Heh, from the comments:

If Adolf Hitler watched TV, This is what he would watch. Being raped is more fun than this crap fest. I can't believe they destroyed the mastertapes of 60's-era "The Tonight Show" yet preserved this garbage.

Sometimes I just want to hold the internet close to me and sing it sweet songs.

MCT, those kind of comments actually make me want to nuke the internet from orbit, since I doubt the guy actually watched the show, he just says stuff like that to be saying it since he thinks it makes him sound cool. Read enough of it and you despair for humanity. YMMV.

I'm gonna make sarcastic comments about the sarcastic comments I haven't read which are about the tv show I haven't seen which knock the tv show the sarcastic comment makers haven't seen.

Unless someone refuses to read my comment about the unread sarcastic comments about the unseen television program, and makes a sarcastic comment about it, then I'll be the coolest kid on the block.

Well, so much for posting about an interesting old tv show and maybe having a nice conversation. Instead let's indulge in recreational nastiness for it's own sake. We don't do that nearly enough!

I was making a joke. About how complicated it is to make comments about comments about comments.

What can I say. Recusive stuff amuses the hell out of me.

Hell, I'll watch it when I get out of work. I have an interest in the 50s and early to mid 60s and the pop culture that went along with it.

Not so much the late 60s, damn hippies.

Ahead of its time alright, as in Sports Night and Home Improvement. Don Defore's character is a definite precursor of Al Borland. At the same time, the family portrayals are a rip-off of Make Room For Daddy and seem dated compared to The Dick Van Dyke Show (another show-within-a-show almost) and The Andy Griffith Show, and especially compared to My Three Sons on ABC. Further, the writing wasn't as sharp as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (also written by Max Shulman) and The Beverly Hillbillies, and CBS already had the depths of ridiculousness with Mr. Ed. Finally, even for 1961, I think the secretary character was too offensively stupid for the network execs to accept.

As for Don DeFore, he ended up debuting in the fall of 1961 anyway, with Hazel.

Just a side note: Except for the window behind the producer's desk, I think that is the same set used for Mr. Drysdale's office in The Beverly Hillbillies, especially since this pilot was produced for CBS.

Thanks for posting this, jon. I love watching old pilot shows that didn't make it.

Ardiril, do you think you could be more specific?

heh, I grew up with all those shows.

And have a damn good memory for them!

What's really funny/weird is by 1961, sitcoms were already rehashing stories.