The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (TV series)

The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Edward Mulhare and Hope Lange, 1968.
Genre Situation comedy
Starring Hope Lange
Edward Mulhare
Reta Shaw
Charles Nelson Reilly
Theme music composer Dave Grusin
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 50 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) David Gerber
Producer(s) Howard Leeds
Gene Reynolds
Stanley Rubin
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 30 min.
Production company(s) 20th Century Fox Television
Release
Original network NBC (1st season)
ABC (2nd season)
Audio format Monaural
Original release September 28, 1968 (1968-09-28) – March 13, 1970 (1970-03-13)
Chronology
Related shows The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947 film)

The Ghost & Mrs. Muir is an American sitcom based on the 1947 film of the same name, which was based on the 1945 novel by R. A. Dick. It premiered in September 1968 on NBC. After NBC canceled the series, it aired on ABC for one season before being canceled a final time.

Premise

The series stars Hope Lange as Carolyn Muir, a young widow and writer who rents Gull Cottage, near the fictional fishing village of Schooner Bay, Maine, along with her two children, a housekeeper (played by Reta Shaw) and their dog. The cottage is haunted by the ghost of its former owner Daniel Gregg, a 19th-century sea captain, played by Edward Mulhare. Charles Nelson Reilly plays wacky local man Claymore Gregg, who rents the cottage to Mrs. Muir without telling her it is haunted by his ancestor.

The book of the same name, by R.A. Dick, was published in 1945. It was brought to the silver screen in 1947 with Gene Tierney playing Mrs. Muir and Rex Harrison as Captain Gregg. While the movie had been a romantic fantasy combining comic and dramatic elements, the series focused much more on laughs.

Production and reception

The story was developed as a TV series by Jean Holloway and filmed at the Hollywood Studios. Hope Lange won two Emmy Awards for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for 1968–1969 and 1969–1970. Despite Lange's consecutive Emmy wins, the show struggled in the ratings and only ran for two seasons. During its first year on NBC, it followed Get Smart; its Big Three competition was My Three Sons on CBS and The Lawrence Welk Show on ABC.

In Spring 1969, NBC canceled the series. ABC picked it up and scheduled it to be shown on Thursday nights at 7:30 P.M. in September 1969, followed by That Girl and Bewitched. The series was again unsuccessful in beating out another hit CBS series, Family Affair. As a result, ABC canceled The Ghost & Mrs. Muir in Spring 1970. The following year, Family Affair was canceled by CBS after a five-year run because it was in the same time slot as the NBC hit variety series The Flip Wilson Show.

Cast

  • Hope Lange as Carolyn Muir, a widowed writer.
  • Edward Mulhare as Captain Daniel Gregg. The captain is a poltergeist, able to affect things not only in the house but also at a distance, and can appear and disappear at will. He can only be seen and heard by the people he chooses. His bad temper can affect the weather.
  • Charles Nelson Reilly as Claymore Gregg, the town clerk among other jobs, who is a great nephew of Capt. Gregg (although the captain is often ashamed of this and claims that Claymore is not related to him), and Mrs. Muir's landlord. He is one of the few who knows of the captain's continued presence, and is usually terrified of his ancestor. Reilly made this terror of "The Captain" a running gag during his appearances on The Hollywood Squares.
  • Reta Shaw as Martha Grant, the housekeeper. Towards the end of the series, the Captain reveals himself to her. But during most of the series, she is unaware of the ghost.
  • Kellie Flanagan as nine-year-old Candace 'Candy' Muir, Mrs. Muir's daughter; a tomboy with short hair. Starting in the second episode of season two, she can also see and hear the Captain.
  • Harlen Carraher as Jonathan Muir, Mrs. Muir's son; at the beginning of the series, he can see, hear and talk to the Captain.
  • Scruffy as Scruffy, the Muirs' Wire Fox Terrier.

Episodes

DVD release

On April 16, 2014, Madman Entertainment released both seasons on DVD in Region 4 (Australia ) for the very first time. In July 2014 Amazon.com started selling both seasons of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir in the United States.[1][2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir: The Complete First Season". Madman Entertainment. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir: The Complete Second Season". Madman Entertainment. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
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