Any info on this series? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Will · 09-24-2001, 01:47 AM

How many episodes. What were the episodes about?

Sitcomwriter · 10-10-2001, 06:13 PM

All I know is that this show was about these ghosts who haunted this guy and he was the only person who could see them.My guess is that it was alot of phisical comedy.

Captain Ken · 02-22-2002, 12:23 PM

Yes Topper Ranks high of the great memorires of my youth. Marian could always get Topper to do her bidding. The actress who played Mrs. Topper was outstanding. Here is another seriies that should be on the air again.

ocean_Spirit · 04-18-2002, 11:18 PM

PLEASE BRING "TOPPER" BACK TO TV LAND !!!!

Fan of old shows · 10-13-2002, 02:35 AM

this sounds brilliant.

Barnabas1 · 12-09-2002, 07:25 PM

I don't know anything about this and would love to see it!

tv star collector · 10-19-2005, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will

How many episodes. What were the episodes about?

TOPPER aired on CBS (1953-1955), ABC (1955-1956) and NBC (1956), making it
one of the few series to air on all three networks. On a skiing vacation, George
and Marion Kerby and their St. Bernard dog Neil died in an avalanche. They
returned to haunt their former home, occupied by banker Cosmo Topper. Anne
Jeffreys and her real-life husband Robert Sterling played the Kerbys. Leo G.
Carroll was Cosmo Topper and Lee Patrick played his wife. The show was based on characters created by novelist Thorne Smith, and these characters
also appeared in a series of movies in the 1930s. The one member of the TV
cast that had not appeared in Smith's novels or the movies was Neil. In the
original story the Kerbys died in an automobile accident and there was no dog. (Interestingly, in the Dell comic book TOPPER AND NEIL, the dog
appears but there is no mention of his masters, the Kerbys!)

tv star collector · 12-19-2005, 07:26 PM

Here's a little TOPPER trivia:

Leo G. Carroll went on to play Mr. Alexander Waverly on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and its less successful spin-off series, THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.
He passed away, at age 79, in 1972.

Lee Patrick was the voice of Mrs. Frumpington in an episode of THE ALVIN SHOW cartoon series.

Anne Jeffreys played the mother of Mitch Buchanon (David Hasselhoff) in an
episode of BAYWATCH.

Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys were (and still are) married in real life. Anne Jeffreys was his second wife. His first wife was actress Ann Sothern.
He retired from acting, in the 1970s, and opened a lucrative computer
business.

chatsworth · 01-07-2006, 07:08 PM

tv star -- thank you for that summary on the cast of "Topper." I am very surprised to learn that Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling are still alive. My memories of the show are quite faint -- reruns in the late 50s when I was a kid -- but the Kerbys seemed to have a rather mocking, know-it-all attitude, while Topper himself was constantly befuddled.

In the opening to the show, didn't they put the actors on screen while a voice over described the characters they played?

vedastone · 01-13-2006, 12:07 PM

Yes - the intro is a work of art itself (considering 1953 technology).

'Anne Jeffreys as Marion Kerby, the "ghostess" with the "mostess"; Robert Sterling as George Kerby, that most sporty spirit; and Leo G. Carroll, host to said ghosts, as.... Topper.'

The background is a fireplace with a picture hanging over it. At first, only Marion's gloves are visible, then part of George's white shirt appears as Marion's hands put a flower in his lapel. Then Topper pops into view, and then the ghosts become visible. They are all mugging it up within their respective characters: Marion beautiful/playful, George suave, and Topper befuddled/annoyed.

[That was the intro used mostly in reruns. The others I've seen include the sponsor, Camel cigarettes. In syndication they apparently stuck this non-commercial intro on all episodes].

chatsworth · 01-16-2006, 10:47 PM

vedastone -- wow, thank you so much for reminding me of that opening. It all comes back to me now! It certainly would have made an impression on a kid at that time, considering the rather restrained introductions most shows had.

Madman Riley · 04-02-2006, 04:48 PM

Among the many 'lost' sitcoms of the middle 50s, "Topper" is certainly one I'd love to see again. If I remember correctly, the last time this show was broadcast to any kind of a "mass audience" was sometime in the 80s via the short-lived 'NOSTALGIA' satellite channel.
I remember falling on the floor in amazement at seeing many of the shows from my early childhood ("My Little Margie" being the first one I stumbled across on NOST) brought back to life.

