“The Baileys of Balboa”
Originally Published June 11th, 2003
This sitcom aired for a single twenty-six episode season during the 1964-1965 season. Paul Ford starred as Sam Bailey, a widowed curmudgeon who operated a charter boat service around the affluent island community of Balboa. His everyman attitude flew in the face of the aristocratic population and he had frequent clashes with his neighbors, especially Commodore Wyntoon. Not helping matters was a budding romance between Sam’s son Jim and Wyntoon’s daughter Barbara.
The Baileys of Balboa ran for twenty-six episodes on CBS during the 1964-1965 season. The sitcom starred Paul Ford as Sam Bailey, a widowed, blue collar worker who just happened to live in the midst of a wealthy paradise. Ford had previously portrayed Colonel Hall on The Phil Silvers Show and critics loved his particular brand of comedy.
The series was set in and around the island Balboa, home to a snobbish elite who looked down on Sam and his laid back lifestyle. Poor Sam didn’t even live in a mansion like everyone else. The sheer audacity! Commodore Cecil Wyntoon (John Dehner) was Sam’s primary nemesis. The good Commodore was constantly after Sam’s land.
Sam operated The Island Princess, a charter boat, and ran Bailey’s Landing, a sort of bed and breakfast. Commodore Wyntoon, on the other hand, was the head of Balboa’s yacht club. Wyntoon was eager to acquire Sam’s property to expand the yacht club’s holdings.
Les Brown, Jr. and Judy Carne co-starred as Jim Bailey and Barbara Wyntoon, the respective offspring of Sam Bailey and Commodore Wyntoon. Jim worked with his father at Bailey’s Landing and had fallen for Barbara, who returned from boarding school a young woman (not at all the little girl Jim remembered from their childhood). Sensing the growing relationship between the two did his best to keep them apart. Not that he didn’t want his only son to be happy. He just didn’t want him associating with a Wyntoon.
Sterling Holloway co-starred as Buck Singleton, the sole member of The Island Princess’s crew. Buck lived in a van and also helped out at Bailey’s Landing, cooking and doing odd jobs. Clint Howard rounded out the cast, playing young Stanley, an obnoxious pre-schooler who lived near Sam and intruded upon his life at inopportune times.
View a Scene from The Bailey’s of Balboa
The island of Balboa was surrounded by beautiful waters in which the annual Balboa Island Swim Race took place. There was also a park, where Sam and his Balboa Marching and Grunion Hunting Society Military Band attempted to play. There was even an annual Balboa-to-Laguna Antique Car Race, which Buck and Sam entered, in an automobile with a top speed of 11 miles per hour.
In the latter part of the show’s single season, Sam’s brainy nephew Chester (played by Michael J. Pollard) showed up. Chester’s father was worried that his son spent too much time in his lab dabbling in chemistry rather then outside in the sun. So, he sent the lad to stay with Sam and Jim.
Raquel Welch guest-starred in one episode as Chester’s girlfriend, who he wanted to keep dating despite Sam’s disapproval. In order to trick Sam into letting the two be together, Chester and Jim came up with a plan to make Sam think Chester was invisible.
When Paul Ford was approached in early 1964 to star in The Bailey’s of Balboa, he was starring in a Broadway play with a contract to expire on the first of June, setting the stage for a move to television. At the time, CBS had scheduled the series for Tuesdays from 9:30PM to 10PM [1].
In preparation for series, CBS leased an island in Newport Harbor, California for use in filming the series, production on which was set leased by the network. Production on the series began in July of 1964 [2].
CBS announced its fall schedule in March of 1964, Ford was signed to star, and The Baileys of Balboa was one of fourteen new and returning comedies on the CBS roster [3]. The series was now set to air on Thursdays from 9:30PM to 10PM, opposite the second half of ABC’s bi-weekly series against Peyton Place on ABC and Hazel on NBC. The series premiered on September 24th. Critics were less than impressed with the script for the first episode, but felt Ford had potential [4].
Listen to the Opening Theme Song to The Baileys of Balboa
In early December of 1964 CBS made tentative plans to move the series to Fridays at 9PM, but the move never materialized [5]. Instead, CBS cancelled the series in February of 1965 [6]. In the end, the series decimated in the ratings, coming in nearly at the bottom of the series rank for the 1964-1965 season. The final episode aired April 1st, 1965.
Following the show’s cancellation, legal troubles relating to the series embroiled CBS. James T. Aubrey, Jr., former president of CBS, was brought to court over his relationship with Richelieu Productions, the company that produced The Baileys of Balboa [7].
According to the lawsuit, Aubrey and Keefe Braselle, president of Richelieu, worked the CBS schedule to their advantage, regardless of the effect it would have on the network or its shareholders. Three programs broadcast during the 1964-1965 season by CBS were sold to the network by Richelieu without pilots, an uncommon practice in the television industry.
In addition to The Baileys of Balboa, Richelieu also produced The Reporter and The Cara Williams Show, with the latter lasting a few months longer than both The Baileys of Balboa and The Reporters. Supposedly, the three programs were given unrestrained budgets and prime timeslots. Still, all three shows were cancelled after only a single season.
Works Cited:
1 Adams, Val. “Paul Ford Weighs Role in TV Comedy.” New York Times. 27 Feb. 1964: 63.
2 Ibid.
3 Adams, Val. “News of TV-Radio: A Laughing Matter.” New York Times. 15 Mar. 1964: X19.
4 Gould, Jack. “TV: Horribly Engaging.” New York Times. 25 Sep. 1964: 81.
5 Adams, Val. “C.B.S. Shuffles Show Schedules.” New York Times. 12 Dec. 1964: 63.
6 Adams, Val. “C.B.S. Fall Slate Omits 14 Shows.” New York Times. 4 Feb. 1965: 63.
7 “CBS Holder Files Suit Against Former Chief of Firm’s TV Network.” Wall Street Journal. 30 Mar. 1965: 13.
Last Updated June 26th, 2008
June 13th, 2009 at 4:11PM
Jim Aubrey, “The Smiling Cobra” of CBS {as well as its president and chief programmer}, personally ordered “THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA” [without a formal pilot episode] because HE believed he could create a “better” version of “GILLIGAN’S ISLAND” than Sherwood Schwartz could. Aubrey LOATHED that show- he kept saying to Schwartz, “Get those castaways off that fucking island!!”, and didn’t like the fact that the series’ co-sponsor, Procter & Gamble, practically forced him to keep it on his 1964-’65 schedule, or they claimed they’d pull all of its advertising- and their daytime soaps- off CBS and move them elsewhere. A similar threat was also instigated when Aubrey intended to move “PETTICOAT JUNCTION” off Tuesdays (so he could schedule “THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA” after “THE RED SKELTON HOUR” that fall) to Monday nights for the fall of ‘64, but P&G said they preferred to follow Skelton, and that either “PETTICOAT JUNCTION” stayed in “its” time period on Tuesdays, or…Aubrey also hated to deal with sponsors and agents, believing his “direct” method of scheduling TV series was better.
Anyway, Aubrey believed the idea of a charter boat captain operating in a marina was, in his humble opinion, a better idea for a situation comedy. So, he got his old friend Keefe Brasselle, who was operating a production company called “Richelieu Productions” [named after his favorite New York restaurant] to produce a show along the lines of his suggestion {Aubrey, as mentioned in the article, also bought “THE REPORTER” and “THE CARA WILLIAMS SHOW” from Richelieu for CBS’ 1964-’65 schedule WITHOUT formal pilot films, either}. When Aubrey was removed from his position at CBS at the end of February 1965, “THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA” went with him.