barrymn1
Loved the show...The other comments are spot on.I wanted to add this bit of trivia about the show's location and the set design.First off, I lives in New York for a number of years and the outside of their 'hotel' looks nothing like any building I ever saw in New York! Also, all of the rather high styled furniture used in the Albright's apartment was of California origin; Glenn of California, etc. Much of it was very classic West Coast mid-century modern pieces, yet's it's simply not reasonable to have imagined that this lot of West Coast furniture would've been used in an upscale New york apartment.Bottom line, the choice of furnishings give this sitcom away as being a West Coast production, unlike "I Love Lucy", which looks like it COULD'VE been shot in New York!
aimless-46
The 126 episodes of the screwball situation comedy "My Little Margie" originally ran from 1952-1955 CBS and NBC. The "Vci Video" release "My Little Margie-Vol. #1" contains six of these episodes (150 minutes). I have listed them below with their original airdates. Rather than six consecutive episodes these span the entire time period that the show ran. The characters are somewhat strange for the period as back then sitcoms were almost entirely about traditional nuclear families (Ricardos, Nelsons, Rileys, Andersons, etc.). This is a notable exception as it features Gale Storm as 21-year old Margie Albright who lives with her widowed father Vern (Charles Farrell). Vern is the standard ineffectual dad of the 1950's. He works for an investment firm and is very much under the thumb of his boss George Honeywell (Clarence Kolb). Their working relationship is very much like the Darrin Stevens- Larry Tate one in "Bewitched" as Vern panders shamelessly to Mr. Honeywell and to the firm's perspective clients. This dynamic makes for some nice comic moments. Vern also spends a lot of time searching for romance and when Margie is not causing him embarrassment she is trying to keep him out of trouble with the ladies. Some of the best episodes have Margie teaming up with Mrs. Odetts (their busybody neighbor played by Gertrude Hoffman) to keep Vern from falling for the legion of wily widows in their town. Margie has a boyfriend, Freddie Wilson (Don Hayden) but if there ever was a romantic side to their relationship the spark went out when the series began. Part of the problem is that Storm was 30 years old when the series started and dressed like a teenager trying to affect a grown-up look. This got worse with each year and I did not really appreciate Storm until she started acting her age in her next series, "The Gale Storm Show" (a/k/a "Oh, Susanna"). Volume # includes: Margie's Phantom Lover 28 Oct 1953, The Missing Link 25 October 1952, Hillbilly Margie 12 Feb 1953, Vern's Mother-In-Law 2 Feb 55, Trapped Freddy 12 March 1953, Buried Treasure 2 April 1953. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
jeffhill1
In hindsight, I think "My Little Margie" was a TV sit com version of the Frederick March and Teresa Wright characters in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (if Al Stevenson and Peggy had been on speed). Charles Farrel played a vice president at Honeywell and Todd Investment Counselors. He played Vernon Albright as a guy who would really prefer to apply his considerable financial expertise in the back room with the financial ledgers, but who always seemed to find that his main job was in making a good impression on the rich matron client of the week so that she would give her account or keep her account at Honeywell and Todd. The more he would try to maintain a proper image, the more Margie would get him into some madcap situation in which they were doing things like running through a haunted castle and swinging fireplace pokers at strange characters in medieval armor who were emerging from a huge fireplace and clanking down the hallways. Situations would reach a fever pitch of hysteria; but as Gale Storm always pointed out to Farrel at the end, "It all worked out. And Dad always shrugged with a sigh of a smile, "Well, that's my Little Margie."
lousvr
I watched this program as a 9 year-old or so and remember just a wonderful fuzzy warm feeling. It had a distinctive quality theme. Gale played a well meaning happy daughter to Charles Farrell. Every one in the cast portrayed really NICE PEOPLE, above all the lunacy that developed. Not a mean spirited act in the whole program so 'as a kid' this just made me feel good and secure and positive. Fortunately the show is available on video, almost all 126 episodes. Gale has a wonderful website and she's as young and perky as ever. I watch the episodes with the same enthusiasm today as before.
