never syndicated. Until TV Land picked it up, it hadn't been seen in 30 years. The other unique aspect of the show is that it was one of only two series to go from black and white to color then back to black and white. Wagon Train is the other one.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by bencasey

After the 3rd season, NBC cancelled the show. The reason it got resurrected on CBS for a 4th season is this. There was a big party and William Bendix was there. CBS had committed to a show he was starring in that was coming on that fall. A CBS executive thought he looked awful and mentioned it to someone who told him that Bendix had cancer and had only a few months left to live. The exec. went over to Bishop and asked him to put his cast back together for another season. It was in black and white because CBS was fighting color as long as it could because they didn't want to help RCA/NBC sell color television.

Another interesting thing about he series is that it was never put in domestic syndication, and with 123 episodes, it holds the record for most episodes of a series never syndicated. Until TV Land picked it up, it hadn't been seen in 30 years. The other unique aspect of the show is that it was one of only two series to go from black and white to color then back to black and white. Wagon Train is the other one.

The first episode of season 4, "Joey Goes To CBS", is about the switch from NBC to CBS, a funny episode and a good start to the 4th season.