| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Creator: | Bob Carroll, Jr. Madelyn Davis |
| Director: | Desi Arnaz Elliott Lewis |
| Starring: | Eve Arden Kaye Ballard Herbert Rudley Roger C. Carmel Richard Deacon Jerry Fogel Deborah Walley |
| Theme Music Composer: | Jeff Alexander |
| Composer: | Jeff Alexander Wilbur Hatch |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 56 |
| List Episodes: | List of The Mothers-in-Law episodes |
| Executive Producer: | Desi Arnaz |
| Producer: | Al Lewis Elliott Lewis |
| Camera: | Multi-camera |
| Runtime: | 22–24 minutes |
| Company: | Desi Arnaz Productions United Artists Television |
| Channel: | NBC |
The Mothers-in-Law is an American sitcom featuring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two women who were friends and next-door neighbors until their children's elopement made them in-laws. The show aired on NBC television from September 1967 to April 1969. Executive produced by Desi Arnaz, the series was created by Bob Carroll, Jr., and Madelyn Davis.
Eve (Eve Arden) and Herb Hubbard (Herbert Rudley) have lived next door to Kaye (Kaye Ballard) and Roger Buell (played first by Roger C. Carmel and later by Richard Deacon) for over 20 years. Herb is a successful lawyer, while Roger is a television writer who works at home. The Hubbards are very straitlaced, the Buells off-the-wall and fun-loving. Despite their differences, including an age disparity of about twenty years, they are best friends. In spite of their friendship, though, they do tend to get into more than their share of squabbles.
The Buells' son Jerry (Jerry Fogel)[1] and the Hubbards' daughter Suzie (Deborah Walley) fall in love while in college, marry, and set up house in the Hubbards' garage apartment. The two sets of parents have different ideas of how their children should live their lives, and the constant meddling of the mothers-in-law provides the premise for the series. One of the differences between the two couples is that Kaye allowed Suzie to call her Mother Buell, but Eve forbade Jerry to call her Mother Hubbard because of the name's association with the English nursery rhyme. During the second season, the young couple become the parents of fraternal twins: a boy named Joey and a girl named Hildy—from the new grandmas' middle names.
See main article: List of The Mothers-in-Law episodes.
Desi Arnaz, who produced and directed the show, appeared in four episodes as a matador named Raphael Delgado y de Acha III, whom the wives had called as a result of a wrong number, and became somewhat of a family friend.
This is one of the rare occasions in which the characters had the same first names as the actors portraying them. In the first season, the notable exception was Deborah Walley who played Suzie. In the second season, Richard Deacon played Roger C. Buell replacing Roger C. Carmel and joined Deborah in that distinction.
As well, Kaye Ballard's real name was Catherine Gloria Balotta; the maiden name of the character she played on this show was Katherine Josephina Balotta.
The majority of the episodes were written by series creators Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr., who had worked with series producer Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy. Unlike most sitcoms of the era, The Mothers-in-Law was filmed before a live audience; standard practice at the time was to film an episode on a closed set and add a laugh track during post-production. However, a laugh track was still used to “sweeten” audience reactions or fill in gaps of missed punchlines.
When choosing the two lead roles, executive producer Desi Arnaz approached two longtime friends Eve Arden and Ann Sothern. Both actresses had been friends of Arnaz and his former wife Lucille Ball since the 1930s while working at RKO Pictures and MGM. Arden achieved television stardom in the hit CBS-TV sitcom Our Miss Brooks as high school teacher Connie Brooks from 1952 to 1956 and won an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The show was produced by Desilu. Sothern also had great success on television with her two popular sitcoms Private Secretary (as Susie MacNamara) from 1953 to 1956 and the Desilu-produced The Ann Sothern Show as (Katy O'Connor) from 1958 to 1961. She had also guest starred on the 1957 premiere episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour entitled "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" (reprising her role of Susie MacNamara) and on seven episodes of The Lucy Show (as the Countess Framboise - née Rosie Harrigan). However, NBC found Sothern and Arden's comedic style too similar and passed on casting Sothern. Singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard, another old friend, auditioned for and got the part of the neighbor, Kaye Buell.
Actress Kay Cole, who would later appear on Broadway in the original cast of A Chorus Line, portrayed the role of Suzie Hubbard in the unaired pilot; however, after the series was picked up, Cole was replaced by actress Deborah Walley who would remain with the series for its entire two-year run. The scenes featuring Cole were re-filmed for the aired version of the pilot, “On Again, Off Again, Lohengrin”, but Cole can be briefly glimpsed in the final shot before the end credits.
Despite being sandwiched between Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Bonanza, the show never garnered the ratings NBC had hoped for. The first season ranked 37th with an 18.8 rating [2] and the second season ranked 40th with a 19.4 rating.[3] The network considered canceling the show after the first season, but agreed to renew it for the same price as the first season (after sponsor Procter & Gamble had announced plans to move the series to another network). All cast members agreed to do the second season for the same money except for Carmel, who was replaced with Richard Deacon. Season 2 performed worse than Season 1, leading to its cancellation. On The Doris Day Show Season 4 DVD, Ballard remarked that the network and sponsor wanted The Bill Cosby Show to replace The Mothers-in-Law during the 1969–70 season.
MPI Home Video (under license from Desilu, Too (not to be confused with the original Desilu Productions, later Paramount Television, now CBS Studios) released the complete series of The Mothers-in-Law on DVD in Region 1 on July 27, 2010.[4] This release includes a new introduction from Desi Arnaz, Jr., who appeared in two episodes as Tommy, a drum playing friend of Jerry and Suzie Buell; an interview with Kaye Ballard; the original unaired pilot episode (consists of the same footage as the first episode, "On Again, Off Again, Lohengrin," except with Kay Cole as Suzie instead of Deborah Walley; only Suzie's scenes would be reshot for the aired version); original sponsor tags; cast commercials; scripts for unproduced episodes; The Carol Channing Show, a comedy pilot which starred Carol Channing, Jane Dulo and Richard Deacon; and Land's End, a dramatic pilot starring Rory Calhoun. The latter were two failed pilots from Desi Arnaz Productions.