Jamie

1 9 5 3 – 1 9 5 4 (USA)
23 x 30 minute episodes

11-year-old Jamie (Brandon De Wilde) is an orphan who is shuttled from one uncaring relative to another.

He finally ends up in the home of his Aunt Laurie (Polly Rowles) and her daughter, Liz (Kathleen Nolan) where he meets kindred spirit Grandpa Frank (Ernest Truex) who is ignored by everyone. The two of them become best friends and share many adventures.

Grandpa Frank – twinkle-eyed and with a zest for life – owns Dimmer’s Drugstore and Aunt Laurie owns a catering business with her friend Annie (Alice Pearce).

Jamie receives an allowance of 50 cents a week and earns extra money as a bicycle delivery boy for Briggs Hardware Store.

Jamie was a live weekly series, and there was some publicity at the time about the problems of a youngster, however gifted, being so deeply involved in an adult profession during his formative years.

De Wilde’s parents had a special contract which allowed him to drop out of the series on short notice if he wanted to, or if his parents felt it was impairing his emotional growth.

This ABC series debuted on 28 September 1953. The final episode aired on 4 October 1954 after the network cancelled the show just two episodes into the second season because of a dispute with the sponsor.

Never able to sustain the success of his youth into adulthood, Brandon De Wilde died in 1972, at the age of 30, in a traffic accident.

Jamieson (Jamie) John Francis McHummer
Brandon De Wilde
Aunt Laurie
Polly Rowles
Grandpa Frank Dimmer
Ernest Truex
Cousin Liz
Kathleen Nolan
Annie Moakum
Alice Pearce