Our Man Higgins


Our Man Higgins is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 3, 1962, to May 17, 1963.

Synopsis

Our Man Higgins follows the adventures of an English butler who is inherited by a suburban American family, along with a quarter-century-old silver service valued at $50,000. Higgins answers to Duncan and Alice MacRoberts, whose children are Tommy, Dinghy, and Joanie MacRoberts.
It's Higgins, Sir was previously a 13-episode NBC radio comedy series in 1951, created and produced by Paul Harrison, and written by Harrison and Rik Vollaerts. Harry McNaughton read the starring role of Higgins in that series, broadcast on Tuesdays at 9 P.M..

Cast

  • Stanley Holloway as Higgins
  • Regina Groves as Joanie MacRoberts
  • Audrey Totter as Alice MacRoberts
  • Ricky Kelman as Tommy MacRoberts
  • Frank Maxwell as Duncan MacRoberts
  • K.C. Butts as Dinghy MacRoberts

    Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date

Guest stars

  • Don Drysdale
  • Stuart Erwin
  • Reginald Gardiner
  • Connie Gilchrist
  • Sylvia Field
  • Paul Hartman
  • Julian Holloway
  • Edward Everett Horton
  • Bernie Kopell
  • Cheryl Miller
  • Roger Mobley
  • Slim Pickens
  • Stafford Repp
  • Roy Roberts
  • Kurt Russell
  • Martha Stewart
  • Dick Wessel
  • Mary Wickes
  • Dick Wilson

    Scheduling

Our Man Higgins, co-sponsored by General Motors' Pontiac division and American Tobacco, aired on ABC at 9:30 P.M. Eastern on Wednesdays opposite The Dick Van Dyke Show on CBS and the second half of Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall on NBC. Higgins followed another one-year ABC series Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly, Dick York, and Leo G. Carroll, in a television version of the 1944 Bing Crosby film.

Production

Harrison and Harry Ackerman were the show's producers. Directors included Richard Murphy, and Frank De Vol directed the music. Its 34 episodes were recorded on film and included a laugh track.

Critical response

A review in the trade publication Variety said that the show "took off slowly" in its premiere episode but showed promise of improvement with better establishment of characters. The review commended Holloway's work but said that the American family need to be made more appealing. It also suggested that the show's language seemed to have "more of a Broadway than a suburban flavor".