My Living Doll (partially found CBS sitcom; 1964-1965)

Front cover of a DVD release of the series' available episodes.

Status: Partially Found

My Living Doll was an American sitcom TV series created by Bill Keslay, Al Martin, and Leo Guild that was broadcast on CBS for 26 episodes from September 27th, 1964 to March 17th, 1965.

Premise

The series starred Bob Cummings as Dr. Bob McDonald, an Air Force psychiatrist who suddenly finds himself responsible for Rhoda (Julie Newmar), a lifelike female android prototype built by Bob's friend Dr. Carl Miller (Henry Beckman). After Carl is transferred to Pakistan, he places Rhoda in Bob's care so that she will not fall into the hands of the military. Rhoda subsequently moves in with Bob and his sister Irene Adams (Doris Dowling), who serves as both housekeeper and chaperone.

Otherwise, Bob strives to keep Rhoda's true identity a secret, as he sets about teaching the sophisticated yet naive android to become the perfect human woman - one who (in his own words) "does what she's told" and "doesn't talk back." Thus much of the series' comedy sparks from Rhonda's attempts to understand and fit into human society, as in the episode "The Kleptomaniac", wherein she helps herself at a jewelry counter after failing to grasp the concept of a department store.

Another recurring character is Peter Robinson (Jack Mullaney), Bob's lecherous neighbor and colleague who immediately decides that Rhoda is the girl of his dreams. In the 22nd episode of the series, however, Peter learns the truth and becomes Rhoda's guardian, after Bob is also transferred to Pakistan. Rhoda consequently moves in with Peter and his housekeeper Mrs. Moffat (Nora Marlowe) for the remaining five episodes.

Production

The series was conceived by My Favourite Martian producer Jack Chertok, who in turn was inspired by the Pygmalion myth. CBS decided it would provide an ideal lead role for rising starlet Julie Newmar (better known these days as Catwoman in the Batman TV series) and, further impressed by the success of Martian, greenlit the series without a pilot - very unusual at the time - at the personal request of network president James T. Aubrey.

It was a troubled production. Cummings - whose career had been built largely on his boyish good looks and 'swinging single' style - was suffering from a rapidly worsening methamphetamine addiction at this time, which resulted in erratic behavior on set, besides increasing depression and insecurity about his age and subsequently declining stardom. Reportedly he became jealous of Newmar's greater share of the screen time and media attention, compensating by lecturing her constantly on 'how to act'. Eventually he would request to be written out of the series after 21 episodes, with Jack Mullaney taking his place as the male lead.

Things weren't much better in front of the camera. Despite a generally positive reception, My Living Doll garnered low ratings due to being scheduled alongside monster hits such as Bonanza, The Virginian, and The Patty Duke Show. Faced with this in tandem with Cummings' departure, CBS declined to renew the show for a second season.

Availability

Only 26 episodes of My Living Doll would be produced between 1964 and 1965, but they would have an outsized influence on pop-culture, as they featured the first known use of the phrase "does not compute". Later, the show would serve as inspiration for the 1980s TV sitcom Small Wonder, which had a similar premise (albeit this time the android was a little girl living within a family) and was created by My Living Doll producer Howard Leeds. Meanwhile, Doll episodes have have become rare and sought-after; CBS disposed of many of their own copies of episodes to save archive space (standard practice in the industry at the time) and home recording devices were vanishingly rare back then.

It is believed that a single complete archive of 35mm negatives of My Living Doll once existed within the San Fernando Valley area but was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, leaving no complete collections of the series remaining. 16mm copies of 11 episodes would later be found in the hands of various private collectors, and were gathered together for a DVD release in 2012. To date, none of the remaining 15 episodes have surfaced.

Episode List

#	Episode Title	Air Date	Status
1	Boy Meets Girl?	Sep 27th, 1964	Found
2	Rhoda's First Date	Oct 4th, 1964	Found
3	Uninvited Guest	Oct 11th, 1964	Found
4	Lesson in Love	Oct 18th, 1964	Lost
5	Rhoda's Debut (aka "Rhoda and the V.I.P.")	Oct 25th, 1964	Lost
6	Something Borrowed, Something Blew	Nov 1st, 1964	Found
7	The Love Machine	Nov 8th, 1964	Found
8	The Beauty Contest	Nov 15th, 1964	Found
9	Leave 'Em Laughing (aka "Not So Comic, Comic")	Nov 22nd, 1964	Lost
10	My Robot, the Warden	Nov 29th, 1964	Found
11	The Rhoda Gamble (aka "Just Lucky, I Guess")	Dec 6th, 1964	Lost
12	The Language Barrier	Dec 13th, 1964	Lost
13	Little White Lie (aka "The Doctor Is In")	Dec 16th, 1964	Lost
14	I'll Leave It to You	Dec 23rd, 1964	Found
15	Mechanical Perfection	Dec 30th, 1964	Lost
16	Pool Shark	Jan 6th, 1965	Found
17	Color Me Trouble	Jan 13th, 1965	Lost
18	The Kleptomaniac	Jan 20th, 1965	Found
19	Sky Divers	Jan 27th, 1965	Lost
20	The Robotic Astronaut	Feb 3rd, 1965	Lost
21	Uninvited Guest	Feb 10th, 1965	Found
22	Rhoda Meets Dr. Robinson (aka "Boy Gets Robot")	Feb 17th, 1965	Lost
23	Dancing Doll	Feb 24th, 1965	Lost
24	The Mannequin (aka "A Paris Original")	Mar 3rd, 1965	Lost
25	Murder, He Say's (aka "Rhoda's Suntan")	Mar 10th, 1965	Lost
26	Brother Harry (aka "Comic Interference")	Mar 17th, 1965	Lost

External Links

• Wikipedia page for the series.
• IMDB page for the series.