The Dark Truth About The Courtship of Eddie's Father

I was working on some rewrites for my new book of stories this evening and noticed, as happens, that I'd used the same cultural reference in more than one story. In this case, it was a person remembering their childhood and I'd repeated, almost verbatim, a line about watching reruns of The Monkees. This is probably due to the fact that when I was a kid, I'd come home every day after school and watch reruns of The Monkees, followed by reruns of Lost In Space, followed by reruns of The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, and topped off with a full hour of the Captain Cosmic show on channel 2, which meant reruns of UltraMan, followed by several hours of Star Trek and then, well, bed. Sometimes, however, I'd have to bend to the will of my sister Linda and instead of watching The Monkees, we'd end up watching The Courtship of Eddie's Father or Laverne & Shirley or, later, the last thirty minutes of General Hospital. For a little variety, we'd sometimes toss in some Happy Days, or if I went to my friend Todd Harris' house, his brother Bill would make us watch MASH and Hogan's Heroes, because Bill was much larger than us and we sort of did what he said for fear he might, you know, kill us.

I was trying to remember what I liked about all of these shows and it was easy enough for most of them -- I liked the songs The Monkees sang; I liked Will Robinson and danger; I liked anything involving Sam the Butcher bringing Alice the meat; I had a slight crush on Susan Dey and hoped one day they'd explain what happened to the kid brother/drummer of the Partridge Family, since he'd obviously been abducted and replaced with another child and I really liked huge Japanese robots.

What I couldn't figure out was what the fuck we were doing watching The Courtship of Eddie's Father, since in my mind there is a really odd mixture of bad 70s era sentimentality and the general sense that the show was about incest and dark Satanic rituals. So I dug up the opening credits and sure enough, I was right:

  

Comments

[Mike Barer]

Since Bill Bixby is gone, he does not have to see himself in those 70s style duds.

[Burl Barer]

My pal Robin Sherwood, currently living close to La Quinta, was on Ultraman! Robin Sherwood isn't his real name, and I'm not sure what his exact name was on Japanese TV and in Japnese movies..it was Robin something. But if you see an episode with an American in it who looks like a tough, yet good looking American, that's him.

[Brenna]

Somehow I escaped The Courtship of Eddie's Father. I think that's a good thing.

I did have a crush on the dude that played Ultraman though. :)

[Antoine Wilson]

I missed ever seeing Eddie's Father, too.

I like that Eddie's wearing a hazmat suit at the beach, though. Even back in the 70s that Malibu water was nast.

I believe that is the same location as the recent paparazzi v. Malibu locs battle.

[Danny Barer]

COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER was kind of the left-coast mirror image of FAMILY AFFAIR. Instead of the rich bachelor uncle, you had the upwardly-mobile widower. Instead of three kids, you had one. Instead of the British butler, you had a Japanese housekeeper. Instead of the swinging sixties, you had the running-out-of-momentum seventies.

[Vic]

Since we're into dissecting TV shows...am I imagining this or did someone already dissect the theme song to "Petticoat Junction" and determine that the show was about a madame, her girls and her brothel? Here are just two of the telling lines from the theme song: "...forget about your cares
it is time to relax at the junction. Lots of curves, you bet! Even more, when you get to the junction." But the most telling line, I think is this one: "...but the dishes to observe are those pretty girls who served at the junction." And the clincher? They live in HOOTERVILLE!

[Ellen Meister]

Aw, c'mon. It's had music by Harry Nilsson. That alone made it worth watching.

[Danny Barer]

Nilsson -- the thread uniting EDDIE's FATHER and MIDNIGHT COWBOY.

[kim]

I loved the Courtship of Eddie's Father...somehow in my 7 year old mind I kept thinking that because Eddie's dad wasn't married we'd see him bring home a date and make out. Of course, I watched Apple's Way to hopefully see teenagers make out (although it came on Sunday nights when we usually weren't home, dammit). Maybe I had issues.