1 9 5 3 – 1 9 5 4 (USA)
11 x 30 minute episodes
Standup comedienne Jean Carroll starred as an ‘average’ New York City housewife, complete with bumbling husband (Alan Carney) and awkward, somewhat dopey daughter (Lynn Loring), in this ABC comedy.
She opened each show with a monologue, then spiced the night’s sketch with comic asides to the audience. Many of the stories involved her sly schemes to trick husband Herbie into doing whatever she wanted.
The action took place in the couple’s apartment and the surrounding neighbourhood, which, though never identified, was presumably in Brooklyn or the Bronx.
This New York orientation may have limited the show’s appeal west of the Hudson River, and it lasted less than three months. Also known as The Jean Carroll Show.
Born Celine Zeigman in Paris in 1911, Jean Carroll became one of the first female stars of mainstream stand-up comedy – at a time when the world of stand-up comedy was thought to be no fit place for a woman – and was heralded as the female Milton Berle or Bob Hope.
She died at a hospital in White Plains on 1 January 2010. She was 98.
Wife
Jean Carroll
Husband (Herbie)
Alan Carney
Daughter
Lynn Loring
