"Dennis the Menace" opening, sponsored by Kelloggs

[robphilll22]

George Wilson's character was to be left alone and be self absorbed in his retired world of gardening, chess,stamp/coin collecting,but to his dismay Dennis would come over unannounced and screw up his world.I personally had to problems with the series. #1 The writers should have had a ground breaking funeral for George Wilson with a eulogy narrated by a tearful Dennis and montage of all the humorous/slapstick moments on the show and #2 have Dennis look like a boy in real clothes.

[Loshia2002]

Wow....haven't seen this in years. Too bad this series screwed Jay North up so badly....he used to come into the bookstore I worked at and boy, you talk about a twitchy guy! Just the gleam in his eyes alone was enough to make you take a step or two back...of course I knew about the horrific abuse he suffered during his acting days and you can tell he's never gotten past that. Very sad man, a very sad and broken man.

[BLANKNOTING]

@90sAreAllThat Midnight Be Here!!!! Channel "ToonNick"!!! "Nick At Nite Classic" Coming Soon...

[Mewtwo2721]

chrono trigger opening sponsered by kellogs

[jermainemack]

Good News Dennis the Menace Season One is coming to DVD Tuesday March 29'th!

[DasGreenCow]

double plus good.

[InYourFaceNewYorker]

How did you get this? They didn't have VCRs in the '50s! :P

[bluesdca]

I agree, the show was not as good after Joseph Kearns passed away. It was nonsense about his "brother" John Wilson moving in next door. I have to admit Gale Gordon looked more like the Mr Wilson in the comic strip. Jay North got too old for the role and looked ridiculous still acting like a 6 year old boy. They should have replaced him. Something similar was done on the "Lassie" which ran some of the same years. "Timmy" was brought in to replace a boy who became too old for the part.

[TEMPmichaelhansen]

this is rare

[TEMPmichaelhansen]

KFCB "Goodbye, Hollywood. Thanks for nothing."

[dudemantwo]

I say...the program was very positive...I think the kid actor suffered though...

I found Mr. Wilson...Kearns very funny...

[meangreen69Nova]

Thought Kearns died of a cerebral hemorrhage?

[heine71]

I wish Sony released the Jay North Dennis the Menace series on DVD.

[jermainemack]

Hi Heine71 Good News I heard that Dennis the Menace Season One in coming to DVD tuesday march 29'th with all 32 episodes!

[Juliaflo]

Did anyone beside me notice that this show lost its edge when Joseph Kearns passed away?

[weenielongus]

Joseph Kearns' passing was only part of the decline. My opinion was that the show also stayed around too long - look how old Dennis was by the 4th season, way too old to still be the little boy with the slingshot in the comic strip version!! He also started wearing shirts and pants instead of the bib overalls the comic strip version wore. Just like 'Dobie Gillis', the program really nose-dived in the 4th season and it was time to put them both of them to bed...

[Juliaflo]

Happy belated 57th birthday to Jay Waverly North.

Happy Labor Day to you.

[gymnastix]

You're absolutely correct. Even had Joe Kearns not died, the show was on its last legs due to Jay North's aging.

I saw a posting on another site, with which I concur (and had made the exact analogy myself before reading), that Jay North looked in those later years of "Dennis" like a male version of Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed." The natural impishness and sweetness North conveyed was replaced by this almost unctuous quality which, if one examines closely, is actually kind of sickening.

[RayPointer]

It was a rule of the old OUR GANG comedies that once a child was 10 years old, he/she was considered "too old." Once Jay North reached the age of 10 he was already outgrowing the role and his acting starts to become rather mechanical, particularly in the final season. The writers tried to make his material fit his age since he was too old to be the innocent mischief maker. His more mature "menacing" was a matter of a generation gap of misunderstandings with John Wilson-Gale Gordon.

[gymnastix]

What's sad about it, unlike when that same personality flaw is portrayed by the character of "Eddie Haskelll" on "Leave It To Beaver," is that it was, apparently, a symptom of North's real life disgust with his career at the hands of a heavy-handed stage aunt and others on the set who treated him as a trained seal.

[scotpens]

Right, everyone knew the show would have a limited run because little boys grow up. Of course, many long-running sitcoms follow the characters through their lives as the actors playing them get older, but that wouldn't have worked with this show. What were they going to do ten years down the road -- "Dennis Goes to College"?

[meangreen69Nova]

I noticed this too. I always thought Joseph Kearns was the better Mr. Wilson over Gale Gordon.

[Juliaflo]

Joseph Kearns WAS Mr. Wilson.

[OldsVistaCruiser]

@meangreen69Nova - Great Scott, you are right! Gale Gordon, to me, will always be remembered as Mr. Mooney from "Here's Lucy".

[fromthesidelines]

Kellogg's was the primary sponsor of the series during its four-year run on CBS, and cast members always appeared in an "integrated commercial" for the sponsor's cereals {sometimes directly tied in as an "aftermath" of the evening's episode} at the end of the show...

[hanktified99]

heeeeeeeey mr wilson " i miss this show"