Television Reviews: LOVE THAT BOB: "Bob Helps Martha" (1959)/"Bob Helps Von Zell" (1959)

LOVE THAT BOB a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW: "Bob Helps Martha" (1959 NBC-TV/Laurel-McCadden Productions) Original Air Date: May 26, 1959.  Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, Rosemary deCamp as Margaret MacDonald, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Guest Stars: Elena Verdugo as Rosita Ballestero, Rose Marie as Martha Randolph, Harry Von Zell as himself.  Written by Paul Henning and Dick Wesson.  Directed by Bob Cummings. 

LOVE THAT BOB a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW: "Bob Helps Von Zell" (1959 NBC-TV/Laurel-McCadden Productions) Original Air Date: June 2, 1959.  Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, Rosemary deCamp as Margaret MacDonald, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Guest Stars: Elena Verdugo as Rosita Ballestero, Rose Marie as Martha Randolph, Harry Von Zell as himself, George Burns as himself.  Written by Paul Henning and Dick Wesson.  Directed by Bob Cummings. 

Introduction to the LOVE THAT BOB/THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW episode guide and overview of the series is at this link.

Schultzy's friend Martha Randolph has 'borrowed' the Spanish costume from Bob's studio without the Boss' knowledge, and had a chance meeting with a television star while wearing it--GEORGE BURNS SHOW announcer Harry Von Zell.  Von Zell thinks he's really met a Senorita, and plumber's secretary Martha tells a teeny white lie to lead him on.  Namely, that she is one of Bob's models.  Unfortunately, Martha can't continue the ruse because Bob needs the costume to photograph the much more culturally appropriate professional model Rosita Ballestero for an ad campaign.

Rosita is also much sexier (no offense, Martha) and much, much more jealous and hot tempered.  Despite Schultzy's warning that Rosita won't take the gig without a little romance from Bob, our playboy is willing (even eager) to do whatever it takes to get the job done.  What a pro!

But you know what they say about the best laid plans (or plans to get laid--however you look at it).  Von Zell drops by Bob's office, hoping to see the Senorita Bonita sans mask and veil.  Naturally Rosita is confused with Martha by the snooping Harry and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, as Harry ends up with Rosita as his evening's date after the smoke clears.  Martha is angered and Bob is none too happy either but plots to put things back in place before the night even gets young. 

"You mean he traded me like a sack of flour???"

A Paul Fonda (or even a Bill Lear for that matter) wouldn't have been so innocent in creating the misunderstanding with Rosita, but the fictionalized Von Zell of the BURNS AND ALLEN universe is certainly clueless enough to seem unintentional.  For sure, "turned you over to me" should have been offensive enough wording to shoot both Von Zell and Collins down in Rosita's eyes and Von Zell doubles down: "I got you for nothing!"

"She is a doll, you are a dog, and he is my new sweetheart!"

Yep, ignorance is bliss, and Von Zell doesn't even realize he's being used by Rosita to get back at Bob.  The first half of this Henning/Wesson two parter has an amusing springboard that builds for a while as the action moves back to the Collins household as our playboy attempts to get the right puzzle pieces in place for the evening: Bob with Rosita and Harry back to Martha.  Lucking into outkicking his coverage doesn't give Harry a clue: he arrives for his date dressed like a mariachi guitarist.  (At least Von Zell does have a musical background.)  Bob knows how to play to one's strengths, and he gets Martha and Harry together by surmising that the way to Von Zell's heart is through his stomach.  

"Between the flippin', flatterin' and flamenco-in', I'm too pooped to park!"

In the star studded (and gimmicky) final season, Elena Verdugo made three appearances in all, with these episodes following Bob and the Ravishing Realtor.  She was Bob's special guest star for a reason, hot off PANAMA SAL and her own long running CBS series MEET MILLIE.  Verdugo as Bob's latest model was a real coup, but it's too bad her material wasn't better; the earlier segment was marred by improbable silliness better suited to less sophisticated sitcoms, and this two parter really seems padded out--particularly in its second half hour.

As a standalone, though, Bob Helps Martha has its moments, with the confusion at the Collins studio providing the best laughs.  The slapstickier Act II at the home front suffers in comparison--as game as Cummings is with the physical humor, Martha's inedible pizza is one more fifth season setpiece that doesn't live up to the standards of the show's prime.  Second part Bob Helps Von Zell shifts the focus to the playboy's effort to get Harry to make his moves on Martha, but unfortunately has fewer laughs and more obvious padding.  Even the planned payoff of George Burns' guest appearance (stealing Schultzy away to replace Gracie!) doesn't really deliver.  Both episodes are thankfully sans Tammy Marihugh (a.k.a. this series' Cousin Oliver) but have the other problems we frequently see in 1959 LOVE THAT BOB segments: an overreliance on meta guest stars, all-too-conventional situations and Dwayne Hickman's M.I.A. status.  Wesson and Henning still have some verbal wit in them but the end is in sight.  (Bob Helps Martha: **1/2 out of four; Bob Helps Von Zell: ** out of four).

DID BOB SCORE?

How we really know LOVE THAT BOB is nearing the end, just five episodes from it: Collins' aforementioned line about being too pooped to park.  With Elena Verdugo????  Dude....Lothario is losin' it.

WHO WAS BLOCKING?

Von Zell, inadvertently, though Bob loses interest after removing the unwitting obstacle.  What show is this again?  (The fictional Von Zell of the BURNS universe was single, but the real Von Zell had been married to wife Minerva for 34 years(!) at this point, and remained so until his death in 1981.)

