“It’s A Man’s World”

Although only nineteen episodes were aired, It’s A Man’s World is highly regarded by just about everyone who watched it. Many of those who watched the series in the 1960s were in grammar school and found the idea of living on a houseboat appealing. Today, some forty years later, those same viewers look back on the series with tender memories of watching the series and bitter recollections of its cancellation.

Announced in March of 1962, alongside Empire and Sam Benedict, It’s A Man’s World was given the lead-off position on NBC’s Monday line-up, airing from 7:30-8:30PM [1]. The series, from Revue Productions, followed the lives of four friends living in a houseboat docked on the Ohio River in the city of Cordetta. Glenn Corbett starred as Wes Macauley, a college student charged with raising his younger brother Howie (played by Mike Burns) after their parents died.

Glenn Corbett as Wes

Wes was working his way through college at Stott’s Service Station, a gas station run by Houghton Stott (played by Harry Harvey). Also living on the houseboat (whose name was The Elephant) was Tom-Tom DeWitt (played by Ted Bessell), a fellow college student. In the second episode, Tom-Tom invites Vern Hodges (played Randy Boone), a footloose guitarist, to join the three on the houseboat.

Jan Norris appeared as Wes’s fiancee Irene Hoff, who attended college in Cordetta. A sweet girl, Irene had no problem jumping into the middle of a raging argument between Tom-Tom, Vern and Wes. Other characters included Iona and Virgil Dobson (Kate Murtagh and Scott White), friends of Stott and the boathouse boys. Their daughter, Alma Jean (Jeanine Cashell), was interested in Vern. Nora, a girl who went with Tom-Tom, was played Ann Schuyler.

Mr. Stott was an extremely cantankerous man and was always complaining about something or someone, whether it was someone leaving their running lights on during the day or the phone ringing too often (his favorite expression was “doggone this” or “doggone that). Wes was, for the most part, a forward-thinking, responsible young man — in stark contrast to Tom-Tom, who enjoyed living life to the fullest.

Wes was only allowed to take care of Howie as long as he managed to keep a stable home environment, which meant the boathouse had to be free of drinking and promiscuity. Wes hated having to treat Howie like a kid; Howie rarely acted like one. Thus, the arrangement worked out well for both brothers.

Financially, however, things were tight. In addition to keeping the boathouse in working order and food on the table, Wes had to keep his grades up in school. Tom-Tom was somewhat less committed to school and would rather spend his time with girls or fast cars (or both). Vern was often shy and introverted, but was also a wild dreamer. As for Howie, he was at the age where he started noticing girls, but wasn’t sure how to act around them.

Howie and Wes

Peter Tewskbury, who created, producer and often directed It’s A Man’s World, referred to it as a “permanent character anthology” [2]. Actress Jan Norris, in a October 1962 article in The Chicago Tribune, described the steps she had to take when she got the role of Irene Hoff:

“The show’s producer decided I should have sex appeal, but at 98 pounds I’m unable to fulfill his great expectations. His orders are to gain 15 pounds–and gain them fast. He couldn’t have found a more accommodating girl–I love donuts, pies, eclairs, whipped cream, and plenty of sugar in my tea. I’m the studio’s most expensive eater–why, my breakfast alone sometimes costs as much as seven dollars!” [3]

She further explained that the series was designed “to take people out of themselves or offer highlights in their lives. Incidents in the series, we hope, will remind people of the sometimes pleasant situations in their lives” [4]. The New York Times placed the series under the comedy banner rather than drama, but really, It’s A Man’s World was a dramatic, character-driven series, not a comedy or an adventure show [5].

Episodes of the series often centered on relationships, either between the four young men living in The Elephant or with their friends and/or girlfriends. In one episode, Irene becomes jealous when Wes and Nora spend an entire day together prior to a surprise party Irene put together. In another, Tom-Tom comes up with a way to buy a classic car for only $10, much less than it is worth.

