Here Come the Brides
Encyclopedia
Here Come the Brides is an American comedy
Western
series from Screen Gems
that aired on the ABC
television network from September 25, 1968 to April 3, 1970. The series was loosely based upon the Mercer Girls
, Asa Mercer's efforts to bring civilization to old Seattle by importing marriageable women from the east coast of the United States in the 1860s, where the ravages of the American Civil War
left towns short of men.
As a television western
, the series rarely featured any form of gunplay, and violence was generally limited to comical fistfights. This was in keeping with the progressive attitudes that were starting to prevail in popular culture in the late 1960s as well as the restrictions on television violence at the time. Stories highlighted the importance of cooperation, racial harmony, and peaceful resolution of conflict. Plots were usually a mix of drama and humor. Being one of the first shows targeted at young women, most of the humor was at the expense of the men, but not particularly bitingly so.
) is faced with a shutdown of his operation as lonely lumberjack
s are ready to leave Seattle due to the lack of female companionship. He promises to find 100 marriageable ladies willing to come to the frontier town (population 152) and stay for a full year. Sawmill owner Aaron Stempel (Mark Lenard
) puts up much of the expense money as a wager that Bolt won't succeed, with the three Bolt brothers betting their mountain (home to their logging company).
The Bolts travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts
, recruit the women, then charter a mule-ship to take them to Seattle. The local saloon owner, Lottie (Joan Blondell
) takes the women under her wing and becomes a mother figure to them, while Bolt desperately works to keep the women from leaving at the next high tide. Eventually, the women decide to give Seattle and the loggers a chance. The ship's captain, Clancy (Henry Beckman
), develops a relationship with Lottie and becomes a regular character in the series.
Much of the dramatic and comic tension in the first season revolved around Stempel's efforts to sabotage the deal and take over the Bolts' holdings. Stempel became more friendly in the second and final season, which focused more on the development of individual characters and the conflicts associated with newcomers and with people just passing through.
Bobby Sherman
and David Soul
were propelled to pop stardom as Jason's brothers, Jeremy and Joshua. Jeremy took a prominent role, not only as the boyfriend of Candy Pruitt (Bridget Hanley
), the beautiful leader of the brides, but also as a young man struggling with a conversation-stopping stammer
. In one episode, he is temporarily cured of his impediment, following coaching by a traveler who has come to Seattle. Upon discovering that his benefactor is actually a con artist, his faith is shaken so deeply that the stammer returns.
appeared as a Chinese immigrant named Lin in a 1969 episode titled "Marriage Chinese Style". This was the only dramatic English Language non-martial arts role that Lee played in his acting career. Edward Asner, Davy Jones
, Marge Redmond
, Madeline Sherwood, Vic Tayback
, Daniel J. Travanti
and James Sikking
(both known for Hill Street Blues
) also made guest appearances.
, which was broadcast on 217 ABC affiliates in the same 1968/69 season). However, for that second season, the family-geared series was moved from the 7:30 Wednesday night "Family Hour" to the more adult-oriented time slot of 9:00 Friday night in September 1969. This move to "the kiss of death time slot" combined with the low ABC affiliate support caused the ratings to quickly slide out of the top 40, and production ceased in the spring of 1970, although most of those ABC affiliates repeated episodes throughout the summer months, as was then a standard procedure with most series. The final primetime episode in the USA was a repeat broadcast on Friday September 18, 1970.
" was written by Hugo Montenegro
, Jack Keller
and Ernie Sheldon. Both Perry Como
and Bobby Sherman
recorded slightly different variations of the theme. Como scored a minor hit, with his version reaching No. 38 in the U.S. on the Billboard Top 40. Sherman's version, although receiving some airplay, was never released as a single. There is no reference in either version regarding the TV series title, i.e.; "...look out everyone! Here Come the Brides!" Starting with the series debut in September 1968 the series opened with a rousing instrumental score (which will be used but updated for the new 2013 film) featuring screen stills of "Jason", "Jeremy & Joshua", "Candy & Aaron" and "Lottie". At some point during the second half of the first season (and to coincide with the spring 1969 release of the Perry Como 'pop' recording) the TV theme was reworked by overlaying lyrics to the same theme music already recorded (as used previously) along with updating all the opening character stills, including the addition of a "Biddie & Clancey" screen still. This second opening sequence, with added lyrics & new screen stills, was used throughout the remainder of the first season as well as the entire second season.
version of the show and theme song (performed by a chorus of male singers) was a smash hit in French Canada
, under the title Cent filles à marier (A Hundred Girls to Marry Off).
released the first season on DVD in Region 1 on May 16, 2006.
On October 14, 2011, Shout! Factory
announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and plan to release the final season on DVD. They subsequently announced that the second and final season will be released on February 28, 2012.
In December 2009, BearManor Media
released a nostalgic look into the series history in Gangway, Lord, (The) Here Come The Brides Book by Jonathan Etter, featuring a forward by Robert Brown. Bobby Sherman was the only (then) surviving cast member who did not participate with the publication.
began broadcasting all 52 episodes in the 'originally aired sequence'.
The film version of the series would be completely recast and is contingent on the success or failure of the 2011 film remake of the 1960's TV series The Big Valley
.
's Star Trek
novel Ishmael
has Spock travelling back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides after discovering a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stempel (spelled "Stemple" in the book) before he could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stempel, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins.
At the end of the story, Captain Kirk discovers that Stempel was one of Spock's mother's ancestors, a reference to the fact that Mark Lenard also played Spock's father Sarek
in episodes of the original Star Trek
and Star Trek: The Next Generation
, as well as several of the Star Trek movies.
Television comedy
Television comedy had a presence from the earliest days of broadcasting. Among the earliest BBC television programmes in the 1930s was Starlight, which offered a series of guests from the music hall era — singers and comedians amongst them...
Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series from Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
that aired on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television network from September 25, 1968 to April 3, 1970. The series was loosely based upon the Mercer Girls
Mercer Girls
The Mercer Girls or Mercer Maids were an 1860s project of Asa Shinn Mercer, an American who lived in Seattle, who decided to "import" women to the Pacific Northwest to balance the gender ratio...
, Asa Mercer's efforts to bring civilization to old Seattle by importing marriageable women from the east coast of the United States in the 1860s, where the ravages of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
left towns short of men.
Backstory
The producers said the show was inspired by the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in an interview with LA Times TV critic Cecil Smith.As a television western
Television Westerns
Television Westerns are a sub-genre of the Western, a genre of film, fiction, drama, television programming, etc., in which stories are set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West, Western Canada and Mexico during the period from about 1860 to the end of the...
, the series rarely featured any form of gunplay, and violence was generally limited to comical fistfights. This was in keeping with the progressive attitudes that were starting to prevail in popular culture in the late 1960s as well as the restrictions on television violence at the time. Stories highlighted the importance of cooperation, racial harmony, and peaceful resolution of conflict. Plots were usually a mix of drama and humor. Being one of the first shows targeted at young women, most of the humor was at the expense of the men, but not particularly bitingly so.
Plot summary
In the pilot episode, fast-talking logging company boss Jason Bolt (Robert BrownRobert Brown (US actor)
Robert Brown , is a television actor from the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:Brown was born in Trenton, New Jersey...
) is faced with a shutdown of his operation as lonely lumberjack
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...
s are ready to leave Seattle due to the lack of female companionship. He promises to find 100 marriageable ladies willing to come to the frontier town (population 152) and stay for a full year. Sawmill owner Aaron Stempel (Mark Lenard
Mark Lenard
Mark Lenard was an American actor, primarily in television.-Biography:Lenard was born Leonard Rosenson in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Abraham, and his wife, Bessie...
) puts up much of the expense money as a wager that Bolt won't succeed, with the three Bolt brothers betting their mountain (home to their logging company).
The Bolts travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
, recruit the women, then charter a mule-ship to take them to Seattle. The local saloon owner, Lottie (Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
) takes the women under her wing and becomes a mother figure to them, while Bolt desperately works to keep the women from leaving at the next high tide. Eventually, the women decide to give Seattle and the loggers a chance. The ship's captain, Clancy (Henry Beckman
Henry Beckman
Henry Beckman was a Canadian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in well over 100 productions in the United States and Canada, including recurring roles as Commander Paul Richards in the 1954 Flash Gordon space opera television series, Bob Mulligan in the ABC sitcom I'm Dickens, He's...
), develops a relationship with Lottie and becomes a regular character in the series.
Much of the dramatic and comic tension in the first season revolved around Stempel's efforts to sabotage the deal and take over the Bolts' holdings. Stempel became more friendly in the second and final season, which focused more on the development of individual characters and the conflicts associated with newcomers and with people just passing through.
Bobby Sherman
Bobby Sherman
Robert Cabot "Bobby" Sherman, Jr. , is an American singer, actor and occasional songwriter, who became a popular teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s.He graduated in 1961 from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California...
and David Soul
David Soul
David Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
were propelled to pop stardom as Jason's brothers, Jeremy and Joshua. Jeremy took a prominent role, not only as the boyfriend of Candy Pruitt (Bridget Hanley
Bridget Hanley
Bridget Ann Elizabeth Hanley, professionally known as Bridget Hanley, is an American actress, known for her starring and supporting roles in TV comedy, western, adventure and drama programs, including Candy Pruitt on the Western dramedy Here Come the Brides. She also starred in Harper Valley...
