It's Always Jan

Janis Paige in her early acting career

It's Always Jan is an American situation comedy starring Janis Paige (born 1922), which aired twenty-six episodes on CBS in the 1955-1956 television season. It was the lead-in program at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday evenings to the first season of the long-running western, Gunsmoke, starring James Arness (1923-2011).

Synopsis

The program centers on war widow and single mother Jan Stewart and her two single female roommates, secretary Pat Murphy (Patricia Bright), and model Val Marlowe (Merry Anders]. A Desilu Production, It's Always Jan borrowed elements of various programs and films from the period but lacked the ingredients for general popularity and long-lasting success. Janis Paige's hairstyle resembled that of Lucy Ricardo, CBS's most successful comedy character of the decade in the I Love Lucy program, starring Lucille Ball, also the Desilu co-owner. With three single women in the series, the program borrowed on the theme of the films Three Coins in the Fountain and How to Marry a Millionaire, later made into a syndicated television series co-starring Barbara Eden and Merry Anders (1934-2012), Paige's co-star.

In the series, Jan Stewart devotes much of her time not to the children or the roommates but to her potential paramours and her performances at New York City's Tony's Cellar nightclub, the setting of the series. As with other programs like The Red Skelton Show and The Ann Sothern Show, Paige closed each episode by bidding the home audience "Good night.

Program notes

Two actors who later became known for other roles each guest-starred in three episode of It's Always Jan. Arte Johnson portrayed delicatessen delivery-boy Stanley Schreiber, and rocketed to fame more than a decade later in the NBC comedy Laugh-In. Sid Melton (1917-2011) played Jan's agent, Harry Cooper; several years later, he became known as comical nightclub manager Charlie Halper on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, with Pat Carroll (born 1927), playing his wife "Bunny."

Jeri Lou James appeared in ten episodes as Paige's young daughter, Josie Stewart. Episode titles include "Pat's Romance," "Guilty Conscience," "Housekeeper," "Propriety," and "Love Rings Bells." The program, a Jannard Production affiliated with Desilu, was filmed at RKO Studios in Hollywood.

Patricia Bright (1922-2009) had minimal roles after It's Always Jan, but she made four appearances as Mrs. Claire Block in the NBC police sitcom, Car 54, Where Are You?.

It's Always Jan faced competition on NBC from the second season of The Jimmy Durante Show, a comedy/variety show which ended its 51-episode run three months after the Paige series ceased production. In the 1956-1957 season, It's Always Jan was replaced by Hey, Jeannie!, another unsuccessful situation comedy, which starred Jeannie Carson (born 1928) as a young Scottish immigrant woman living in New York City.