Now, would that there was a forum, here, for the show I'm most interested in learning more about: "The Peoples' Choice" with Jackie Cooper and Paul Maxey and the never-to-be-forgotten "talking" basset hound, Cleo.

RE Leo G. Carroll:
Though many remembered him mostly as Alexander Waverly, long after "Topper," my favorite roles of his were all in movies. Such as:
"North by Northwest" (the government agency director)
"The Parent Trap" (original version; as the pending-marriage minister)
"Tarantaula" (mad scientist/'melted face' on a terrific bubble-gum card!)

tv star collector · 04-03-2006, 06:38 PM

I loved THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE. I named my pony "Cleo" after the popular
basset hound. Patricia Breslin played Sock's (Jackie Cooper) girl friend Mandy
Peeples. Mary Jane Croft (who also had some onscreen roles in other series)
was the voice of Cleo. I managed to find an episode on VHS, featuring Mel
Blanc in a small role as a dog catcher. Trivia note: Cleo appeared on several
TV GUIDE covers (twice by herself) and starred in her very own Little Golden
Book.

For the record, the NBC series ran from October 1955 to September 1958 and
also starred Margaret Irving, Paul Maxey, John Stephenson, Leonid Kinskey,
and Dick Wesson. Sock and Mandy secretly married at the end of the 1956-
1957 season.

ajfpalmer · 09-26-2006, 04:05 PM

I too am a child of the 50s and remember programmes like Topper vividly.

I remember CBS posting reruns M-F at 9:00am with runs of Our Miss Brooks (or somethimes,My Little Margie), The People's Choice, Topper & Oh, Suzannah (The Gale Storm Show). One regret of the end of summer school vacation was having to miss starting the day with these great programmes.

Just to pass on info to similar memory seekers - I found a web-site (oldies.com) which produces many of the old shows. So far, I have found Topper, My Little Margie & Our Miss Brooks. There are many others that I don't remember in their listing which others may like.

Also, back in the 80's, the heads of CBS, NBC & ABC sponsored the original Museum of Broadcasting in NYC. Their goal was to preserve at least one copy or example of every show ever produced. Their legacy is that this is reality. You can visit the archive at the Lincoln Centre branch of the NY Public Library.

This was a monumental task as many of the broadcasters destroyed copies of programmes to make room for new ones in their archives - thus many are lost. A childhood friend has worked for NBC Burbank for over 35 years & his job is just that - now preserving NBC footage (albeit too late for some of the great classics.)

Also of note in the category of classic film is the AFI (American Film Institute). Their goal has been to preserve old film history. Did you know for example, that of the many films produced before 1950 are lost forever? Estimate are that more than half are lost. The original Cleopatra with Theda Bara, for example, can not be found. The only history of this great film are a few costume stills from the production.

Both the NYCPL/MOB & the AFI are well worth the support of film & tv aficianados, either through donation or, more importantly, research support.

TV Knowledge Fan · 09-26-2006, 06:26 PM

...for "TOPPER", 'vedastone', was used when the series was first repeated on ABC in prime-time in the fall of 1955, and forever after- in NBC's daytime repeats during that period [in the "COMEDY TIME" rotation on late weekday afternoons during 1956-'57], and in syndication, cable, and DVD reissues to this day. The "Camel" opening titles were used during the original CBS broadcasts, and obviously could not be shown after the show left the network AND sponsor behind. However, if you notice in the "reissue" title, Robert Sterling is fingering his cigarette as the title fades to black- this might have been one of those "Camel" openings with new narration added.

"THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE" is a forgotten series, and deserves to be revived. It was co-produced by Irving Brecher (creator and original producer of "THE LIFE OF RILEY") and George Burns, and helped Jackie Cooper become a producer/director on his own [he directed some of the later episodes of the series]. "Cleo", of course, stole the show from everyone else! She didn't "talk", she merely observed the ongoing plot (as George Burns did on HIS show with Gracie Allen) and aimed her "thoughts" on what was going on at "us", watching. {"And I thought I was leading a dog's life!"}. Mary Jane Croft was so good at those sarcastic commentaries....

