Occasional Wife
| Occasional Wife | |
|---|---|
Main Cast
|
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Lawrence J. Cohen Fred Freeman |
| Written by | Richard Baer Peggy Chantler Dick Lawrence J. Cohen Robert Riley Crutcher Stan Cutler William Davenport Martin Donovan John Erman Fred Freeman Lila Garrett Bernie Kahn Gene Thompson Martin Ragaway Shorty Rogers |
| Directed by | Jerrold Bernstein Bob Claver Danny Dayton Paul Junger Witt Richard Kinon Russ Mayberry Gary Nelson Ernest Pintoff |
| Starring |
Michael Callan Patricia Harty |
| Narrated by | Vin Scully |
| Theme music composer |
Ernest Pintoff Howard Greenfield |
| Composer(s) |
Ernest Pintoff Shorty Rogers |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Harry Ackerman |
| Producer(s) | Bob Claver |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Screen Gems |
| Distributor |
Columbia TriStar Television Sony Pictures Television (2002–Present) |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 13, 1966 – August 29, 1967 |
Occasional Wife was an American sitcom that got aired on NBC on September 13, 1966 and ran until May 9, 1967 (repeats are aired through August 29.) That's originally on NBC's Tuesday night schedule in the Eastern Time Zone it aired from 8:30–9:00PM ET/PT. Reruns were aired on Comedy Central in 1992.
The lead character was Peter Christopher, a bachelor who enjoyed the single life, but was blocked from professional advancement by not having a wife. Peter's boss, baby-food manufacturer Max Brahms, was, because of his product, a strong believer in marriage and family. Christopher asked a young hat check girl, Greta Patterson, to pose as his wife at company functions. In return, Peter set up Greta in an apartment two floors above his own in a Manhattan building. Greta would use the fire escape to slip in to Peter's 6th floor apartment from her apartment on the 8th floor whenever his boss would drop by unexpectedly. As a silent running gag, Bryan O'Byrne played the "Man in the middle" who bemusedly watching the comings and goings of the two from his 7th floor vantage point. The sitcom's uncredited narrator was the well-known sports announcer Vin Scully.
The series first experienced good ratings, tying at #18 with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in the Nielsen ratings. The series then fell to #64 in the ratings after having to compete against ABC's popular series The Invaders and the CBS staple The Red Skelton Show. Occasional Wife was canceled after one season.
The series was also notable for being one of the first sitcoms to completely eliminate the use of the laugh track, which set the series apart from other sitcoms on at the time. Its practice of not using canned laughter has now become an industry standard with most modern day single camera sitcoms.
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