The Mother-in-Law Joke

The most venerable cliche in U.S. humor is the mother-in-law joke. December Bride (Mon. 9:30 p.m., CBS), which translates the joke and variations to television, has astounded the industry by elbowing its way into the top ten. Nielsen and Trendex place Bride No. 5; ARB has it tied for sixth (with Disneyland and I've Got a Secret). Videodex and Pulse report it "consistently in the top ten."

No one is quite sure why. Writer-Producer Parke Levy argues that the show's success is the result of "basic sociological and psychological factors." Bride's star, fluttery Spring Byington, veteran of stage and screen, thinks "people get a lot of fun from this show, but the fun is based on good feeling. You get to know the family, and they are kept pretty much in character so they don't confuse the audience." CBS's Hubbell Robinson, vice president in charge of TV programming, notes that Bride inherits a great many viewers from the preceding I Love Lucy. "That's a big help. I figured that most of the people who like Lucy would like this show too. And its competition is a dramatic show [Robert Montgomery Presents] and a medical documentary [Medical Horizons], so the comedy lovers just stay put."

Desirable Dames. What Bride's viewers see is a mishmash of kittenish domestic humor. Spring Byington lives with her daughter and son-in-law (Frances Rafferty and Dean Miller); a next-door neighbor, Pete Porter, adds a welcome touch of acid as a wisecracking foe of mothers-in-law, and Verna Felton plays a low-comedy crony of Spring's. Verna recently had a bit part in the movie Picnic, and when the film was on location in Kansas she got more attention from the natives than all the rest of the company. Director Joshua Logan was perplexed: he had never heard of December Bride. Rosalind Russell observed: "I've got to look into this TV thing."

Any Bride plot is as comfortable and commodious as an old shoe. Spring usually embarks on some do-gooding project, e.g., saving the marriage of a wrestler and his wife. Within ten minutes, the project is a total mess, causing either financial or personal embarrassment to her son-in-law. After assorted hilarity, the straggling plot lines are swiftly tied into a lover's knot in time for the conclusion. A recurring staple is a budding romance for Spring who, so far, has been vainly courted by Lyle Talbot, Regis Toomey and Paul Cavanaugh. Says Writer-Producer Levy: "The show's message is that a woman can be attractive to men regardless of her age. It makes every dame over 45 think she's still desirable."

Actress Byington sees an even more important message. Primed by extensive off-camera reading ("Books to me are my favorite stuff of the world"), with a working knowledge in psychology that ranges from Vedanta to Karen Homey, Spring believes that her role of Lily Ruskin in Bride proves that "Lily hasn't lost her appetite for life and is now free to do ridiculous things. She can play with life much more because she is mature of heart. She isn't stopped because other people are not doing it. She drives to Mexico alone. If something appeals to the mature person, if there is no really cogent reason for not doing it, let us do it, let us not be bound by hidebound convention!"

Out of the Bedroom. Unfortunately, not all of Spring's fans get the point. The hundred letters a day the show receives are heavily sprinkled with criticisms whenever viewers think things are getting too close to life. Levy says that the audience resents the use of alcohol on the show, and so drinking is rarely shown. They are even more strait-laced about sex: "Once we played a scene that showed Frances Rafferty and Dean Miller in twin beds. Dean got out of his bed and went over to Frances. He never touched her, but we got all sorts of audience squawks asking us to keep the show out of the bedroom."

Levy wholeheartedly agrees with his critics. He defines successful situation comedy as "a small hunk of life exaggerated for comic purposes. If you play it realistically, it comes out drama because very little in life itself is funny. People want a mirror held up to life but at an angle so that it's humorous. People are tired of problems."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.