), the beautiful leader of the brides, but also as a young man struggling with a conversation-stopping stammer
Stuttering
Stuttering , also known as stammering , is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds...
. In one episode, he is temporarily cured of his impediment, following coaching by a traveler who has come to Seattle. Upon discovering that his benefactor is actually a con artist, his faith is shaken so deeply that the stammer returns.
Main characters
- Jason Bolt (Robert BrownRobert Brown (US actor)Robert Brown , is a television actor from the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:Brown was born in Trenton, New Jersey...
) - Jeremy Bolt (Bobby ShermanBobby ShermanRobert Cabot "Bobby" Sherman, Jr. , is an American singer, actor and occasional songwriter, who became a popular teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s.He graduated in 1961 from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California...
) - Joshua Bolt (David SoulDavid SoulDavid Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
) - Aaron Stempel (Mark LenardMark LenardMark Lenard was an American actor, primarily in television.-Biography:Lenard was born Leonard Rosenson in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Abraham, and his wife, Bessie...
) - Candy Pruitt (Bridget HanleyBridget HanleyBridget Ann Elizabeth Hanley, professionally known as Bridget Hanley, is an American actress, known for her starring and supporting roles in TV comedy, western, adventure and drama programs, including Candy Pruitt on the Western dramedy Here Come the Brides. She also starred in Harper Valley...
) - Lottie Hatfield (Joan BlondellJoan BlondellRose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
) - Biddie Cloom (Susan TolskySusan TolskySusan Tolsky is an American actress and voice actress, perhaps best known for her appearances on Here Come the Brides and The Buzz on Maggie.-Career:...
), Candy's best friend - Captain Roland Francis Clancey (Henry BeckmanHenry BeckmanHenry Beckman was a Canadian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in well over 100 productions in the United States and Canada, including recurring roles as Commander Paul Richards in the 1954 Flash Gordon space opera television series, Bob Mulligan in the ABC sitcom I'm Dickens, He's...
)
Recurring characters
- Ben Jenkins (Hokie Howell)
- Corky (Robert Biheller)
- Olaf "Big Swede" Gustavsen (Bo SvensonBo SvensonBo Svenson is a Swedish-born American actor, known for his roles in American genre films of the 1970s and 1980s.-Early life:...
) - Essie Halliday (Mitzi Hoag), the school teacher and eventually Big Swede's wife
- Franny (Carole Shelyne)
- Ann (Cynthia Hull)
- Christopher Pruitt (Eric Chase, 1969–1970), Candy Pruitt's younger brother
- Molly Pruitt (Patti Cohoon, 1969–1970), Candy's younger sister
Notable guest stars
A young Bruce LeeBruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
appeared as a Chinese immigrant named Lin in a 1969 episode titled "Marriage Chinese Style". This was the only dramatic English Language non-martial arts role that Lee played in his acting career. Edward Asner, Davy Jones
Davy Jones (actor)
David Thomas "Davy" Jones is an English rock singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of the Monkees.-Early life:...
, Marge Redmond
Marge Redmond
Marge Redmond is an American actress.-Background/Family:Margery Redmond was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1924. She was the first wife of the late actor Jack Weston, with whom she developed her acting craft at the Cleveland Play House after they married in 1950...
, Madeline Sherwood, Vic Tayback
Vic Tayback
Victor "Vic" Tayback was an American actor.-Life and career:Tayback was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the son of Helen and Najeeb James Tayback. His parents were immigrants from Aleppo, Syria. Tayback moved with his family to Burbank, California, during his teenage years and attended...
, Daniel J. Travanti
Daniel J. Travanti
Danielo Giovanni "Daniel J." Travanti is an American actor best known for his starring role as Captain Frank Furillo in the 1980s television drama Hill Street Blues.-Biography:...
and James Sikking
James Sikking
James Barrie Sikking is an American actor known for his role as Lt. Howard Hunter on the 1980s NBC TV series Hill Street Blues. He also starred on the ABC TV series Doogie Howser, M.D. as Dr. David Howser and on the short-lived 1997 CBS drama series Brooklyn South as Captain Stan Jonas...
(both known for Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
) also made guest appearances.
