The Cobbs Radio Program

Background

As 1950s Radio furiously scrambled to find new programming to retain its audience in the wake of Television's growing popularity, the networks increasingly mounted all manner of situation comedies and dramas starring popular stars from the Film world. A rare few found audiences--and sponsors--for at least a season or two. The greater number of these attempts inevitably fell by the wayside after either a Summer season or an abbreviated Fall season.

During the previous decade, many of the shorter Summer Season programs of the era either eventually found a sponsor or were picked up during the Fall Season in reasonable expectation of attracting a sponsor.

CBS airs The Cobbs as a Summer placeholder

KGGM ad for the premiere of The Cobbs

CBS began teasing the concept of The Cobbs during the late Spring of 1954. Citing two popular Film stars--William Demarest and Hope Emerson--as the protagonists, CBS hoped to generate early interest in a possible sponsor for the impending series--in all likelihood owing to the price tag for its two Film stars.

The Billboard of June 12th 1954 cited a June 5th press notice indicating that The Cobbs was still on track to air as the Summer replacement for its Hallmark Radio Hall of Fame. The Cobbs ultimately premiered as hinted, on June 13th 1954 as a half-hour situation comedy. As promised, the series starred William Demarest as Jim Cobb, Hope Emerson as Kate 'Katie' Cobb, and Peggy O'Malley as their 18-yr old daughter, Susan. Produced, written, and directed by series creator Henry 'Hank' Garson, the domestic comedy was framed in Buttonwillow, California, a small town adjacent to Bakersfield, California. The Cobb Family supported themselves with a one-truck trucking company, featuring "Scarlet" their single, all-purpose truck. The recurring supporting artists for the Hollywood-produced series featured Charlie Cantor as Jim Cobb's best pal, and Olive Sturgess, Myra Marsh, and John Dehner, in varying supporting roles.

In a continuing effort to hold down costs for the budding series, music direction for The Cobbs was provided by Bill Sabaranski and his organ interludes and interstitial punctuation. The Cobbs' announcer was veteran west coast announcer, Roy Rowan. When the series was adopted by the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service for armed forces installations, the only addition to the recordings was Radio veteran Bill Goodwin, providing all of the AFRTS messaging and fill for AFRTS END-491 'The Cobbs' rebroadcasts.

Given the popularity of The Cobbs' stars, Demarest and Emerson, The Billboard felt obliged to review the premiere broadcast of The Cobbs from June 13th 1954. The Billboard's reviewer found that the premiere fell flat, despite the talents of its two Film stars. He cited the writing for the series as its primary failing point. We'd have to agree, based only on the single circulating exemplar from the AFRTS-denatured series.

Airing for thirteen installments, the series left the air, as planned, on September 5th, 1954, replaced in the Fall Season by the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Program. The Hallmark Radio Hall of Fame returned after the Summer in new timeslot--the Sunday dinner hour --on October 3rd, 1954.

The single circulating exemplar packs a lot of amusing situations into its twenty-five minutes, but we'd have to agree with The Billboard's reviewer that The Cobbs' expensive talent wasn't fairly supported by the series' writing. The direction, acting, and interstitial music score was fairly representative of the other situation comedies of the era, but it's our belief that the series' writing was what ultimately relegated it to a Summer series, only.

Perhaps we're being unfair. Our only disclaimer being that we have only the one exemplar to critique. Perhaps as more exemplars of The Cobbs surface, we'll be persuaded to revise our opinion.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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