Meet Corliss Archer is an American radio program from radio's Golden Age that ran from January 7, 1943, to September 30, 1956. Although it was CBS's answer to NBC's A Date with Judy , it was also broadcast by NBC in 1948 as a summer replacement for The Bob Hope Show . From October 3, 1952, to June 26, 1953, it aired on ABC, finally returning to CBS. Despite the program's long run, fewer than 24 episodes are known to exist.[ citation needed ]
Priscilla Lyon and Janet Waldo successively portrayed 15-year-old Corliss on radio. Lugene Sanders also played Corliss briefly on radio [1] and in the CBS version of the Meet Corliss Archer television show. [2]
Perpetually perky, breathless and well-intentioned, Corliss is constantly at the side of her next-door neighbor and boyfriend, Dexter Franklin (Bill Christy, Sam Edwards). Clumsy, nerdy Dexter, a sweet but constant bungler with a nasal voice, is best remembered for his trademark phrase, "Holy cow!" and his braying call, "Heyyyy, Corrrrrliiiiiss!"—frequently delivered from the hedge separating their houses.[ citation needed ]
Harry Archer, Corliss's father, is a lawyer who tolerates Dexter only when he wants to use him to help flaunt male superiority. Gruff but gentle, he was played by Bob Bailey, [3] Fred Shields and Frank Martin. Janet Archer, Corliss's mother, was played by, successively, Irene Tedrow, Monty Margetts and Gloria Holden. She is calm and understanding with her daughter and her husband, both of whom sometimes try her patience.[ citation needed ]
Other frequent characters include Mildred Ames, a good friend of Corliss (played by Bebe Young and Barbara Whiting); Mildred's irritating younger brother Raymond (Tommy Bernard, Kenny Godkin); and Corliss's rival, Betty Cameron (Delores Crane).[ citation needed ]
Meet Corliss Archer was written by F. Hugh Herbert, who first introduced the character and her friends in a Good Housekeeping magazine story "A Private Affair," the first of a series of stories. Kiss and Tell was a 1943 play that was adapted for a 1945 film starring Shirley Temple. The 1949 sequel, A Kiss for Corliss , was re-released in 1954.[ citation needed ]
Herbert's Meet Corliss Archer property was adapted to television in 1951 and 1952 with live broadcasts produced and aired by CBS. In 1954 and 1955 Ziv Television Programs produced a syndicated telefilm series starring Ann Baker and Mary Brian. One of the show's unique features was the occasional cut to a comic-book-style drawing, with announcer's commentary, that illustrated the current story situation and was used several times during each episode. The program was produced by Ziv Productions. Several episodes of the Ziv version are available on DVD, and some are also available from the Internet Archive. [4]
Robin Morgan portrayed Corliss in a live telecast of Kiss and Tell on The Alcoa Hour (August 5, 1956), with Warren Berlinger as Dexter.
Radio listeners had to use their imaginations to visualize Corliss, her friends and her town. But those imaginations got a boost in 1948 when the Meet Corliss Archer comic book, published by Fox Feature Syndicate, came out in three issues from March to July 1948. Al Feldstein (Albert B. Feldstein), later the editor of Mad , was a key writer and illustrator of this short-lived comic book series, which is now remembered primarily for his artwork in general and the good girl art covers in particular. Film strips and radio microphones on the front cover indicated the tie-ins and media crossovers. Janet Waldo was depicted on the front cover twice, as herself and as Corliss.
Sorry, Wrong Number is a 1948 American thriller and film noir directed by Anatole Litvak, from a screenplay by Lucille Fletcher, based on her 1943 radio play of the same name.
Hans Georg Conried Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's Peter Pan (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's Dudley Do-Right cartoons, Professor Waldo P. Wigglesworth in Ward's Hoppity Hooper cartoons, was host of Ward's live-action "Fractured Flickers" show and Professor Kropotkin on the radio and film versions of My Friend Irma. He also appeared as Uncle Tonoose on Danny Thomas' sitcom Make Room for Daddy, and twice on I Love Lucy.
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Janet Waldo was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in Shazzan, Penelope Pitstop, Princess from Battle of the Planets, and Josie in Josie and the Pussycats. On radio, she was the title character in Meet Corliss Archer.
A Date with Judy is a comedy radio series aimed at a teenage audience which ran from 1941 to 1950.
Wilbur Hatch, was an American music composer who worked primarily in radio and television. He was born in Mokena, Illinois, and died in Studio City, California.
Ziv Television Programs, Inc. was an American production company that specialized in productions for first-run television syndication in the 1950s.
Thomas Kane Tulley was an American actor. He began his career in radio and on the stage before making his film debut in Northern Pursuit (1943). Subsequently, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in The Caine Mutiny (1954).
Irene Tedrow was an American character actress in stage, film, television and radio.
Kathryn Card was an American radio, television, and film actress who may be best remembered for her role as Mrs. McGillicuddy, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy.
Bob Bailey was an American actor who performed mostly on radio but also appeared in films.
Meet Corliss Archer is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS and in syndication via the Ziv Company from April to December 1954. The program was an adaptation of the radio series of the same name, which was based on a series of short stories by F. Hugh Herbert. It was also broadcast in Canada.
Kiss and Tell is a 1945 American comedy film starring then 17-year-old Shirley Temple as Corliss Archer. In the film, two teenage girls cause their respective parents much concern when they start to become interested in boys. The parents' bickering about which girl is the worse influence causes more problems than it solves.
A Kiss for Corliss is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Richard Wallace, written by Howard Dimsdale, and starring David Niven and Shirley Temple. The film, which was the last for both Wallace and Temple, was released on November 25, 1949, by United Artists. It is a sequel to the 1945 film Kiss and Tell, also directed by Wallace and starring Temple.
Kiss and Tell is a 1943 Broadway play by F. Hugh Herbert.
Trevalene Lugene Solomon is an American retired actress and former child star. The peak of her career was during the mid-1950s. Before getting married and retiring from acting in the early 1960s, Solomon went under the name Lugene Sanders.
Robert Ellis was an American film and television actor in the 1940s and 1950s, who was the last actor to play Henry Aldrich on the radio series The Aldrich Family.
Favorite Story is an American old-time radio dramatic anthology. It was nationally syndicated by the Ziv Company from 1946 to 1949. The program was "advertised as a show that 'stands head and shoulders above the finest programs on the air'". Originating at KFI in Los Angeles, California, Favorite Story apparently was not related to the similarly named My Favorite Story that ran on KNX in Los Angeles earlier.
Fictional teenage girl Corliss Archer is the lead character in a series of American short stories written by F. Hugh Herbert starting in 1943. She also appears in these derivative works:
