I watched this show when it first aired and in many reruns over the following decade. Bob Cummings demonstrated impeccable comic timing while supported by an equally outstanding ensemble. Especially noteworthy for me were Dwayne Hickman, Ann B. Davis, Nancy Kulp and King Donovan. This show has often been criticized as "sexist" whereas it was, in fact, just the opposite. The primary theme of the show centered around Bob's constant womanizing which almost always ended in his getting his comeuppance. Bob often poked fun at himself in this series for example: making fun of health-foods through Nancy Kulp's character even though he was himself a health-food "addict" long before such became fashionable or portraying himself (i.e. Bob Cummings the actor) as an arrogant egotist. I strongly disagree with the "if you liked this" suggestions. This is hardly in the same category as Mr. Ed. Better choices would be Dobie Gillis or the Phil Silvers show.
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dcorr12327 August 2001
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blanche-220 August 2013"The Bob Cummings Show" -- I knew it as "Love That Bob" in syndication -- was a mid-'50s TV show starring Bob Cummings, Ann B. Davis, Rosemary DeCamp, Dwayne Hickman, Joi Lansing, King Donovan, Lyle Talbot, Rose Marie, Nancy Kulp -- you couldn't ask for a better cast.
Cummings was 45 when he started this show - playing a bachelor photographer, no less - but he could get away with it. While he wasn't a superstar in films, he was a star and later became a superstar in television, due to his comic timing, charm, and good looks. On the show, Rosemary DeCamp plays his sister, Hickman his nephew, Davis his secretary, and Kulp a strange woman who constantly throws herself at him. She's hilarious. Cummings occasionally played his grandfather as well.
The comedy is wonderful, not only because of the lines, but because of the characters and the line readings. The show was probably considered a little risqué for the time -- after all, Bob had a lot of girlfriends -- but it was a more innocent time, at least as far as television was concerned so while there was some very veiled innuendo, that was about it.
I loved going back in time with this show and seeing the cigarette commercials - wow. Amazing. The show is available on Netflix. Check it out. -
gazzo-227 January 2008Fairly good-bought some of those 3 episodes for a buck discs at Walmart today, and this was one of them. Pretty good show-Cummings seems to have been forgotten somewhat, mostly because you don't see this show on in repeats much, and his movies-well who can name one? I can't-though am sure he was a co-star or second lead in several.
But the show-Rosemary De Camp as well-meaning sister, Nancy Culp, as well, Mrs. Drysdale, and Bob Cummings as a playboy photog/Air Force reserve guy-made for some pretty fun situations. I enjoyed seeing him play Gramps too-reminded me some of Dick Van Dyke's old men if you wanna know. Heck this show even has Rose Marie in it-you gotta know that the Van Dyke show was produced by some of the same people just watching it.
Bob is funny, droll, gives these exxagerated takes, it's all good clean fun and worthy of checking out again.
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dencar_124 March 2005This is simply one of TV's all-time funniest sitcoms. Bob Cummings may have done well in DIAL M FOR MURDER and many leading man roles throughout his career, but THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (also known as LOVE THAT BOB) proves his forte was decidedly comedy.
Cummings is a gem as the playboy Beverly Hills photographer with a bevy of models and beauties swarming in, over, and through his photographic studio. Yet he always seems to be foiled whenever he tries to nail one of them down for lovemaking. Ann B. Davis (later the housekeeper in THE BRADY BUNCH)is his hilarious secretary secretly pining for Bob who nixes his love schemes one way or another whenever she has a chance. And Dwayne Hickman (later DOBBIE GILLIS) is great as the hormone-driven teenager vying for a piece of his Uncle Bob's action. The only sensible one in the group is Rosemary DeCamp, Bob's sister, with whom he lives, who does her best to raise Hickman with some degree of morality in the midst of her brother's sexploitations.
Nancy Kulp simply must be mentioned. Though she later skyrocketed in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, she is a riot as the birdwatching, nerdy Pamela Livingstone, the bean-pole with a crush on Bob. She popped up in many episodes throughout the series and it was always hilarious to watch Cummings jump through hoops to escape her romantic advances.
If you have never seen THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW, you simply must. It won't disappoint in the laugh department. And it's fun to watch if you'd like to see the kind of wholesome sex farce TV could produce in the late 1950's that was neither explicit nor offensive.
Trivia: Nancy Kulp spent her life savings running for political office in Pennsylvania in the '90's...Rosemary DeCamp played the wife of Georeg M. Cohan (James Cagney) in the movie YANKEE DOODLE DANDY in the 1940's...Darrell Hickman is the brother of Dwayne Hickman, who made several teen beach movies in the early 1960's...Bob Cummings was very much into healthy living, eating, and exercising which is probably why he looked 35 when he was 60...King Donovan, one of Bob's friends who shows up intermittently throughout the series, appeared in the cult classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS with Kevin McCarthy in the early '50's...Joy Lansing, one of the bevy of beauties who frequented Bob's studio had been a major model and did quite a lot of television...
Dennis Caracciolo -
dweilermg-112 January 2018While Joi Lansing was indeed the supermodel adored by all male viewers Barbara Nichols was indeed memorable as ditzy blonde Marian Billington whose catch phrase was to affectionately refer to Bob as "Liddy-bear!" ~ The show's instrumental theme song actually had lyrics. Mickey Rooney performed that song "I'm a bachelor guy" on a prime time variety show but sadly I'm unable to find any video or recording of Mickey or anyone singing the song.
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Sylviastel3 February 2019Bob Cummings was a huge star in the fifties or the golden age of television. His sidekick was Ann B. Davis as Schultzy. The series takes place in Los Angeles, California with Bob and his family. The episodes might be dated but you can see why Ann B. Davis was awarded with two Emmy awards for her role as supporting actress in the series. Bob Cummings was a talented comedian if not straight laced. If you enjoy fifties comedies, Bob Cummings Show also known as Love That Bob is a delight.
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superuser140021 August 2006I was seeing what was on channel 31 melbourne Australia (similar to what Americans call an "independent station") , and i was surprised to see that they re-run classic shows. i was Curious, so i decided to start watching them. i have just finished watching "love that bob", and i must say it's one of the best shows i have ever seen. I've always wanted to see more 50's television shows, which are rarely shown on tv1 (similar to "TV land",we don't get "tv land" in Australia) or fox classics (both of which show too many 90's shows), and I'm glad i found out that channel 31 has classic shows. I found this show to be very funny, much better than the crap on TV today. i wish they would bring back more classic shows, but as channel 31 is not a re-run channel (it mostly shows local programming, which i should watch more of too), i might as well hope that tv1 or fox classics start to show more 50's shows.
8 out of 10 -
girvanpaterson6 June 2015Robert Cummings was a handsome movie star of the late 1930's through to the early 50's appearing in all sorts of roles, with some of the screens biggest female co-stars, and in some big films like 'Kings Row', 'Dial M For Murder', 'The Lost Moment' etc. He was one of the first big screen stars to go into television, and finally became a 'Superstar' of that medium, his forte was always comedy, and he could play it with the best of them. Billing himself as just Bob Cummings from 'The Bob Cummings Show' on, as the aforementioned reviews say, it was a trailblazer in many ways for it's time, and a pity to date, it's never been released officially as a series on DVD. To me, he was even funnier in his very first series, 'My Hero' where he played a more 'bumbling' character, which he could do with great finesse, I just wish there was someone as good at playing comedy today!
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redryan642 June 2014THE RECENT PASSING of Anne B. Davis has put us to mind of those sitcoms of a now bygone era; a time when you could get into trouble for just saying words like pregnant, hell, damn or water-closet on the air. My, how things have changed!
MOST ALL OF the attention concerning the death of Miss Davis, at 88 years of age, pertained to her portrayal as the droll housekeeper, Alice on THE BRADY BUNCH. Well, we "Boomers" seem to recall her equally humorous characterization of Glamor Photographer Bob Collins' (Bob Cummings) wise cracking secretary/receptionist, "Schultzie" on THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (1955-59).
THE SHOW'S HIGHLY successful run on NBC owed the longevity to Anne's on screen wisecracking, loyalty and acting as 'mother hen' to her boss. We aren't alone in this evaluation; for Miss Davis claimed two Emmys for her thespianic acumen.
AS FOR THE show, THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW was the story of a former World War II Army Air Corps Pilot; who now operated a glamour photographic studio. This, of course, meant that there would be a plethora of 'gorgeous' models being constantly moved trough each episode.
ON THE OTHER side of what can only be described as a dichotomy of fundamentals, we have Bob the family man. As the male protector of his widowed sister, Margaret MacDonald (Rosemary De Camp)and her teen-aged son, Chuck (Dwayne Hickman). Bob played big brother to the extreme; even in constantly warning Margaret that his old Air Force buddy, bachelor Paul Fonda (Lyle Talbot) was a 'Wolf!'
IN BOLD CONTRAST we see Bob's behavior at the office; which usually wound up as make-out sessions between photographer and model. Quite often, as a concession to the latent voyeurism that lurks mildly in all, Schultzie would often sneak peek in on the photographic shoot.
THIS LAST POINT brings us to one final conclusion about what the series was all about. It was a socially acceptable way of bringing a 1950's audience the commodity that always sells so well, namely S-E-X! -
sdh-2329 September 2006This show is just too funny. I love this show and anyone in my age group or older who watched it would get a kick out of seeing it again on TV. It's good clean wholsome humor. Maybe one week-end the big guys of television will run a marathon on this show. That character that he does as Grand-Pa, oh my goodness what a character. I knew a senior citizen who was somewhat like him. He kept me in stitches. So Frisky. I found Bob's charm overwhelming and humorous. And his sister she had made it her life mission to try and slow Bob down and to get him married. Maybe she should have worried less about Bob and worried more about herself.
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johnrampias10 January 2022Love that Bob, that's how we knew it. One of the first great comedy sitcoms. Just love at the cast and what they were and eventually became. I loved it It's memory came back to me on this day that Dwayne Hickman's passing was revealed. Innocent cute funny uncle playboy photographer of beautiful women with a secretary that longed for him and nephew who wanted to be him.
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The Bob Cummings Show(also known as Love That Bob) was the first-ever series to debut as a midseason replacement premiered on NBC-TV on January 25, 1955 and was originally sponsored by R.J. Reynolds-Winston Cigarettes and Salem Cigarettes. The program began with a half-season run on NBC,and then in mid-1955 went to CBS-TV where it stayed for two full seasons until 1957,and returned to NBC for its final two seasons ending on September 15, 1959. A total of 173 episodes were produced during its five-year run,all in classic black and white. This was one of the funniest sitcoms to ever grace the golden age of television during the 1950's. Bob Cummings demonstrated impeccable comic timing while having great support from an equally outstanding ensemble which made this show a must see. Bob Cummings' character Bob Collins was a veteran of World War II who was living and supporting his war-widowed sister(Rosemary De Camp),and her college student son,Chuck(Dwayne Hickman). Bob Cummings portrayal of a dashing young "Hollywood" photographer,Air Force reserve officer and ladies man was mirrored to Cummings' own in real life. Cummings' portrayal of a womanizer who had a beau of beautiful women in his photography studio,was not only shameless but downright hilariously funny in some of the episodes while being a mentor and role model to his nephew Chuck. In just about every episode,Bob would become the Playboy Beverly Hills photographer who couldn't keep his eyes of the women who were always in his office and in his studio. Chaos ensues when Bob stumbles into one situation after another.
"The Bob Cummings Show" was ahead of its time,representative of its time,and influential in its own right. The series was important in the development of several careers. It's creator,producer,and head writer Paul Henning,the later producer of such major 1960's hits as "The Beverly Hillbillies","Petticoat Junction",and "Green Acres" was the major force behind the success of this series. Henning was also one of the executive producers of this series,along with George Burns(who is not credited here),and Al Simon. Others that were involved with this series also were the driving force behind some of Paul Henning's later shows. Among them are the writing team of Dick Wesson,Phil Shuken,William Cowley,Shirley Gordon,and Bill Manhoff;the production team of Joesph Depew and Edward Rubin and George King;photographer and cameraman Harry Wild;editor Guy Scarpitta,and script supervisor Ulla Bourne.
Another reason why "The Bob Cummings Show" was such a major hit was the casting....you had the debut of three of the funniest ladies on television who would go on to bigger and better things in their careers among them Ann B. Davis(later of "The Brady Bunch"),Nancy Kulp(the future Jane Hathaway on "The Beverly Hillbillies"),and Rose Marie(the future Sally Rodgers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"). Ann B. Davis who played Bob's resourceful assistant "Schultzy" who two Emmys for her work on the show,and her character would get more advancement and development for her character than she ever would during her role as Alice on "The Brady Bunch". Also, Nancy Kulp,who played boy-crazy cougar Pamela Livingstone,would be cast alongside actress Joi Lansing in which Henning apparently put on his most famous show "The Beverly Hillbillies",where Miss Kulp as Jane Hathaway(secretary to banker Milburn Drysdale-a character to which she played similar to the one she appeared as "Pamela Livingstone" on Cummings' show)while Miss Lansing portrayed assistant secretary Gladys.
Perhaps the biggest career boost was received by Dwayne Hickman as Bob's nephew and college student,Chuck. Hickman,after this series ended went on to bigger and better things in his career as the lead favorite in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis",which premiered in 1959 and last four years on the air for CBS. The program represented the height of Cummings' career for the five seasons that it was on the air on two major television networks(both NBC and CBS). When the series ended in 1959,"The Bob Cummings Show" was seen in repeats during the 1960's(when ABC put it onto its daytime schedule from 1961-1963) and early 1970's(when it was in syndicated repeats). During the 1980's,the series was back in repeats for the CBN(Christian Broadcasting Network)Cable Network that lasted way into the early 1990's(when CBN Cable became the Family Channel and later on ABC Family)where it hasn't been seen until recently or smaller stations and independent networks today. -
paulhboyer15 January 2023I believe this show was an example of the optimistic attitude of the fifties, represented in many shows and movies of the era. The extended family is an often used part of the these shows. Bob the main character lives with his sister and nephew. His career as a photographer takes him to his studio so the audience can see the models he photographs and Ann B Davis.as Shultz .The actors are the best. Rosemary DeCamp and Dwayne Hickman, Miss Davis and Robert Cummings, the star of the show A mediocre dramatic actor, he found his niche in tv comedy. Nancy Kulp as Pamela Livingston, King Donavan and Lyle Tabot, Joi Lansing all had recurring roles.. The show couldn't be made today. Bob is a wolf and in today's helplessly politically correct world , Hollywood wouldn't have the stones to make it. It takes you back to a time when we wanted escapism . This show delivers.
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CraigHamrick11 October 2005Bob Cummings was a pioneer in the early days of sitcoms, making this show worth viewing if you're interested in the history of television programming. There's a certain "live on tape" feel to some episodes, when actors accidentally step on each others' lines, which also makes the atmosphere a little more natural than today's highly polished (tightly edited) sitcoms.
It's a treat to see a young Ann B. Davis, best remembered today as "The Brady Bunch"'s housekeeper, Alice. In the 50s, she was considered a fairly major TV star, and she was an undeniably inventive comic actress. In many episodes of "The Bob Cummings Show," she has a pretty substantial amount of screen time -- far more than she usually got in the Brady household.
Another classic sitcom star is on hand: Before Nancy Kulp played Miss Jane Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies, she honed her TV skills in "The Bob Cummings Show." Her character, a snooty, sexually aggressive bird-watching enthusiast has much in common with Miss Jane. In fact, in many ways they're practically identical. In later years, Kulp came out of the closet and lived as an openly gay woman. Her character in "The Bob Cummings Show," while aggressively pursuing Bob, certainly has a lesbian vibe. In the episode "Bob Goes Bird Watching," for example, when Kulp enters the episode, she's clad in a very masculine suit, with a "butch" hairstyle, but throughout the scene she's trying to persuade Bob abandon his swimsuit-clad models and join her at Griffith Park, to check out some "tit mouse" birds -- no double entendres were wasted in this show...