Actually, 'ajfpalmer', it was WCBS-TV in New York that repeated all those great comedies during the '60s between 9 and 10am {"LEAVE IT TO BEAVER", "OUR MISS BROOKS", "THE GALE STORM SHOW", "THE DONNA REED SHOW", and so on} locally, while WNBC-TV presented Paul Tripp's "BIRTHDAY HOUSE"...until 1967, when they began showing "BACHELOR FATHER" and "DOBIE GILLIS" in tandem.

As for preserving TV shows, NBC committed its own blunder when they destroyed a great number of kinescope and videotaped copies of irreplaceable shows in their Fort Lee, N.J. warehouse in 1973- Steve Allen's "TONIGHT SHOW", original video copies of "HULLABALLOO", some live drama anthologies and variety shows from the '50s and early '60s, some daytime programs...ALL disposed of, or destroyed. Groucho Marx's 1954-'61 "YOU BET YOUR LIFE" repeats {"THE BEST OF GROUCHO"} might have been another victim of NBC's shortsightedness if they hadn't contacted his producer, John Guedel, and asked him if he wanted a set of films for his own use. When he learned that about 15 negatives of the syndicated version of the show had already been disposed of, he demanded they send him whatever they had in the warehouse....and THAT'S why the show exists today!!!

Another example of shortsightedness took place in no less than The Library Of Congress. Before 1979, they had 16mm prints of all 26 episodes of "MY LIVING DOLL", the 1964-'65 comedy co-starring Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar. Supposedly, the series doesn't "exist" today because either CBS [the network that showed it] or Jack Chertok [the producer] destroyed the master negatives of the entire series after it had been cancelled. However, The Library Of Congress had been given all 16mm "safety" copies of the show for their archives...but THEY disposed of them during a "house cleaning" in 1979, leaving only ONE episode on deposit. Happily, the original "elements" of the show have been discovered, and soon, there'll be a DVD release of all "lost" episodes of "MY LIVING DOLL"......

And, yes, more than half of all theatrical films produced before 1951 are "lost" today....and 90% of all films made before 1930 no longer exist as well. Some preservation is being done, but not enough.

09-24-2001, 01:47 AM	#1
Will Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Sep 23, 2001 Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA Posts: 245	Any info on this series? How many episodes. What were the episodes about?

02-22-2002, 12:23 PM	#3
Captain Ken Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 22, 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 41	Great Show of My Youth Yes Topper Ranks high of the great memorires of my youth. Marian could always get Topper to do her bidding. The actress who played Mrs. Topper was outstanding. Here is another seriies that should be on the air again.

04-18-2002, 11:18 PM	#4
ocean_Spirit Member First Time Poster Join Date: Apr 18, 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1	PLEASE BRING "TOPPER" BACK TO TV LAND !!!!
	__________________ Lost in the 50's

12-09-2002, 07:25 PM	#6
Barnabas1 Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Dec 01, 2001 Posts: 4,598	I don't know anything about this and would love to see it!
	__________________ My favorite shows :: I Love Lucy, Dark Shadows, Leave it to Beaver, The Munsters, Chico and the Man, and Get Smart. Formerly Babalu and agsfan

09-26-2006, 04:05 PM	#14
ajfpalmer Member First Time Poster Join Date: Sep 26, 2006 Location: Arizona Posts: 1	Childhood Memories I too am a child of the 50s and remember programmes like Topper vividly. I remember CBS posting reruns M-F at 9:00am with runs of Our Miss Brooks (or somethimes,My Little Margie), The People's Choice, Topper & Oh, Suzannah (The Gale Storm Show). One regret of the end of summer school vacation was having to miss starting the day with these great programmes. Just to pass on info to similar memory seekers - I found a web-site (oldies.com) which produces many of the old shows. So far, I have found Topper, My Little Margie & Our Miss Brooks. There are many others that I don't remember in their listing which others may like. Also, back in the 80's, the heads of CBS, NBC & ABC sponsored the original Museum of Broadcasting in NYC. Their goal was to preserve at least one copy or example of every show ever produced. Their legacy is that this is reality. You can visit the archive at the Lincoln Centre branch of the NY Public Library. This was a monumental task as many of the broadcasters destroyed copies of programmes to make room for new ones in their archives - thus many are lost. A childhood friend has worked for NBC Burbank for over 35 years & his job is just that - now preserving NBC footage (albeit too late for some of the great classics.) Also of note in the category of classic film is the AFI (American Film Institute). Their goal has been to preserve old film history. Did you know for example, that of the many films produced before 1950 are lost forever? Estimate are that more than half are lost. The original Cleopatra with Theda Bara, for example, can not be found. The only history of this great film are a few costume stills from the production. Both the NYCPL/MOB & the AFI are well worth the support of film & tv aficianados, either through donation or, more importantly, research support.

