Over the years there have been plenty of rumors about how many episodes of this CBS sitcom still survive. It ran for 26 episodes during the 1964-1965 season. My article about the series can be found here. At one point, I recall reading that only two episodes were know to exist. That was clearly incorrect because at least six episodes circulated among private collectors.
According to one rumor, the original film elements for the series were discarded or destroyed!
When I first put this status guide together back in February 2009, I was able to confirm that the UCLA Film & Television Archive had six episodes of My Living Doll in its collection while the Museum of Broadcast Communications had three. That left 17 episodes unaccounted for. UCLA later acquired three additional episodes.
In March 2012, MPI Home Video released 11 episodes of My Living Doll on DVD as part of The Official Collection Volume One. At the time, those were the only episodes known to exist. So far, a second volume hasn’t been released. Hopefully, the remaining 15 episodes are still out there somewhere, waiting to be found.
(Complicating matters is the fact that many episodes have more than one title. Perhaps that’s due to early titles used on scripts or during production that changed prior to broadcast. I believe the following episode titles are accurate.)
# | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | “Boy Meets Girl” | 09/27/1964 | DVD/UCLA |
2 | “Rhoda’s First Date” | 10/04/1964 | DVD/UCLA |
3 | “Uninvited Guest” | 10/11/1964 | DVD/MoB |
4 | “Lesson in Love” | 10/18/1964 | |
5 | “Rhoda’s Debut” | 10/26/1964 | |
6 | “Something Borrowed, Something Blew”* | 11/01/1964 | DVD/MoB |
7 | “The Love Machine” | 11/08/1964 | DVD/UCLA |
8 | “The Beauty Contest” | 11/15/1964 | DVD/UCLA |
9 | “Leave ‘Em Laughing” | 11/22/1964 | |
10 | “My Robot, the Warden” | 11/29/1964 | DVD/MoB/UCLA |
11 | “Just Lucky, I Guess” | 12/06/1964 | |
12 | “The Language Barrier” | 12/13/1964 | |
13 | “Little White Lies” | 12/16/1964 | |
14 | “I’ll Leave It To You” | 12/23/1964 | DVD/UCLA |
15 | “The Perfect Woman” | 12/30/1964 | |
16 | “The Pool Shark” | 01/06/1965 | DVD/UCLA |
17 | “Color Me Trouble” | 01/13/1965 | |
18 | “The Kleptomaniac” | 01/20/1965 | DVD/UCLA |
19 | “The Lie” | 01/27/1965 | |
20 | “Robotic Astronaut” | 02/03/1965 | |
21 | “The Witness” | 02/10/1965 | DVD/UCLA |
22 | “Boy Gets Robot” | 02/17/1965 | |
23 | “Dancing Doll” | 02/24/1965 | |
24 | “The Mannequin” | 03/03/1965 | |
25 | “Murder He Says” | 03/10/1965 | |
26 | “Brother Harry” | 03/17/1965 |
*The episode “Something Borrowed, Something Blew” is included as a bonus on the Volume One DVD set due to the quality not being as good as the other episodes.
Revised April 1st, 2016
There was some fairly regular discussion about this on the online site Sitcomsonline.com. Someone who claimed to be affiliated with the show said that all of the episodes have been found, if I remember correctly. There were plans to bring this out on DVD. There have been no updates in at least a year, despite the fact that several people have asked for an update from this individual. Hope it comes out sometime. I hope that more shows like this come out on DVD. Likely they would not be big sellers, but I would not think that the cost to make them available to DVD studios that would issue these shows would not be real expensive, since they are older and not very well known.
I remember that thread and actually conversed with the person who started it. If I had to guess, I would say that either he wasn’t as successful at gathering all the necessary elements for a DVD release as he had hoped or, after a hard look at the numbers, it was determined that releasing the show on DVD simply wasn’t economically feasible.
I certainly hope prints of all the episodes were found (or were never lost), even if they haven’t been released yet.
I am in desperate need of the episode on DVD titled ‘Rhoda & the VIP”/aka Rhoda’s debut. It guest starred my top fave, Ms. Lisa Gaye. I have tried all selling sites for this episode, which has eluded thus far. Perhaps, I will have luck in future. Is there anyone out there who can help? = Ian Edwards =
Over half the show remains unaccounted for, in spite of what has been posted. I’m sure there are prints that are buried somewhere in some warehouse. Just a matter of whether or not anyone will ever find them.
And what about the chapters in Mexico dubbed in Spanish, which he sold to the television, you can find there all season of 26 episodes. I m from Venezuela ..