Margie

1 9 6 1 – 1 9 6 2 (USA)
26 x 30 minute episodes

This 1920s-based sitcom was loosely based on a Jeanne Crain and Alan Young film called Margie from 1946.

Cynthia Pepper played pretty, spirited 17-year-old Margie Clayton, who lived in a nice house in the small town of Madison, somewhere in New England, with her rather old-fashioned parents, Harvey (Dave Willock), a loan officer at the Great Eastern Savings Bank, and Nora (Wesley Marie Tackitt), a homemaker.

Also in the house were her mischievous little brother Cornell (Johnny Bangert) and her freewheeling Aunt Phoebe (Hollis Irving). An attractive single woman in her thirties, Phoebe had an active social life, but Margie’s mother thought Phoebe should find a “steady and reliable” man and settle down before she became a “lonely old maid”.

Margie attended Madison High School and had a brainy boyfriend named Heywood Botts (Tommy Ivo). She also had a more worldly and sophisticated best friend named Maybelle Jackson (Penny Parker) who was a flapper. Maybelle’s boyfriend was Johnny Green (Richard Gering), Madison High’s star football player, whom she coyly called “Johnnikins”.

After school, the kids hung out at Crawford’s Ice Cream Parlor.

Margie was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the Madison Bugle, a job she temporarily lost when Maybelle contributed phoney and inflammatory items to Margie’s gossip column, ‘Thru the Keyhole’.

Margie’s father, Harvey, fancied himself an inventor and liked to spend his spare time tinkering in his cellar workshop. Most of his inventions didn’t work out. His portable radio was so heavy he could barely lift it, and Nora scoffed at his idea of a motor in the sink that ground up garbage.

Margie was a relatively successful sitcom but wasn’t renewed for a second season.

Sponsors included Prell Shampoo, Crest Toothpaste, and Ralston Purina.

Margie Clayton
Cynthia Pepper
Heywood Botts
Tommy Ivo
Maybelle Jackson
Penny Parker
Cornell Clayton
Johnny Bangert (1)
Billy Hummert (2)
Aunt Phoebe Gibson
Hollis Irving
Harvey Clayton
Dave Willock
Nora Clayton
Wesley Marie Tackitt
Johnny Green
Richard Gering

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