1 9 5 9 – 1 9 6 0 (USA)
32 x 30 minute episodes
Dennis O’Keefe had been in dozens of movies dating back to the 1930s but now in his fifties, with movie roles on the wane, he sought fame in the new medium of television.
From that decision came The Dennis O’Keefe Show, which was subtitled All Around Towne – also the name of the nationally syndicated Broadway gossip column by Dennis’s character, 42-year-old widower Henry “Hal” Towne.
Hal had been raised on a Fort Andrews, Iowa, farm, but now resided in the Park View Apartments (Apartment 12-A) in Manhattan with his ten-year-old attention-starved son Randy (Rickey Kelman) and a live-in housekeeper called Miss Amelia Sargent (Hope Emerson) – nicknamed “Sarge” – who had performed as a child in community theatre in Omaha.
Hal Towne was frequently surrounded and wooed by some very attractive women, but his steady girl was Karen Hadley (Eloise Hardt) who was also his publishing agent.
Hal’s somewhat harried, impatient, bespectacled assistant at the News Chronicle was Elliot (Eddie Ryder).
Henry “Hal” Towne
Dennis O’Keefe
Randy Towne
Rickey Kelman
Miss Amelia Sargent
Hope Emerson
Karen Hadley
Eloise Hardt
Elliot
Eddie Ryder