One season wonder The Baileys of Balboa celebrates its 60th anniversary today. The sitcom debuted on Thursday, September 24th, 1964 on CBS. Paul Ford starred alongside John Dehner, Sterling Holloway, Les Brown, Jr., and Clint Howard. Despite low ratings and a critical thrashing, CBS kept the show on the air for the entire 1964-1965 season.
Read my article about The Baileys of Balboa
One of the most interesting things about The Baileys of Balboa is how the opening credits were meant to look. According to a Picture Feature published in TV Guide, actress Judy Carne spent two days trying, and failing, to water ski so footage of her water skiing could be used in the opening credits. She just couldn’t do it so the producers gave up.
The Baileys of Balboa is also notable for its inclusion in a lawsuit involving producer Keefe Brasselle and former CBS president James Aubrey.
If you watched The Baileys of Balboa during the 1964-1965 season, hit the comments with your recollections. Also, I plan on writing a Retro Review column examining an episode of The Baileys of Balboa later this fall.
Robert, I fondly remember viewing THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA during its original run during the 1964-65 season. At the time, it was one of my favorite shows and I viewed it every Thursday night that it was aired on CBS affiliate WREC Channel 3 Memphis, Tennessee. For me, the best parts were the battering back and forth of Sam Bailey(Paul Ford) and the Commodore(John Dehner). Later on, whenever I would see Paul Ford and John Dehner, I would remember them as their characters from this show. If my memory serves me correct, this show was never aired in reruns on CBS or in syndication on any local stations. Am I correct? I’ve not viewed THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA since 1965. Yes, I know there are a hand full of shows that can be viewed on YouTube, but they’re of such poor quality.
The Nielsen ratings were so dismal, and on April 8, 1965, the CBS Network replaced THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA with THE CELEBRITY GAME hosted by Carl Reiner. In my neck of the woods, WREC Channel 3 replaced it, with five shows remaining to be aired. On March 4, 1965, Channel 3 began airing their own movies on THEATRE 3, replacing not only THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA, but also PASSWORD and THE DEFENDERS. Although, PASSWORD and THE DEFENDERS were time shifted to other time slots, but THE BAILEYS OF BALBOA wasn’t. So, I’ve never viewed the last five episodes.
I have read that James Aubrey did not like the premise of “Gilligan’s Island,” and instead of the shipwreck wanted a new story each week about Gilligan and the Skipper dealing with a different group of passengers each week. Supposedly, “The Baileys of Balboa” was his answer to that.
This predates the premise of “The Love Boat!”