COSMO TOPPER

Friday May 22, 2009
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Television’s
TOPPER
October 9, 1953 – September 30, 1955

78 total episodes; 30 minutes each in Black and White
on CBS, originally .. with Reruns on ABC and NBC.
Based on Thorne Smith's book
Topper Cast:
Leo G. Carroll as Cosmo Topper
Anne Jeffreys as Marion Kerby
Robert Sterling as George Kerby
Lee Patrick as Henrietta Topper
( she was the GoodWitch Wanda in Wizard of Oz )
Thurston Hall as Mr. Schuyler
and Buck the dog as Neil

When I was a wee lad, I used to watch the Reruns of this TV show.
I enjoyed the show and understood most of it. The only problem that I had was that Ghosts George & Marion and their dog Neil were said to have been killed in an avalanche. Now, I didn’t know what an avalanche was .. but I did know what an ambulance was. And it made since that they died in an ambulance. :-)

Topper was a television situation comedy series based on the 1930s film series Topper.
The fat part of the story is that the fuddy old Cosmo Topper ( Leo G. Carroll ) is vice-president of a bank. He is married to the sweet but somewhat dumb Henrietta (Lee Patrick ). They live in a house in a Los Angeles suburb that they bought from the estate of a fashionable young couple, George and Marion Kerby ( Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys ), who died after being swept away by an avalanche. Their St. Bernard, Neil, who was unable to rescue them, also died with them. Cosmo finds that his house is haunted by their ghosts and that of their alcoholic St. Bernard. Only Cosmo can see or hear them.
( I loved this twist )

The ghosts try to put some excitement and joy into the life of the somewhat stodgy and conservative Cosmo. In action that would anticipate the later series Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, the ghosts would cause strange ( but very humorous ) events to happen, for which Cosmo would have to create some kind of phony explanation to others who would be baffled, and often even amusingly frightened, by seeing them.

In later decades Topper would be popular in syndication. Some episodes are currently available on DVD.

LARRY..CURTIS..SPURLOCK

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