“Accidental Family”

Accidental Family was Jerry Van Dyke’s first television series following the outrageous My Mother the Car. Despite being more mainstream it only lasted a few months. Sadly, the series tried too hard to combine comedy with drama, often at the expensive of both. But while the humor was usually low-key, occasional glimpses of realistic writing elevates Accidental Family above most other obscure sitcoms.

Jerry Van Dyke, younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, began his acting career with a March 1962 guest spot on The Dick Van Dyke Show (he played, not surprisingly, the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke’s character). During the summer of 1963 he hosted a game show called Picture This for CBS. Jack Gould referred to it as an “idiotic trifle” that Jerry Van Dyke was “trapped in” [1]. He appeared as a regular on The Judy Garland Show (also on CBS) when it premiered in September of 1963 but soon left. He then filmed a sitcom pilot, “My Boy Googie,” that wasn’t picked up; it would air during the summer of 1967 as an episode of Vacation Playhouse. During the 1965-1966 season, Jerry Van Dyke starred in the critically savaged sitcom My Mother the Car on NBC.

In January of 1967, Broadcasting published a list of roughly 90 television pilots vying for spots on the networks’ 1967-1968 schedules. Among them were two sitcoms from Sheldon Leonard, who had an exclusive contract with NBC, “Everywhere a Chick Chick” and “My Friend Tony,” the latter of which potentially could be pushed to the 1968-1969 season (it eventually premiered as a mid-season replacement in January of 1969) [2]. Set to star in “Everywhere a Chick Chick” were Jerry Van Dyke and Lois Nettleton. In its February 27th issue, Broadcasting reported that NBC had several problem spots in its schedule, including the Tuesday 9:30-10PM half-hour, which would likely be filled by either “Everywhere a Chick Chick” or another sitcom called “Sheriff Who” [3].

Lois Nettleton as Sue Kramer and Jerry Van Dyke as Jerry Webster

The New York Times, on February 28th, revealed that “Everywhere a Chick Chick” had instead been given the Friday 9:30-10PM time slot following The Jerry Lewis Show while “Sheriff Who” was not picked up [4]. In March, The Los Angeles Times reported that Proctor & Gamble had turned down sponsorship of the new sitcom “because it looked immoral to them,” deciding instead to sponsor another new NBC sitcom, The Mothers-In-Law [5]. And in June, Herb Lyon of The Chicago Tribune reported that the name of the series had been changed to Accidental Family at the urging of Jerry Van Dyke [6].

In the rechristened Accidental Family, Jerry Van Dyke starred as Jerry Webster, a stand-up comic working in Las Vegas. A widower, Jerry’s eight-year-old son Sandy (played by Teddy Quinn) had been raised by an aunt for years until Jerry was able to win custody. There’s a catch, however: Sandy has to be brought up far away from the glitz and glamor of Jerry’s showbiz career. Luckily, Jerry has recently purchased a farm in San Fernando Valley, some 300 miles from Las Vegas. Upon arrival at the farm, Jerry is surprised to find it occupied by recent divorcee Susannah “Sue” Kramer (played by Lois Nettleton) and her young daughter Tracy (played by Susan Benjamin).

Teddy Quinn as Sandy Webster and Susan Benjamin as Tracy Kramer

(The characters of Jerry and Sandy originally had the last name of Wallace. According to Ted Quinn, it was changed due to its association with controversial Alabama governor George Wallace, who was mulling a 1968 presidential run while production on Accidental Family was getting underway [7].)

Sue’s marriage had been rough: her husband Hank would screw up, she would forgive him, and he would screw up again. After taking him back a half-dozen times, Sue finally kicked him to the curb for good and stayed on their farm with Tracy. Hank then sold the farm to Jerry, sight unseen. With the farm’s true ownership in question Jerry can’t evict Sue, so the two come to an agreement: Sue and Tracy can keep living on the farm and in return Sue will look after Sandy while Jerry is away in Las Vegas.

And that’s how the four became an accidental family. Rounding out the cast were Ben Blue as Sue’s uncle and ex-vaudevillian Ben McGrath, who helped out as a handyman/farmhand, and Larry D. Mann as Matty Warren, Jerry’s agent. John Byner had a recurring role as Dewey, a hustler who initially tries to cheat Jerry before befriending him.

Episodes of Accidental Family initially focused on the custody agreement that allowed Jerry to raise Sandy. In the second episode, Sue brings Sandy and Tracy to Las Vegas to surprise Jerry for his birthday. Jerry’s showbiz friends decided thrown him a surprise party, complete with a bikini-clad young woman popping out of a cake. Imagine Jerry’s surprise when he learns that the judge who signed the custody agreement is also at the party. The judge takes issue with Sandy being in Las Vegas and also frowns upon Sandy seeing the woman in the cake (credited as Cake Girl and played by Janet Hamil). He plans on suggesting that the aunt who was raising Sandy reopen the custody case given Jerry’s lack of concern about his son. Thankfully, Jerry is able to convince the judge that he does care about his.