10-10-2001, 06:13 PM	#2
Sitcomwriter Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Feb 27, 2001 Posts: 7,354	All I know is that this show was about these ghosts who haunted this guy and he was the only person who could see them.My guess is that it was alot of phisical comedy.

10-13-2002, 02:35 AM	#5
Fan of old shows Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Aug 25, 2002 Location: Florida Posts: 417	this sounds brilliant.

12-19-2005, 07:26 PM	#8
tv star collector I Love Susie Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 18, 2005 Location: South Carolina Posts: 4,486	Here's a little TOPPER trivia: Leo G. Carroll went on to play Mr. Alexander Waverly on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and its less successful spin-off series, THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. He passed away, at age 79, in 1972. Lee Patrick was the voice of Mrs. Frumpington in an episode of THE ALVIN SHOW cartoon series. Anne Jeffreys played the mother of Mitch Buchanon (David Hasselhoff) in an episode of BAYWATCH. Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys were (and still are) married in real life. Anne Jeffreys was his second wife. His first wife was actress Ann Sothern. He retired from acting, in the 1970s, and opened a lucrative computer business.

01-07-2006, 07:08 PM	#9
chatsworth Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jan 01, 2006 Posts: 9	tv star -- thank you for that summary on the cast of "Topper." I am very surprised to learn that Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling are still alive. My memories of the show are quite faint -- reruns in the late 50s when I was a kid -- but the Kerbys seemed to have a rather mocking, know-it-all attitude, while Topper himself was constantly befuddled. In the opening to the show, didn't they put the actors on screen while a voice over described the characters they played?

01-13-2006, 12:07 PM	#10
vedastone Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Aug 05, 2002 Posts: 120	Yes - the intro is a work of art itself (considering 1953 technology). 'Anne Jeffreys as Marion Kerby, the "ghostess" with the "mostess"; Robert Sterling as George Kerby, that most sporty spirit; and Leo G. Carroll, host to said ghosts, as.... Topper.' The background is a fireplace with a picture hanging over it. At first, only Marion's gloves are visible, then part of George's white shirt appears as Marion's hands put a flower in his lapel. Then Topper pops into view, and then the ghosts become visible. They are all mugging it up within their respective characters: Marion beautiful/playful, George suave, and Topper befuddled/annoyed. [That was the intro used mostly in reruns. The others I've seen include the sponsor, Camel cigarettes. In syndication they apparently stuck this non-commercial intro on all episodes].

01-16-2006, 10:47 PM	#11
chatsworth Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jan 01, 2006 Posts: 9	vedastone -- wow, thank you so much for reminding me of that opening. It all comes back to me now! It certainly would have made an impression on a kid at that time, considering the rather restrained introductions most shows had.

04-02-2006, 04:48 PM	#12
Madman Riley Madman Riley Forum Cub Join Date: Apr 02, 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2	Among the many 'lost' sitcoms of the middle 50s, "Topper" is certainly one I'd love to see again. If I remember correctly, the last time this show was broadcast to any kind of a "mass audience" was sometime in the 80s via the short-lived 'NOSTALGIA' satellite channel. I remember falling on the floor in amazement at seeing many of the shows from my early childhood ("My Little Margie" being the first one I stumbled across on NOST) brought back to life. Now, would that there was a forum, here, for the show I'm most interested in learning more about: "The Peoples' Choice" with Jackie Cooper and Paul Maxey and the never-to-be-forgotten "talking" basset hound, Cleo. RE Leo G. Carroll: Though many remembered him mostly as Alexander Waverly, long after "Topper," my favorite roles of his were all in movies. Such as: "North by Northwest" (the government agency director) "The Parent Trap" (original version; as the pending-marriage minister) "Tarantaula" (mad scientist/'melted face' on a terrific bubble-gum card!)

