CLASSIC VIDEO SHOWPLACE: Mr. & Mrs. North
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For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.
Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on RCN TV with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.
While it may not be a familiar name to today’s mainstream media audiences, Mr. and Mrs. North was quite popular for four decades. The idea had many different versions and through various outlets while using basically the same premise from 1930-1963.
The initial storyline, featuring this entertaining couple who happened to be master amateur sluthers, debuted in the early 1930s as a series of short stories in the New York Sun.
As their mysteries quickly became a national sensation, Author Richard Lockridge teammed with his wife Francis, to write their first novel, “The Norths Meet Murder.” The real-life writing couple would churn out 26 mystery novels over the next thirty years.
Its success spawned a Broadway play, several featured films and its own radio show in the early 1940s. The first movie Mr. and Mrs. North starred Gracie Allen (at the apex of her comedic fame with the wildly successful Burns and Allen radio show) and William Post in the title roles.
The radio show debuted in 1941 on NBC. It featured multiple actors playing the husband and wife team over the years and ran continuously from 1941-1946 and again from 1947-1955. It also alternated over time on the NBC and CBS networks. In 1946 it received the first ever “Best Radio Drama Edgar Award” from the Mystery Writers of America.
Like many popular mystery-series shows that followed, the television edition of this series would feature prominent names as guest stars on each episode. One of its early shows featured Raymond Burr, who would go on to handle the titular character Perry Mason on television in 1957. Burr would also have a key role in one of Alfred Hitchcock’s all-time greatest thrillers, Rear Window, within a year after appearing on “North.”
In his early days on a local television station in Philadelphia, Ernie Kovacs and his actress/wife Edie Adams would sometimes spoof Mr. and Mrs. North in sketches titled Mr. & Mrs. South on Kovacs’s morning comedy program.
One of the most popular actors to handle the role of Mr. North on television was Richard Denning. Denning had played the husband of Lucille Ball’s character in another popular radio show, My Favorite Husband, which became the forerunner for TV’s I Love Lucy.
Ball was determined to have her own, real-life husband Desi Arnaz join her on the television version of her program, which “freed up” Denning to helm the role of Mr. North.
With Denning in the lead, the show saw a new resurgence in popularity and produced a whopping 39 episodes during the 1953-54 season alone. By comparison, I Love Lucy, the number one rated show on TV that season, produced “just” 33 episodes and never produced more than 36 in its most successful year. Nowadays, some popular network shows record as few as six episodes per “season.”
It is these Denning-led shows that are being featured on RCN TV this month. Catch the Norths and their innovative detective strategies as they uncover puzzling mysteries every Wednesday at 3:30pm and a different show on Fridays at 1:30pm. (Don’t forget to set your DVR if you’ll miss either day’s airings).
To view the complete rundown of classic programming on RCN TV, check out the weekly listings here on our website.
