The Courtship of Eddie's Father

The Courtship of Eddie's Father
From left: Bill Bixby, Brandon Cruz and Miyoshi Umeki, 1969.
Genre	Family sitcom
Created by	James Komack
Starring	Bill Bixby Brandon Cruz Miyoshi Umeki James Komack Kristina Holland
Opening theme	"Best Friend" performed by Harry Nilsson
Composer(s)	George Tipton
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	73 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	26 minutes
Production company(s)	MGM Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television (current)
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 17, 1969 – March 1, 1972

The Courtship of Eddie's Father is an American television sitcom based on the 1963 movie of the same name, which was based on a novel by Mark Toby (edited by Dorothy Wilson).

The series is about a widower, Tom Corbett (played by Bill Bixby), who is a magazine publisher, and his young son, Eddie (played by Brandon Cruz). Eddie believes his father should marry, and manipulates situations surrounding the women his father is interested in. (Eddie's matchmaking efforts were the theme of the movie, but gradually became less central to the storylines in the series.)

ABC had acquired the rights to the story; the series debuted on September 17, 1969, and was last broadcast on March 1, 1972.

Bixby received an Emmy nomination for the show.

Comedy producer James Komack served as both the creator and the executive producer of the show. The television show's theme song, "Best Friend", was written and performed by Harry Nilsson, and was played over opening credits showing Bixby and Cruz in various happy moments. The song has often been used since that time as an iconic indication of father-son bonding.

The show centered on Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby), a handsome, thirty-something magazine publisher and widower from Los Angeles. Following the death of his wife Helen, Tom is left to raise his mischievous, freckle-faced son, six-year-old Eddie (Brandon Cruz). Eddie wants a new mother. To that end, he cleverly manipulates his father's relationships with women, sometimes even trying to set his father up to fall for women Eddie knows and likes first. The father-son duo's domestic arrangements are managed, with great competence and discretion, by their Japanese housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston (Miyoshi Umeki). Her low-key diplomacy and sage advice add to the comedic mix in situations where she looks after Eddie, and sometimes helps him further his schemes to marry off his father and find a new mother. One of Mrs. Livingston's most endearing peculiarities is her habit of addressing her nominal employer as "Mr. Eddie's Father", which hints at who she considers to be the more important member of the pair under her care. Characters from Tom Corbett's office included Tina Rickles (Kristina Holland), as his secretary, and Norman Tinker (James Komack), as the magazine's photographer and token radical. Norman, who was also a family man, occasionally served as Eddie's honorary uncle.