1 9 6 2 – 1 9 6 3 (USA)
19 x 60 minute episodes
This was the story of four guys living together on a houseboat called the Elephant, docked on the Ohio River in the small Midwestern town of Cordella.
Wes Macauley (Glenn Corbett) worked at Houghton Stott’s Gas Station (Mr Stott was played by Harry Harvey Jr.) while going to college.
Wes’s busy schedule kept him from marrying his sweetheart, Irene Hoff (Jan Norris), who wanted nothing more than to be a housewife and mother.
Wes and his younger brother, Howie (Michael Burns), both lived on the houseboat and were orphaned when their parents were killed in a car accident.
Also on the houseboat was the very brainy “Tom Tom” DeWitt (whose clever lines were referred to as DeWitticisms), played by future That Girl star Ted Bessell. He was a non-conformist and very socially conscious with aspirations of joining the Peace Corps.
The fourth man rounding out the “man’s world” on the houseboat was Vern Hodges (Randy Boone) of Bunkham County, North Carolina. Vern had a southern drawl, played the guitar, wore a leather jacket, worked in Dobson’s Market, and was considered unaware, uninvolved, and apathetic by others.
Employed at that rundown emporium were Virgil Dobson (Scott White) who loved to fish; Virgil’s portly wife, Iona (Kate Murtaugh), who had a very sunny disposition; and their daughter Alma Jean (Jeanine Cashell), who had a crush on Vern.
When on land, the four got around Cordella in a convertible jeep.
Wes Macauley
Glenn Corbett
Irene Hoff
Jan Norris
Howie Macauley
Michael Burns
“Tom Tom” DeWitt
Ted Bessell
Vern Hodges
Randy Boone
Mr Houghton Stott
Harry Harvey Jr
Virgil Dobson
Scott White
Iona Dobson
Kate Murtaugh
Alma Jean Dobson
Jeanine Cashell