A large Victorian home in the New York borough of Staten Island was the setting for this multigenerational comedy about a family of eccentrics.
Martin Vanderhof (Harry Morgan) was the patriarch of the clan, an independent curmudgeon who also served as the series’ narrator. A widower and retired advertising man, Martin lived with his bubbly, somewhat scatterbrained daughter, Penny (Lois Nettleton) – a freelance writer – and her family.
That family consisted of Penny’s husband, Paul (Richard Sanders) – an eccentric inventor of toys, with no apparent regular source of income; their idealistic teenage daughter, Essie (Heather Blodgett); and their older daughter, Alice (Lisa Aliff), who worked for a Manhattan brokerage firm.
Mr Pinner (Theodore Wilson) was a neighbour and friend who constructed prototypes for the toys Paul invented.
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 play of the same name written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, which will be remembered long after this routine syndicated comedy is not.
Martin Vanderhof
Harry Morgan Penny Vanderhof Sycamore
Lois Nettleton Paul Sycamore
Richard Sanders Alice Sycamore
Lisa Aliff Essie Sycamore
Heather Blodgett Durwood M. Pinner
Theodore Wilson