Reception
First season ratings were impressive enough to ensure its renewal for a second season, though only 152 ABC affiliates agreed to broadcast the series (compared to another Screen Gems' series, BewitchedBewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, which was broadcast on 217 ABC affiliates in the same 1968/69 season). However, for that second season, the family-geared series was moved from the 7:30 Wednesday night "Family Hour" to the more adult-oriented time slot of 9:00 Friday night in September 1969. This move to "the kiss of death time slot" combined with the low ABC affiliate support caused the ratings to quickly slide out of the top 40, and production ceased in the spring of 1970, although most of those ABC affiliates repeated episodes throughout the summer months, as was then a standard procedure with most series. The final primetime episode in the USA was a repeat broadcast on Friday September 18, 1970.
Music
The theme song "SeattleSeattle (song)
"Seattle" is a song written by Hugo Montenegro, Jack Keller and Ernie Sheldon. It was used as the theme for the 1968-70 ABC-TV U.S. television show Here Come the Brides. Late in the show's first season, singer Perry Como recorded a version of the song, which became a Top 40 hit for him on the...
" was written by Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Montenegro
Hugo Montenegro was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best known work is derived from interpretations of the music from Spaghetti westerns, especially his cover version of the main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
, Jack Keller
Jack Keller (songwriter)
Jack Keller A legend in his own right, Jack Keller wrote hit songs in every genre of music over a period of nearly 40 years with success in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville....
and Ernie Sheldon. Both Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
and Bobby Sherman
Bobby Sherman
Robert Cabot "Bobby" Sherman, Jr. , is an American singer, actor and occasional songwriter, who became a popular teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s.He graduated in 1961 from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California...
recorded slightly different variations of the theme. Como scored a minor hit, with his version reaching No. 38 in the U.S. on the Billboard Top 40. Sherman's version, although receiving some airplay, was never released as a single. There is no reference in either version regarding the TV series title, i.e.; "...look out everyone! Here Come the Brides!" Starting with the series debut in September 1968 the series opened with a rousing instrumental score (which will be used but updated for the new 2013 film) featuring screen stills of "Jason", "Jeremy & Joshua", "Candy & Aaron" and "Lottie". At some point during the second half of the first season (and to coincide with the spring 1969 release of the Perry Como 'pop' recording) the TV theme was reworked by overlaying lyrics to the same theme music already recorded (as used previously) along with updating all the opening character stills, including the addition of a "Biddie & Clancey" screen still. This second opening sequence, with added lyrics & new screen stills, was used throughout the remainder of the first season as well as the entire second season.
French version
The FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version of the show and theme song (performed by a chorus of male singers) was a smash hit in French Canada
French Canada
French Canada, also known as "Lower Canada", is a term to distinguish the French Canadian population of Canada from English Canada.-Definition:...
, under the title Cent filles à marier (A Hundred Girls to Marry Off).
DVD releases and book
Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
released the first season on DVD in Region 1 on May 16, 2006.
On October 14, 2011, Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and plan to release the final season on DVD. They subsequently announced that the second and final season will be released on February 28, 2012.
In December 2009, BearManor Media
BearManor Media
BearManor Media is a book publishing company founded by Ben Ohmart in 2001. Specializing in media-related biographies, BearManor Media is located in Albany, Georgia....
released a nostalgic look into the series history in Gangway, Lord, (The) Here Come The Brides Book by Jonathan Etter, featuring a forward by Robert Brown. Bobby Sherman was the only (then) surviving cast member who did not participate with the publication.
Syndication
Early in January 2011, digital sub-network, Antenna TVAntenna TV
Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
began broadcasting all 52 episodes in the 'originally aired sequence'.
Film
In June 2011 Big Valley films and Panther Entertainment expressed an interest in producing a big budget, full length motion picture based on the series, scheduled for a 2013 release date.The film version of the series would be completely recast and is contingent on the success or failure of the 2011 film remake of the 1960's TV series The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
.
Star Trek crossover
Barbara HamblyBarbara Hambly
Barbara Hambly is an award-winning and prolific American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction...
's Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
novel Ishmael
Ishmael (Star Trek)
Ishmael is a novel by Barbara Hambly, set in the Star Trek fictional universe.-Plot:Spock travels back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides, a television program loosely based upon Asa Mercer's efforts to bring civilization to 1860s Seattle by importing the marriageable Mercer Girls from...
has Spock travelling back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides after discovering a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stempel (spelled "Stemple" in the book) before he could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stempel, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins.
At the end of the story, Captain Kirk discovers that Stempel was one of Spock's mother's ancestors, a reference to the fact that Mark Lenard also played Spock's father Sarek
Sarek
Sarek is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. He is a Vulcan astrophysicist, the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets, and father of Spock...
in episodes of the original Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, as well as several of the Star Trek movies.
External links
- Here Come the Brides Fan Club Website
- Behind-the-scenes production photos Collection of crew member Stephen Lodge.