AS DEFINITIVE PROOF that the upstart medium of Television was winning its uphill struggle with the big Hollywood Movie Moguls & their Studios, with the decade of the 1950's progressing, we had many series that featured those who had been designated "Movie Stars" taking starring roles in series TV.
EVEN A ROUTINE inspection of the TV Guide listings of the day prove this. There were: FATHERE KNOWS BEST (Robert Young), THE DEPUTY (Henry Fonda), WICHITA TOWN (Joel McCrea) and THE DETECTIVES (Robert Taylor).
AS A FURTHRER indication of this trend, we had a change of the Big Studio Bosses in their sanctimonious attitude toward Television. Perhaps in taking a cue from Walt Disney, whose success in an entertainment/promotional hybrid in his DISNEYLAND success was proving such isolationist policy to be futile, the Moguls reversed their course of action. Soon program titles followed, such as: WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS, MGM PARADE and THE 20th CENTURY-FOX HOUR.
SO IT SHOULD have been no surprise that we saw Academy Award winner, Walter Brennan taking the main character role in THE REAL McCOYS (1957-63). Once it debuted, it was an overwhelming success on the ABC Television and forever defined Mr. Brennan as "Grand Pappy Amos" for the Babby Boomer Generation.
CREATING HUMOROUS SITUATIONS by chronicling interaction between "City Slickers" and their Rustic cousins is nothing new. We need only look to Old Time Radio for a clue. On the airwaves of the 1930's & '40's were host to such shows as THE JUDY CANOVA SHOW, HILLBILLY HEART THROBS and LUM & ABNER, etc.
THE REAL McCOYS, however, opted for less farcical of a treatment and instead gave us a far more civil story of an agrarian family's relocation and adjustment to what looked to be a veritable "Promised Land." Much like the later of the later series, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, the McCoys emigrated from West Virginia to California; albeit for far different reasons. The Clampett family struck oil and lived the "Good Life"; whereas the McCoys sought greener fields.
CAST IN SUPPORT of Walter Brennan's Grand Pappy Amos was a company of experienced supporting players. Radio/TV Richard Crenna (grandson Luke McCoy) had grown up on Radio. Specializing in portraying Juvies (typecasting?), he had been Madison High School Student on OUR MISS BROOKS, both Radio & TV versions.
ROUNDING OUT THE cast were: Kathleen Nolan (Kate, Mrs. Luke McCoy), Tony Martinez (Farm Hand, Pepino)and Michael Winkelman (Little Luke). Sennett Veteran comedian, Andy Clyde (George MacMichael)was a Farmer Neighbor and, Madge Blake (Flora MacMichael) in a role before being "Aunt Harriet Cooper" on BATMAN (1966-68).
IN SUMMING UP our recollections of THE FREAL McCOYS, we can only say that its strength lied in its believability; rather than the outrageous, cartoon-like humor of so many other successful series of its day.
EVEN A ROUTINE inspection of the TV Guide listings of the day prove this. There were: FATHERE KNOWS BEST (Robert Young), THE DEPUTY (Henry Fonda), WICHITA TOWN (Joel McCrea) and THE DETECTIVES (Robert Taylor).
AS A FURTHRER indication of this trend, we had a change of the Big Studio Bosses in their sanctimonious attitude toward Television. Perhaps in taking a cue from Walt Disney, whose success in an entertainment/promotional hybrid in his DISNEYLAND success was proving such isolationist policy to be futile, the Moguls reversed their course of action. Soon program titles followed, such as: WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS, MGM PARADE and THE 20th CENTURY-FOX HOUR.
SO IT SHOULD have been no surprise that we saw Academy Award winner, Walter Brennan taking the main character role in THE REAL McCOYS (1957-63). Once it debuted, it was an overwhelming success on the ABC Television and forever defined Mr. Brennan as "Grand Pappy Amos" for the Babby Boomer Generation.
CREATING HUMOROUS SITUATIONS by chronicling interaction between "City Slickers" and their Rustic cousins is nothing new. We need only look to Old Time Radio for a clue. On the airwaves of the 1930's & '40's were host to such shows as THE JUDY CANOVA SHOW, HILLBILLY HEART THROBS and LUM & ABNER, etc.
THE REAL McCOYS, however, opted for less farcical of a treatment and instead gave us a far more civil story of an agrarian family's relocation and adjustment to what looked to be a veritable "Promised Land." Much like the later of the later series, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, the McCoys emigrated from West Virginia to California; albeit for far different reasons. The Clampett family struck oil and lived the "Good Life"; whereas the McCoys sought greener fields.
CAST IN SUPPORT of Walter Brennan's Grand Pappy Amos was a company of experienced supporting players. Radio/TV Richard Crenna (grandson Luke McCoy) had grown up on Radio. Specializing in portraying Juvies (typecasting?), he had been Madison High School Student on OUR MISS BROOKS, both Radio & TV versions.
ROUNDING OUT THE cast were: Kathleen Nolan (Kate, Mrs. Luke McCoy), Tony Martinez (Farm Hand, Pepino)and Michael Winkelman (Little Luke). Sennett Veteran comedian, Andy Clyde (George MacMichael)was a Farmer Neighbor and, Madge Blake (Flora MacMichael) in a role before being "Aunt Harriet Cooper" on BATMAN (1966-68).
IN SUMMING UP our recollections of THE FREAL McCOYS, we can only say that its strength lied in its believability; rather than the outrageous, cartoon-like humor of so many other successful series of its day.