Howie’s first date was seen in one episode; in another, he was almost hit by lightning during a camping trip and wandered towards home without knowing what was going on. In an episode guest starring Dawn Wells, Tom-Tom gets into trouble when he starts seeing the girlfriend of a paratrooper. Tom-Tom’s lack of scholastic diligence comes back to haunt him when he is suspended from college and must confront his parents.

Another episode saw Irene give Wes an aptitude test that concludes he will never become the lawyer he wants to be. Wes tries out for, and makes, the college’s football team in one episode, much to Irene’s dismay. And Vern tries to become more of a charmer by spying on a date between Tom-Tom and a pretty coed.

It’s A Man’s World premiered on Monday, September 17th, 1962, opposite Cheyenne on ABC and To Tell the Truth and I’ve Got a Secret on CBS. It was followed by Saints and Sinners, another new NBC drama starring Nick Adams, then the half-hour The Price is Right and finally David Brinkley’s Journal. The third episode, scheduled for broadcast on October 1st, was pre-empted for coverage of riots at the University of Mississippi [6].

The episode originally scheduled to air that evening was shown the following week. By mid-November, after only nine episodes had aired, NBC began making noise about rearranging its Monday line-up, which was the lowest-rated evening for the network. Although Saints and Sinners was the most likely candidate for cancellation, both It’s A Man’s World and The Price Is Right were in danger as well [7].

On November 26th, NBC officially announced the cancellation of both It’s A Man’s World and Saints and Sinners [8]. It’s A Man’s World was the network’s lowest-rated weekly entertainment series, which contributed heavily to its cancellation [9]. Saints and Sinners was likewise low-rated. The two shows would air their final episodes on January 28th, 1963.

Rather than replacing the canceled shows with new programming, NBC decided to create to create “Monday Night at the Movies,” a two-hour block of feature films, culled from a package the network purchased from 20th Century-Fox (at the time, NBC was already airing Fox films on Saturday evenings) [10]. The package consisted of sixteen films produced in 1957 and 1958 and NBC was given the option to air each one twice. It was enough to finish up the 1962-1963 season and that is all NBC cared about.

Peter Tewksbury, the man behind It’s A Man’s World, along with viewers from across the country, began to put pressure on television critics and NBC to keep the show on the air. Tewksbury had earlier worked on Father Knows Best, which had been canceled and then saved thanks to successful campaign. After entering two episodes of the series in the Television Festival of Monte Carlo, he sent his cast on a tour across the country, hitting many college campuses, before ultimately attempting to meet with the president of NBC [11].

Wes, Tom-Tom and Vern

Fans of the series wrote letters supporting It’s A Man’s World. Lots of letters. According to a 1965 article in The New York Times, some 51,638 letters of protest were received by NBC after the cancellation of It’s A Man’s World was announced [12]. For several weeks in early January of 1963, an announcement was run in the classifieds section of The New York Times in support of It’s A Man’s World. Anyone interested in saving the series was asked to call a number or write to an address in Berkeley, California [13].

The efforts were in vain, however, because when the Nielsen ratings for the first installment of NBC’s Monday Night at the Movies, NBC was thrilled. The February 4th, 1963 broadcast, running from 7:30-9:30PM, saw growth of over six million homes from the final episodes of of It’s A Man’s World and Saints and Sinners, which had aired the week earlier [14].

Within a month, the network had announced that it was purchasing rights to over 60 feature films so it could keep Monday Night at the Movies going through the 1963-1964 season [15]. It wasn’t until the fall of 1964 that scripted television returned to Monday nights on NBC (with 90 Bristol Court).

The same sponsors who balked at the thought of more episodes of It’s A Man’s World were more than willing to shell out over $35,000 for a one-minute commercial spot during Monday Night at the Movies, especially considering the fact that more than ten commercials could be placed in one movie broadcast [16].

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Last Updated December 31st, 2009