Dwayne Hickman is also in the cast, perfecting his Dobbie Gillis character. Like Kulp, he carried this character's basic traits into another show -- so it's interesting to watch him learning his craft here.
Like many shows of this time period, "The Bob Cummings Show" was performed at a pace most viewers now find stunningly slow. But many of the scripts hold up fairly well, and the acting, though a bit stagey at times, is naturalistic and enjoyable. If you want lightening- quick repartee, tune into "Will and Grace," but if you're ready for some relaxing old-time humor performed by some of the best actors from TV's early days, check out "The Bob Cummings Show." -
rusher-125 September 2001Bob Cummings' swinging bachelor photographer is the complete antithesis of "Ozzie And Harriet" and "Father Knows Best". Makes whiny, boorish Lucy look, well, whiny and boorish. Excellent writing and supporting cast of Rosemary DeCamp, Dwayne Hickman, Ann B. Davis, and a bevy of the most curvacious cuties of the day. One of the true gems of TV's golden age. Any resemblance between this series and "Mr. Ed", "Gilligan's Island", or the "Brady Bunch" is purely delusional.
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jacksonc17 January 2002Watch this if you get a chance. It was made 40+ years ago when double entendres were the order of the day and you weren't hit over the head by crude expressions of sexuality disguised as humor. One commenter said that the women were "fat" - maybe compared to some of the anorexic women on television NOW, they were. But when women on television looked like women, they weren't "fat." I consider it to have been ahead of its time...
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jeffhill18 March 2002The "Bob Commings Show" (retitled for syndication, "Love That Bob") had eroticism, patriotism, and family values. The character of Bob Collins was a World War II veteran who was living with and supporting his war-widowed sister and her college student son, Chuck. Bob Collins was both a shameless, one could say addicted, womanizer, and an admirable role model and mentor for his nephew Chuck, played by Dwayne Hickman. "The Bob Cummings Show" was ahead of its time, representative of its time, and influential on its time. It was especially influential on a lot of subsequent shows. "The Dobbie Gillis Show", for instance was almost a direct rip-off of the "Bob Cummings Show" with Dwayne Hickman doing a recreation of his Chuck character with a lot of Bob Collins mixed in. In the "Bob Cummings Show" Dwayne Hickman as Chuck would try to date one of Uncle Bob's models, such as the French bombshell Collette duBois, played by Debra Paget's sister, Lisa Gaye. Collette would consult Bob, asking him about the idea of accepting a date with college student Chuck, "Don't you think it would be like you Americans say, 'stealing the bed?'. " A bit stunned at the expression, Bob would do one of his "takes" and then gasp, "You mean 'robbing the cradle?'" In "Dobbie Gillis" Dwayne Hickman got an awful lot of mileage out of using the same Bob Commings type gasp to yell, "That's Dobbie! With a B!" every time some character called him "Dopie." And Hickman as Dobbie was forever doing a take and responding with some gasp in response to some remark made by either Maynard G. Krebs or Zelda. Zelda, of course, was a rip-off of the Shultzy character on the "Bob Commings Show." Part of the charm of the Commings series was in its predictability of situation and the way the characters played off of one another. College student Chuck would periodically stop by Uncle Bob's photo studio, become ga-ga at the string of gorgeous models parading in and out of the studio in various stages of undress, and stutter, "Ah, ah, Uncle Bob, I feel guilty using your money to go to college. I think it is time I learned a trade. Like, ah, photography." To this, Uncle Bob would chuckle and respond, "No, Chuck, you need to get an education so that you don't end up a tradesman like your uncle. You continue in school and become a doctor." Whether he realizes it or not, I think the American who most of all refined and capitalized on the "take" and on characters playing off one another as influenced by the Commings show was Johnny Carson who captivated the American night audience for 25 years with jokes, takes, and character banter which to me, all seemed to originate on "The Bob Cummings Show."
