The character of newspaper editor and mayor Ichabod Adams originated in several episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents in the late 1950s.
Adams then surfaced in an episode of General Electric Theater hosted by Ronald Reagan. That episode served as the pilot for the CBS series and aired on 24 April 1960.
George Chandler played Ichabod Adams and Christine White was his beautiful adult daughter, Abby.
Sitcom veteran Robert Sterling co-starred as widowed newspaperman Bob Major. Bob worked at the New York Times but was tired of the New York rat race and wanted to raise his six-year-old son, Benji (Jimmy Mathers), in a different environment.
He bought the weekly rural Phippsboro Bulletin from its longtime owner-editor (Ichabod) and settled in the small town of Phippsboro, New Hampshire.
Bob struggled with the small-town ways of Phippsboro (population approximately 3,000) and often found himself in conflict with his neighbours, especially when he wrote inflammatory editorials for the Bulletin designed to stimulate progress in the sleepy community.
Ichabod, who became friendly with the younger man, offered fatherly wisdom when Bob’s affairs went awry. Bob also eventually became romantically linked with Abby.
Other longtime residents who looked on Bob and his activities with suspicion included Martin Perkins (Guy Raymond), proprietor of the local hardware store, and his buddy Colby (Forrest Lewis), who operated Colby’s Seed and Fertilizer. Like Ichabod, both men were members of the city council.
Bob’s only regular employee at the newspaper was wide-eyed high school student Jonathan (Jimmy Hawkins). Keeping house for Bob and Benjie was stern-visaged but basically soft-hearted Livvy (Reta Shaw).
Bob Major Robert Sterling Ichabod Adams
George Chandler Abigail “Abby” Adams
Christine White Benji Major
Jimmy Mathers Lavinia (“Livvy”)
Reta Shaw Martin Perkins
Guy Raymond Colby
Forrest Lewis Jonathan Baylor
Jimmy Hawkins