04-03-2006, 06:38 PM	#13
tv star collector I Love Susie Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 18, 2005 Location: South Carolina Posts: 4,486	I loved THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE. I named my pony "Cleo" after the popular basset hound. Patricia Breslin played Sock's (Jackie Cooper) girl friend Mandy Peeples. Mary Jane Croft (who also had some onscreen roles in other series) was the voice of Cleo. I managed to find an episode on VHS, featuring Mel Blanc in a small role as a dog catcher. Trivia note: Cleo appeared on several TV GUIDE covers (twice by herself) and starred in her very own Little Golden Book. For the record, the NBC series ran from October 1955 to September 1958 and also starred Margaret Irving, Paul Maxey, John Stephenson, Leonid Kinskey, and Dick Wesson. Sock and Mandy secretly married at the end of the 1956- 1957 season.

09-26-2006, 06:26 PM	#15
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	The "standard" opening... ...for "TOPPER", 'vedastone', was used when the series was first repeated on ABC in prime-time in the fall of 1955, and forever after- in NBC's daytime repeats during that period [in the "COMEDY TIME" rotation on late weekday afternoons during 1956-'57], and in syndication, cable, and DVD reissues to this day. The "Camel" opening titles were used during the original CBS broadcasts, and obviously could not be shown after the show left the network AND sponsor behind. However, if you notice in the "reissue" title, Robert Sterling is fingering his cigarette as the title fades to black- this might have been one of those "Camel" openings with new narration added. "THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE" is a forgotten series, and deserves to be revived. It was co-produced by Irving Brecher (creator and original producer of "THE LIFE OF RILEY") and George Burns, and helped Jackie Cooper become a producer/director on his own [he directed some of the later episodes of the series]. "Cleo", of course, stole the show from everyone else! She didn't "talk", she merely observed the ongoing plot (as George Burns did on HIS show with Gracie Allen) and aimed her "thoughts" on what was going on at "us", watching. {"And I thought I was leading a dog's life!"}. Mary Jane Croft was so good at those sarcastic commentaries.... Actually, 'ajfpalmer', it was WCBS-TV in New York that repeated all those great comedies during the '60s between 9 and 10am {"LEAVE IT TO BEAVER", "OUR MISS BROOKS", "THE GALE STORM SHOW", "THE DONNA REED SHOW", and so on} locally, while WNBC-TV presented Paul Tripp's "BIRTHDAY HOUSE"...until 1967, when they began showing "BACHELOR FATHER" and "DOBIE GILLIS" in tandem. As for preserving TV shows, NBC committed its own blunder when they destroyed a great number of kinescope and videotaped copies of irreplaceable shows in their Fort Lee, N.J. warehouse in 1973- Steve Allen's "TONIGHT SHOW", original video copies of "HULLABALLOO", some live drama anthologies and variety shows from the '50s and early '60s, some daytime programs...ALL disposed of, or destroyed. Groucho Marx's 1954-'61 "YOU BET YOUR LIFE" repeats {"THE BEST OF GROUCHO"} might have been another victim of NBC's shortsightedness if they hadn't contacted his producer, John Guedel, and asked him if he wanted a set of films for his own use. When he learned that about 15 negatives of the syndicated version of the show had already been disposed of, he demanded they send him whatever they had in the warehouse....and THAT'S why the show exists today!!! Another example of shortsightedness took place in no less than The Library Of Congress. Before 1979, they had 16mm prints of all 26 episodes of "MY LIVING DOLL", the 1964-'65 comedy co-starring Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar. Supposedly, the series doesn't "exist" today because either CBS [the network that showed it] or Jack Chertok [the producer] destroyed the master negatives of the entire series after it had been cancelled. However, The Library Of Congress had been given all 16mm "safety" copies of the show for their archives...but THEY disposed of them during a "house cleaning" in 1979, leaving only ONE episode on deposit. Happily, the original "elements" of the show have been discovered, and soon, there'll be a DVD release of all "lost" episodes of "MY LIVING DOLL"...... And, yes, more than half of all theatrical films produced before 1951 are "lost" today....and 90% of all films made before 1930 no longer exist as well. Some preservation is being done, but not enough.