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dougdoepke6 May 2012Lively series that could occasionally sparkle with comedy and high spirits. This is a role the handsome, slightly smug Cummings was born to play. As a high-fashion photographer, there was always a parade of shapely girls passing through his studio each week. I'm guessing teen- age boys like me made up a lot of his steady audience. But that's not to say glamour was the only draw. The scripts, by and large, were surprisingly good, usually centering around a romantic predicament Bob would then have to fast talk his way out of. Maybe secretary Schultzy (Davis) or sister Margaret (DeCamp) would help. More likely, they would standby amused, while Bob was getting some kind of minor comeuppance. And what a fine supporting cast they were, including a pre-Dobie Dwayne Hickman. Nothing special or substantive here, just solid light-hearted entertainment that wears surprisingly well.
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Allanf4524 April 2002"Hold it, I think you're gonna like this one." To really appreciate this show I guess you had to be there, the late '50's I mean. Television was laced with action/ adventure westerns, detective/ private eye shows and screwball comedies. Then there was Love That Bob, a show about a playboy photographer living every mans dream of being surrounded by beautiful models in bathing suits, tight form fitting dresses, high heels .... well you get the picture. Add to this Ann B. Davis who could of been the prototype for Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films as his lovelorn receptionist/ secretary and Nancy Kulp as a geeky naturalist who wanted to commune with Bob. Rosemary DeCamp was wonderful as his sister and Dwayne Hickman was great as his nephew, a teenager with over active glands who wanted nothing more than to follow in his uncles wake and date Bob's model girlfriends. Bob's some time duel roll as Grandpa Collins, an elderly gent who like his grandson was a still flying high himself (in the show he flew his own bi-plane)and had his share of comic adventures with the ladies. Yeah, you had to be there for this one to really get the picture.
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i loved the interplay between bob and dwayne hickman (whom i loved as doby gillis, with the great frank faylen; 'someday i'm gonna kill that boy.' bob was a very, very funny guy, and hickman had a great jack benny-like deadpan that made me laugh, and an outburst he stole from cummings, i think. his brother was a go-to longtime natural that put the glue in many a movie, many of them great. i remember an episode with charles coburn, with whom bob acted in 'the devil and miss jones' the previous decade: bob was playing it big -- coburn was supposed to be playing the father of some young thing bob was pursuing, and bob finished the lines, exasperated, with something like, 'you're the girl's father!' and coburn replied, 'no i'm not; i'm charles coburn.' it shattered the 'fourth wall' in a very funny way.
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The_Rook16 December 2002I wouldn't expect most people under 30 having any appreciation for this show. 30 years from now what shows of yours do you think will still be funny? "Love that Bob" was funny in the 1950s. It is still funny to those people that saw it when it originally aired and others that enjoy the older comedy shows and movies. Catch it on cable TV and see for yourself. I would love to see more of this type show and the Amateur and Musical shows that use to be on TV.
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rsavage-720 April 2005As a kid watching this TV show in the 50's I remembered Bob Cummings traveled distances in a small airplane that, once he landed, he could convert it into a car and drive to his final destination. What spurred my memory about this vehicle was a segment on "60 Minutes" (April 17, 2005). If anybody else remembers this in The Robert Cummings Show, can you tell me where I can read more about it? Now I have to figure out how to stretch out ten lines in this comment section in order to get it accepted. Man, what a rule! Did you hear the one about... Maybe jokes aren't allowed in the comment section , so I better give that up. Anyway, by now I probably met the minimum.
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timmauk28 June 2001I watched this show on Nick-At-Night and I'm not sure why this was a big hit. It was a show about a fashion photographer and his adventures. The man's name is Bob Collins(Cummings) and he gets help from his assistant Schultzy(Davis). Bob is surrounded everyday by what they called back then, models. Today they would be laughed at and called fat. Robert Cummings is not what I'd call a really great looking guy. I could never understand why he was always getting dates with these "beauties". Poor Schultzy was always the "old maid" in the love game.
This show had alot of "stars" in it, Other than former movie star Cummings and future Brady maid Ann B Davis. It had the future Dobie Gillis Dwayne Hickman, future Hillbilly's secretary Nancy Kulp , "Yankee Doodle Dandy" mother Rosemary DeCamp and famous B actor Lyle Talbot.
If you get the chance to see this, watch it if only to see these guys back when.