Jerry Van Dyke as Jerry Webster and Ben Blue as Ben McGrath

In the third episode, the aforementioned aunt (played by Joyce Van Patten) drops by the farm in the hopes of proving that Jerry isn’t fit to raise Sandy. When she spots Jerry and Sue, who is wearing only a towel, together she thinks she has her proof. Again, however, Jerry is able to convince her that he has Sandy’s best interests in mind. With the custody agreement now firmly in place, episodes of Accidental Family began focusing on the “accidental family” itself. Mixed in with the comedy — Sandy and Tracy convinced they’ve met a leprechaun, Ben flying across a newly waxed floor in his socks — were serious moments.

In one episode, Jerry is desperate for Sandy to be proud of him, so he lies about being an accomplished outdoorsman when the two join the Indian Scouts, only to become separated from the rest of the group during a hike and then trapped in a cave-in. In another, Sue’s ex-husband Hank (played by Jeremy Slate) shows up unexpectedly. Much to Sue’s chagrin, he and Jerry hit it off. Jerry, who thinks Hank is trying to win Sue back, eventually discovers that Hank is only hiding out at the farm because he owes some people a lot of money.

Other episodes involved Jerry digging for buried treasure, Sandy and Tracy competing against each other in a “best lamb” contest (in the process pitting Sue and Jerry against one another as well), Jerry trying to mold his son into school pageant material, Sue’s plans for Thanksgiving thrown into disarray by Jerry and Sandy turning into a bully after Jerry teaches him to box because he’s concerned his son isn’t tough enough. And of course, there was an episode in which Jerry mistook a weekend alone at the farm with Sue as something more than it was.

For a show that was classified as a situation comedy Accidental Family really wasn’t all that comedic. Certainly there were amusing scenes and funny lines but underneath the laugh track was something more. The series had some depth if viewers could look past some of the more low-brow moments (such as Ben flying across the newly waxed floor of the kitchen in his socks, over and over again).

Despite its sitcom trappings Accidental Family was often a realistic look at a difficult situation. Here we have two people who are raising their child alone and things are tough. They’re stuck together in an awkward situation and Susannah and Jerry sometimes have trouble figuring out what to do. Jerry wants to support Sandy and Susannah wants to support Tracy, but both parents realize they have to try to support both the kids. And that’s hard to do.

Accidental Family premiered on Friday, September 15th, 1967. Critics were primarily positive in their reviews, with Cynthia Lowry of The Associated Press opining that the “series may build into something warm and pleasant” [8]. Paul Henninger of The Los Angeles Times suggested that the show “could be the season’s sleeper” while the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Harry Harris wrote that it was “warm, appealing, often funny.” Louise Sweeny of the Christian Science Monitor singled out Lois Nettleton for praising, writing that she “is real and worth watching.” Both Jack Gould of The New York Times and Anthony LaCamera of the Boston Record American referred to the show as an “improvement” over My Mother The Car [9].

Rex Polier of the Philadelphia Bulletin was circumspect in his review, noting that “future episodes and how they are handled will tell more.” Other reviews were brutal. The Washington Post‘s Lawrence Laurent wrote that “a painless death may be the best solution” while Wade Mosby of The Milwaukee Journal stated that the “labored premiere was played more for pathos than laughs.” Eleanor Roberts of The Boston Herald Tribune called the show a “cloying little exercise in togetherness.” And Newsday‘s Barbara Delatiner lamented that the show was “yet another attempt to make a TV star out of Jerry Van Dyke.”

Regardless of what critics thought, Accidental Family never had a chance with viewers. Its competition consisted of ABC’s The Guns of Will Sonnett, a new half-hour Western, and The CBS Friday Night Movie, a powerhouse in the Nielsen ratings. On September 15th, when Accidental Family premiered, it aired opposite the second half of The Great Escape on The CBS Friday Night Movie and “earned the lowest opening rating on the boards” [10]. The following week, on September 22nd, Accidental Family faced The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and ranked in the bottom five in the Nielsen chart [11]. The September 29th episode would have competed with North by Northwest but NBC decided to pre-empt it in order to cover a speech on Vietnam by President Johnson.

The poor ratings didn’t bother executive producer Sheldon Leonard, who insisted “the show needs time to build an audience. This is a complicated story and it takes time to get to know the characters” [12]. Jerry Van Dyke, faced with the overwhelming competition of The CBS Friday Night Movie, was pragmatic: “I have no beefs. I think we have a good situation comedy, and, from what I’ve seen, good situation comedies stay on. At least, I don’t see any bad shows that are still going after a couple of years. If we lose, it’s because of Elvis Presley, Cary Grant and Steve McQueen. No on is going to pick me over those guys” [13].

In late October, NBC announced that Accidental Family had been canceled and would end its run in December, to be replaced by a game show or perhaps “Sheriff Who?” [14]. In actuality, the show ended its run on January 5th, 1968 and was replaced the following week by a prime time version of The Hollywood Squares, hosted by Peter Marshall.

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Last Updated June 19th, 2010