Debuting on NBC on 3 July 1952 as an eight-week summer replacement series, Mister Peepers proved that not all television comedy, even in the immediate wake of Lucille Ball, had to be madcap and slapstick.
Robinson Peepers, played in fine form by Wally Cox, was a shy, ineffectual science teacher at Jefferson City Junior High, and what a later generation would call ‘wimpy’. But in his quiet, reserved and whimsical manner, he always managed to come out on top of situations.
Even though he was not always quite in control of all situations, he was always a man of dignity.
And he even wound up marrying his equally shy, plain-Jane sweetheart in the show, the school nurse Nancy Remington (Pat Benoit) in 1954.
Robinson’s brash, aggressive friend, Harvey Weskitt, was played by Tony Randall, and the delightful character actor Marion Lorne – a female Hugh Herbert, if ever there was one (with a marvellous gift for extended double takes) – played the confused English teacher Mrs Gurney. Ernest Treux played Nancy’s father.
The scripts, as well as the performances, were very sensitive. The show ended on 12 June 1955.
Mr Robinson Peepers Wally Cox
Nancy Remington
Pat Benoit
Harvey Weskitt
Tony Randall
Mrs Gurney
Marion Lorne
Mr Remington
Ernest Treux
Rayola Dean
Norma Crane
Charlie Burr
David Tyrell
Mr Gabriel Gurney
Joseph Foley
Superintendent Bascom
Gage Clark
Marge Weskit
Georgann Johnson
Mr Hansen
Arthur O’Connell
Mrs Remington
Sylvia Field
Frank Whip
Jack Warden
Mom Peepers
Ruth McDevitt
Agnes Peepers
Jenny Egan
Aunt Lil
Reta Shaw
