Mr. Peepers

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Mr. Peepers was an early TV sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952 to June 12, 1955.

It starred Wally Cox as junior high school science teacher Robinson J. Peepers. Others in the cast included Tony Randall as history teacher Harvey Weskit; Georgann Johnson as Harvey's wife, Marge; Patricia Benoit as school nurse Nancy Remington, later married to Peepers; Marion Lorne as often confused English teacher Mrs. Gurney, and Ernest Truex and Sylvia Field as Nancy's parents. The humor in the series tended to be realistic and unforced; in fact the acting style of Patricia Benoit in particular was so incredibly transparent that it was at times hard for viewers to believe that they were watching actors performing rather than a hidden-camera view of real life. Running jokes tended to involve Peepers coping with misbehaving inanimate objects and with acutely embarrassing moments... typical: Peepers sees a hopscotch grid chalked on a sidewalk and, thinking himself alone, plays the game with abandon, only to discover that his girlfriend Nancy has been silently watching the entire time. The episode in which Peepers married Nancy was, for 1954, a blockbuster ratings event, but it also marked the beginning of the series' slide in popularity.

Mr. Peepers was aired live, and thus was not preserved except in the form of kinescopes on 16 mm film. It was performed on stage before a large audience at the Century Theater, 932 7th Avenue, NYC.

Wally Cox was somewhat typecast by the role of the mild-mannered Peepers, but continued on to a long career in movies and television. He later starred in a comedy/adventure series, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, and is remembered as the voice of the cartoon superhero Underdog. He also wrote and published a novel, Mr. Peepers (1955), based on scripts from the televised adventures of the character.

In 2005, the first 26 episodes of "Mr. Peepers," which had been preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, were released on DVD by S'more Entertainment.

Mr. Peepers was also the name of an unrelated recurring character on Saturday Night Live as played by Chris Kattan. He was a monkey who would devour apples and spit the pieces at bystanders.