“Jarring” Jack Jackson (Eddie Mayehoff) was the junior partner in the engineering firm of Patterson and Jackson, made a comfortable living, and had a pleasant suburban home at 734 Appletree Lane in Rossmore, Ohio.
An ex-football star at Rossmore College, Jack was the school’s most famous alumnus and played quarterback, earning the nickname “Jarring Jack” for his philosophy of “hitting them hard, fast and low. And if they get up, hit ’em again”.
Jack was married to former tennis star Alice (Rochelle Hudson) and had delusions of grandeur about the future potential of his 18-year-old son, Jack Junior (Gil Stratton Jr), as an athlete.
Unfortunately, Junior – who wore glasses, suffered from hay fever and was allergic to strawberries – had neither the interest nor the ability to excel at sports.
A quiet, intellectual sort, he was constantly hounded and prodded by his father into doing things he was not capable of succeeding at. Junior would much rather be attending the engineering school at MIT.
Jack not only made life miserable for his son but also managed to make himself pretty hard for everyone else to take by treating the world and everyone in it as though he was still calling signals in a football game.
Jack’s partner in the engineering firm was never seen, but Henrietta Patterson (Mabel Albertson) was his wife.
During the summer of 1959, reruns of the original CBS series were aired on Sunday evenings.
The series was based on the 1951 movie of the same name, which also starred Mayehoff (with Jerry Lewis as his son).
“Jarring” Jack Jackson
Eddie Mayehoff Alice Jackson
Rochelle Hudson Jack Jackson Jnr
Gil Stratton Jr Henrietta Patterson
Mabel Albertson Bill Baker
John Smith Sam Baker
Larry Blake Announcer
Bill Goodwin
An ex-football star at Rossmore College, Jack was the school’s most famous alumnus and played quarterback, earning the nickname “Jarring Jack” for his philosophy of “hitting them hard, fast and low. And if they get up, hit ’em again”.
Jack not only made life miserable for his son but also managed to make himself pretty hard for everyone else to take by treating the world and everyone in it as though he was still calling signals in a football game.
