What was this show about and how long did it last?

[Will]

What was this show about? How many episodes? Any other info?

Jim Backus played Judge Brad Stevens while Joan Davis played his wife Joan. Later shows featured Beverly Wills playing the role of Bev Joan's sister ( she was really Joan Davis' daughter in real life". Typical "Lucy" kind of show.

Show aired on NBC in the early 50s. It was rerun on the old CBN cable network back in the 80s.

There were 98 shows total.

[Peter Tong]

i think cbn was great they had great blocks of show. they were better then tvland. which airs crap like sanford and son and mcgyver. they had patty duke, farmers daughter, i married joan, love that bob.can't remember the others. anyone know why they folded. shortly after that we got nick at nite. now they stink. tvland has some old black and white. not enough.

[sally mander]

you can blame Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart for the "end" of CBN.

CBN was quite popular duing the 80s when they aired shows like Joan, My Little Margie, Life with Riley, Bachlor Father, ect..

But when the Jimmy Bakker-Jessica Hawn and Swaggart sex scandles made news, Pat Robertson changed the name from CBN ( Christian Broadcasting Network ) to "The CBN Family Channel" then later simply The Family Channel.

In the process of changes they dropped much of the old ( CBN was big on westerns ) and like Comedy Central ( they aird a lot of sitcom reruns too like Car 54 in its early days ) started doing more and more of their own stuff.

[bossradio93]

Originally posted by sally mander
you can blame Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart for the "end" of CBN.

CBN was quite popular duing the 80s when they aired shows like Joan, My Little Margie, Life with Riley, Bachlor Father, ect..

But when the Jimmy Bakker-Jessica Hawn and Swaggart sex scandles made news, Pat Robertson changed the name from CBN ( Christian Broadcasting Network ) to "The CBN Family Channel" then later simply The Family Channel.

In the process of changes they dropped much of the old ( CBN was big on westerns ) and like Comedy Central ( they aird a lot of sitcom reruns too like Car 54 in its early days ) started doing more and more of their own stuff.

You're two-thirds correct, Sally. The CBN Cable Network had to have it's name changed to "The Family Channel" about 1988 to avoid losing its tax-exempt status CBN enjoys as a religious ministry. While it was airing classic TV series, game shows, etc., the organization was making a profit, thus the Internal Revenue Service warned CBN it was losing that status so it had to divestify or sell-off that property. Pat Robertson formed a new corporation for his Family Channel calling it "International Family Entertainment" (IFE) so it can continue as a for profit corporation. The network was put up for sale again in 1998 to Fox Television to become "The Fox Family Channel". About 2002, Fox put the network up for sale, thus sold it to ABC renaming "ABC Family Channel", a mix of recent ABC-related hits, series and Disney oriented programs and specials. The ABC Family Channel currently keeps CBN Cable religious favorites as "The 700 Club" and other very popular evangelical Christian shows. ABC Family has a long-term contract (with CBN) to keep airing The 700 Club for quite some time.

I do miss the old feel of the old CBN Cable Network with a mix of old shows and game shows with a likeness to an independent television station. As for Westerns, yes, Pat Robertson is a huge fan of the genre, so that's why he aired a lot of them on his network at the time he owned it.

[Dr. Jazz]

My Pax station airs this show weekday mornings at 10 and last week while on vacation I was fortunate enough to finally catch a couple episodes and I laughed my ass off. Joan Davis was similar to Lucille Ball but was very funny in her own way. There's only a few comedies from the 50's & 60's that I really find funny & if anybody ever has a chance to catch this show, I recommend you should check it out

[Stuck In The '70's]

Now I'm jealous again Doc. Why does your pax station air great shows and mine airs crap?

[Dr. Jazz]

My PAX station airs a block of comedies from the 50's every morning

[Stuck In The '70's]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jazz

My PAX station airs a block of comedies from the 50's every morning

My pax station airs informercials from the morning until 8:00 at night.

[treky]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

My pax station airs informercials from the morning until 8:00 at night.

my PAX station airs infomercials from midnight till 5 pm! Yep, I said 5 P.M.!!!

[Stuck In The '70's]

Originally Posted by treky

my PAX station airs infomercials from midnight till 5 pm! Yep, I said 5 P.M.!!!

Yea its really a useless station anymore. When it first came out I watched it quite a lot but I don't remember the last time I had it on.

[RTususian]

Yes I was thrilled when i heard PAX was starting here in NY on channel 31 around 1996 or 1997. They showed HERE'S LUCY, and I taped most of what I could, but then they dropped it to only a half hour each day from one hour, then they dropped it alltogether. They also used to show LOVE BOAT and BONANZA and EIGHT IS ENOUGH. Our PAX in NY has TONS of infomercials and a very small number of hours of real programming. I don't watch it at all now.

PAX stations throughout the country air different things. Wish i had the one that airs 50s shows!!

[Goldilocks]

Good lord! No one's talked about this show in 4 years. ION airs it around 10:30 CST.

I tried getting into it but just can't see Jim Backus as anyone other than Thurston Howell, III and that opening theme song gets stuck in my head and won't go away!

[Stuck In The '70's]

Originally Posted by Goldilocks

Good lord! No one's talked about this show in 4 years. ION airs it around 10:30 CST.

I tried getting into it but just can't see Jim Backus as anyone other than Thurston Howell, III and that opening theme song gets stuck in my head and won't go away!

Your local ION station might air it but it's not national. I still haven't seen it since the early 80's.

[MickeyMac]

Originally Posted by Goldilocks

Good lord! No one's talked about this show in 4 years. ION airs it around 10:30 CST.

I tried getting into it but just can't see Jim Backus as anyone other than Thurston Howell, III and that opening theme song gets stuck in my head and won't go away!

Whats ION????



Nice to see someone is showing this on TV again. I bet its been well over 15 years since this has been shown on TV.