BING CROSBY: THE SITCOM STAR

In the fall of 1964, legendary crooner and film star Bing Crosby made a failed attempt to be part of the television sitcom landscape. The series was titled, The Bing Crosby Show.

As Bing Crosby noted in January 1965 about his then-new self-titled sitcom, "It’s been fun, and it hasn’t been too hard a chore. But according to the rating, we haven’t been doing so well. I think I’d have to get on a glass-bottom boat to find the rating. It’s a rat race. If you don’t get a rating, they dump you.”

In the series, Crosby played a married architectural engineer with two children. Beverly Garland (formerly of the groundbreaking Decoy female detective series, and future star of the later years of My Three Sons), portrayed Crosby's TV wife. His small-screen daughters were played by Carol Faylen and Diane Sherry Case.

At one point shortly before it was canceled, The Bing Crosby Show rated in 77th place among all network evening shows with a rating of 14.9.

Before the situation comedy began, its star had infrequently appeared on TV on only a special basis each year.

In January of 1965, Crosby further noted, “I don’t know whether we’ll continue next year. I’m interested in doing a little work — a movie or something. My contract is with ABC. I suppose it’s up to ABC to sell the show to sponsors. If they don’t buy, we won’t be on next season.”

The famed entertainer was not despondent by his show's low ranking, pressing on that it needed “a couple of years to get a good rating.” He agreed to do the series only if he could do so, "leisurely,” he said. Crosby also viewed the show as "an opportunity to get another series on the air for my company.”
That organization was Bing Crosby Productions, which brought Ben Casey to air for ABC and Slattery’s People on CBS.

In the end, The Bing Crosby Show never saw a second season. But he continued to host variety specials like The Hollywood Palace, which was on ABC and a production of his Bing Crosby Productions shingle. Crosby would also, however, then go on to star in and produce iconic Christmas specials for the NBC TV network....

SPOTLIGHT ON: FRANK MCCUGH

Frank McHugh is another one of those characters, where you know his face but maybe not his name. I remember him most from his role as another priest alongside Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way (1944).

Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania on May 23, 1898, McHugh came from a theatrical family. At age ten, Frank McHugh began performing in his parent's stock company, side by side with his siblings Matt and Kitty. Another brother, Ed, became a stage manager and agent in New York.

By age 17, McHugh was resident juvenile with the Marguerite Bryant stock company. Extensive vaudeville experience followed, and in 1925 McHugh made his first Broadway appearance in The Fall Guy; three years later, he made his movie debut in a Vitaphone short. Hired by Warner Bros. for the small role of a motorcycle driver in 1930's The Dawn Patrol, McHugh appeared in nearly 70 Warners films over the next decade. He was often cast as the hero's best pal or as drunken comedy relief; his peculiar trademark was a lightly braying laugh. Highlight performances during his Warners tenure included Jimmy Cagney's pessimistic choreographer in Footlight Parade (1933), "rude mechanical" Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), an erstwhile poet and horserace handicapper in Three Men on a Horse (1936) and a friendly pickpocket in One Way Passage (1932) — a role he'd repeat word-for-word in Till We Meet Again, 1940 remake of Passage. One of the biggest movies he was in was Roaring Twenties (1939) with Jimmy Cagney.

He appeared in over 150 films and television productions and worked with almost every star at Warner Bros. By the 1950s, his film career had begun to decline, as evinced by his smaller role in Career (1959). From 1964 to 1965, he played the role of Willie Walters, a live-in handyman on ABC's sitcom, The Bing Crosby Show. Reportedly Bing insisted he be cast alongside him. His last television appearance was as Charlie Wingate in the episode "The Fix-It Man" on CBS's Lancer western series. McHugh played a handyman in that role too.

McHugh was married to Dorothy Spencer. He had three children and two grandchildren.

Frank McHugh's last film role was in the Elvis Presley film Easy Come, Easy Go(1967). He basically left Hollywood for the next decade. He died on September 11, 1981...largely forgotten for the great supporting roles he starred in...