O.K., this show is very formula and somewhat preposterous at times. But the more episodes you watch, I dare you not to fall in love with Kaye and Eve and the crazy antics they get themselves involved in, much to the frequent amusement of their husbands (and sometimes their aggravation). Some people referred to them as a poor man's Lucy and Ethel (or Viv, depending on what role Vivian Vance happened to be playing), and some of their schemes or plights were quite off the wall. Yet, as total opposites who reluctantly found themselves becoming best friends (something they never would admit to), they had a common bond that went beyond the fact that Kaye's son happened to marry Eve's daughter and that sophisticated Herb (Eve's husband, an attorney) was nothing like the rather sloppy Roger (Kaye's husband), a seemingly second rate television show writer.
How Jerry Buell became so different than his parents reminded me a lot of how some of the Kettle kids (from that famous Marjorie Main/Percy Kilbride Universal series) grew up to be the total opposite of their parents. Jerry's temperament wasn't as hot tempered as his parents (particularly his mothers), although Suzie was often emotional like her mother yet sometimes had the common sense Eve often lacked that Herb had an abundance of. These six characters dominated the show's two seasons, and as the series went on, no matter how out there the plots were, I found myself anxious to see more of them.
By the mid 1960's, Eve Arden was a huge T.V. star, having won an Emmy for "Our Miss Brooks" (a show I haven't seen in years) and the star of her own named T.V. show (which I just received a DVD copy of and started watching). She proved herself to be a top film comical supporting star, appearing opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Loretta Young, Doris Day and Jane Wyman, to name a few, and becoming known as "the Queen of the Wisecrack". Eve's laughs don't come from her lines (although Arden does deliver them beautifully), but from her bad timing, and Kaye's come from her temperament. Kaye Ballard had been a Broadway star, and every time she refers to Jerry as "My darling baby boy!", I can't think of how she sings that line with venom in her teeth on the original cast album of "Carnival".
Herbert Rudley's performance as Eve's husband is similar to those understanding, if sometimes perplexed, husbands of the wacky 50's spouses, from Desi Arnaz to Jim Backus. He retains his cool for the most part, but on occasion, his temperament can't help but come out. He remains the voice of reason, but he has a huge sense of fun, too. On the other hand, there were two actors in the role of Roger, and they couldn't be more different. Roger C. Carmel and Richard Deacon were as different as night and day, and if they needed to recast, this was certainly much more jarring than the two "Bewitched" Darrens. Portly Carmel is more bombastic and explosive; Deacon is simply frustrated. The change couldn't be helped as Carmel left of his own accord due to financial disputes.
Handsome Jerry Fogel and cute Debbie Watson are perfect as Jerry and Suzy. Sometimes they were adult than their own mothers (and in Jerry's case, his father), and the running gag of them hiding from their intruding moms was often quite funny. Much of the first season focused on them trying to find a permanent place to stay and adapting to their first year of marriage; The second season was all about the baby, whether on the way or what to name it, or more obvious, how to raise it. In between, there were good times too, surrounding a few vacations or day trips, and a lot of special musical performances, mostly by the cast of regulars, but often by guest appearances from Desi Arnaz (Sr. and Jr.) and Ozzie Nelson ("Snipp"), with infrequent comic guests like Paul Lynde, Don Rickles, Alice Ghostley, and in the outrageous opera series finale, none other than Marni Nixon performing "Brunhilde" while Eve and Kaye vainly tried to ride a horse.
A long-running series can't avoid having "moments", whether of greatness or weakness. In the case of "The Mothers in Law", some of the series are groaners but there's a lot of hilarity as well. Eve and Kay being locked in a department store, their dreams of the kids moving to Alaska and living in an igloo, getting lost while biking, aiding Jerry in his career as a dating service employee, and of course, all of those musical performances where the musical numbers may have been mixed, but the talent behind the scenes was certainly not.