END OF AN ERA:

For McCadden Productions for sure.  LOVE THAT BOB was nearing the finish line and THE GEORGE BURNS SHOW had already aired the final installment of its one and only season a month earlier.  Burns was making his second appearance of this season (Bob Butters Beck, Beck Butters Better was the other) but all the crossovers didn't help Burns and Von Zell keep their show going sans Gracie Allen.  

If you'd like to watch this two parter for yourself, here it is, courtesy the YouTube channel of yours truly:

Television Review: LOVE THAT BOB: "Bob Meets the Mortons" (1957)

LOVE THAT BOB (a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW): "Bob Meets the Mortons" (Laurel-McCadden Productions/NBC-TV 1957) Original Air Date: March 21, 1957. Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, Rosemary deCamp as Margaret MacDonald, Dwayne Hickman as Chuck MacDonald, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Joi Lansing as Shirley Swanson, George Burns as himself, Gracie Allen as herself, Bea Benaderet as Blanche Morton and Larry Keating as Harry Morton.  Written by Shirl Gordon, Paul Henning, Dick Wesson and Phil Shuken.  Directed by Bob Cummings.

SERIES OVERVIEW for LOVE THAT BOB (THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW) at this link.

It's tax time again, and Bob has hired "genius" Harry Morton to do his, on a recommendation by George Burns.  Harry has plenty of corny jokes, and also some bad news: he doesn't think the government will accept several of the deductions.  Specifically, entertainment expenditures that coincidentally are limited to 'feminine business associates'.  Bob tries to provide Harry with the receipts (and then some) but working at either man's office proves to be problematic, leading the shutterbug to the Morton household.

Blanche Morton is charmed to meet the Playboy--to hubby Harry's annoyance.  And to Bob's as well, once Mrs. Morton and Gracie Allen start conspiring to find the eternal bachelor a wife.  How could Bob possibly complain?  In pleading his case to Harry, he portrays himself as an innocent victim "forced" by the nature of his profession into constant contact with beautiful women.  Wouldn't successful matchmaking put an end to any suspicions about his business? 

HARRY: "I must admit, I did not have a true picture of your activities"

BOB: "Thank goodness."

HARRY: "What?"

BOB: "...that you understand!"

We all know that Bob Collins' profession allows him to live the dream, but---being able to get off a tax write off for a considerable number of his dates?  Chalking up some rather significant gifts to those beautiful models as business expenses?  Forget that smoking jacket, Hugh Hefner should have been wearing Bob Collins pajamas.

Reinforcement of Collins' legendary status abounds, with both Blanche Morton and her friend Gracie Allen going ga-ga over our lascivious libertine.  But Bob Meets the Mortons has an ulterior motive: an excuse to cross our playboy over to the world of BURNS (our executive producer) AND ALLEN.  The premise serves both purposes fairly well for a while, with Harry harried by Bob's beauties and Collins capturing the imaginations of both long-married BURNS AND ALLEN ladies.

HARRY: "This was a bad investment?"

BOB: "Oh yes, that was a total loss." (sotto) "She turned out to be married."

The premise only starts to wobble when Schultzy turns out to be that good friend of Gracie's getting fixed up.  If they're really close, surely Gracie knows about the boss she's been pining for!  To be fair, illogical logic does seem logical with Gracie involved.  Still, the momentum of Bob Meets the Mortons stalls with it, as the 'blind date' rings as false as Blanche's 'comeuppance'.  And why Blanche, when Gracie had the biggest hand in it?  At least the denouement is a complete home run for Bob the Stud--laying one on another man's wife with the husband's complete approval?  He's The King!

Lisa Gaye appears, briefly, to demonstrate a tax deduction

Bob's success with the I.R.S. remains unsettled at the fade-out, but for his next round a year later, Morton was nowhere to be found in Bob Retrenches.  Given the result of Collins' faceoff with a humorless I.R.S. agent (played by ever-mean Charles Lane), Bob should have given Harry a call.  (Perhaps Mr. Morton really was pissed about Blanche's reaction to the kiss?)

After we've seen Gracie and both Mortons, it's only natural that George Burns arrives in the final minutes to wrap things up.  Cummings (as Bob Collins) returned the favor in A Marital Mix-Up three months later on BURNS AND ALLEN.  Both series were on CBS during 1956-57, but LOVE THAT BOB moved to NBC in the fall of 1957, stopping further crossovers until George Burns took his new series to that network the following fall.  Cummings appeared in the season and series opener of the new GEORGE BURNS SHOW (Gracie retired in June 1958); meanwhile Burns and Harry Von Zell both visited BOB twice during the 1958-59 season, which turned out to be the end for both shows.

DID BOB SCORE?

Frequent querida Shirley Swanson was his date on consecutive evenings, with Bob keeping her out late enough to tire her the night preceding our proceedings.  Judging from the smooches in front of Schultzy, the man was surely in like Flynn at least one of those nights.

WHO WAS BLOCKING?

I guess we could consider Gracie to be making the all time obstruction by bringing marriage into play, but she only joins a long list of vanquished foes in that endeavor.   

THE BOTTOM LINE:

The rapid banter flows more smoothly than the plot, but this mixing of McCadden worlds provides a worthwhile number of laughs before an awkwardly abrupt resolution.  The only chance to see all four BURNS AND ALLEN principals in a LOVE THAT BOB setting would be worthwhile for that alone, but this is a pretty good episode in its own right, with everyone getting in on the verbal wit.  Slightly better than Bob's aforementioned tax adventure the following season but can't avoid that gimmicky feel in its second half. (**1/2 out of four)

Thanks to THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, Bob Meets the Mortons can be viewed at this link.