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*December Bride*
December Bride
	Lily (Spring Byington) helps guest star Mickey Rooney with a crap game set up as a trap for those who robbed his home.
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Parke Levy
Written by	Bill Davenport; Lou Derman; Arthur Julian; Parke Levy; Bob Schiller
Directed by	William Asher; Frederick de Cordova; Jerry Thorpe
Starring	Spring Byington; Frances Rafferty; Dean Miller; Verna Felton; Harry Morgan
Theme music composer	Eliot Daniel
Composer	Wilbur Hatch
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	156
Production
Producers	Frederick de Cordova; Parke Levy
Running time	30 minute
Production companies	Desilu Productions; CBS Television Network
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	October 4, 1954 –; May 7, 1959
Related
	Pete and Gladys

December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959. It was adapted from the original CBS radio network series of the same name^[1] that aired from June 1952 through September 1953.

Overview

December Bride centered on the adventures of Lily Ruskin, a spry widow played by Spring Byington. Ruskin was not, in fact, a "December" bride (married late in life) but she very much desired to become one, if the right man were to come along. Aiding Lily in her search for this prospective suitor were her daughter, Ruth Henshaw (Frances Rafferty), her son-in-law, Matt Henshaw (Dean Miller), and her close friend Hilda Crocker (character actress Verna Felton). A next-door neighbor, insurance agent Pete Porter (Harry Morgan), frequently appeared. Married miserably, according to his constant complaints about his unseen wife, Gladys, Pete despised his own mother-in-law and envied Matt's happy relationship with Lily. The pilot episode premiered on October 4, 1954, and involved Lily moving in with her daughter and son-in-law. Most of the series was set in the Henshaws' living room.

First-run episodes of December Bride aired on television for 5 seasons (1954–1959), sponsored by General Foods' Instant Maxwell House Coffee. During the first four seasons, the program was supplanted in the summer months by "summer replacement" series (such as Ethel and Albert), but in its final year, reruns were shown in the same time slot during the summer hiatus.

Thanks in part to following I Love Lucy, December Bride had high ratings its first four seasons^[2] – #10 in 1954–1955, #6 in 1955–1956, #5 in 1956–1957 and #9 in 1957–1958. When CBS moved it to Thursdays in the fall of 1958, ratings fell dramatically, and the series was cancelled in 1959.^[3]

In 1960, a new series titled Pete and Gladys debuted, set around many of the same characters. This spinoff series focuses on Pete Porter and his wife, now visible and played by comedian Cara Williams. The December Bride character Hilda Crocker, played by Verna Felton, appears in 23 episodes of Pete and Gladys, which aired until 1962.

After production had ceased, CBS used repeat episodes of December Bride to fill slots in its prime-time programming. In July 1960, December Bride repeats filled the second half of the Friday 9 pm Eastern time slot vacated by Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, running until the beginning of the fall schedule in 1960. The program served as a temporary replacement on Thursday nights in April 1961. December Bride repeats were shown on CBS as a daytime program from October 1959 until March 1961. The daytime reruns and an attempt to syndicate the show were ratings failures. His experience with December Bride encouraged CBS executive Michael Dann's use of "hammocking", framing a weak or new series between two established shows to improve its viewership.^[4]

Cast

Spring Byington as Lily Ruskin
Frances Rafferty as Ruth Henshaw
Dean Miller as Matt Henshaw
Verna Felton as Hilda Crocker
Harry Morgan as Pete Porter

Guest stars

Desi Arnaz as himself
Edgar Bergen as himself
Madge Blake as Anita Henderson in "Family Quarrel" (1955) and as Margaret in "The Homecoming Show" (1957)
Rory Calhoun as himself in "Rory Calhoun, the Texan'
Harry Cheshire as Gus in "Lily Ruskin Arrives" (1954) and as Poole in "Big Game Hunter" (1955)
Zsa Zsa Gabor as herself
Fred MacMurray as himself
Marjorie Main as herself
Lyle Talbot, six episodes in different roles

Ownership

Parke Levy, who created and wrote December Bride, owned 50% of the program, and Desilu and CBS owned 25% each.^[5]

Episodes

Season	Episodes	Originally aired		Rank	Rating
Season	Episodes	First aired	Last aired	Rank	Rating
1	34	October 4, 1954 (1954-10-04)	May 23, 1955 (1955-05-23)	10	34.7
2	31	October 3, 1955 (1955-10-03)	May 14, 1956 (1956-05-14)	6	37.0
3	30	October 8, 1956 (1956-10-08)	May 6, 1957 (1957-05-06)	5	35.2
4	31	October 7, 1957 (1957-10-07)	May 19, 1958 (1958-05-19)	9	30.7
5	31	October 2, 1958 (1958-10-02)	May 7, 1959 (1959-05-07)	—	—

Crew

DaLonne Cooper was the script supervisor.^[6]

Notes

^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
^ Shapiro, Mitchell E.; Jicha, Tom (2015). The Top 100 American Situation Comedies: An Objective Ranking. McFarland. p. 151. ISBN 9781476623405. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
^ "ClassicTVguide.com: TV Ratings". classictvguide.com. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
^ Grimes, William (May 30, 2016). "Michael Dann, TV Programmer, Dies at 94; Scheduled Horowitz and Hillbillies". The New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
^ "'December Bride' Shifts to Vidpix; Desilu Producing". Billboard. February 27, 1954. p. 7. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
^ Fred Sica Says He Was Defending Self in Row. (January 31, 1957). Los Angeles Times, p. 4.

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows
Dunning, John, On the Air: The Encyclopedia Of Old-Time Radio