Joan Davis had it all......best comedienne, slapstick expert, acrobatic stunts and had the funniest delivery of lines and facial expressions that were priceless.

Joan was a great comedian! I loved this show and I wish she had more opportunity to keep her wonderful, comedic style before the public!

Brings back the good ol' days. I remember watching these as a kid. I loved this show. Thanks for sharing.

Joan was the best, she lead the way in my opinion.

I remember watching "I married Joan" in the 1950s. I thought that the show was brilliant!

OMG! This woman was the funniest comedian I ever saw. She blew Lucy away.

I love these. Joan was brilliant. I read one of Joan's fave comediennes was Judy Holliday. Her movies are wonderful, too. Stay safe, everyone.

I love retro shows. I never heard of this one. I just don't understand why it didn't do better. This is really funny.

I enjoyed this show as a young child!

As a kid in the 60s I loved this show Joan was willing to do anything for a laugh

Amazing! Nobody seems to be paying for those pillows. Good, happy fun.

My friend, Doug West`s mother was also into comedy at this time...Her name was Eve Arden..

Thanks for sharing classic TV. Joan rocked.

Thank you so much! If you started viewing us, I would suggest "Acrobats", "Joan's Curiosity," "Talent Scout" , "Furniture Quick-Changes" and "Bombay Duck." These are among our favorites. Hope you enjoy all the episodes.

Fabulous show. I remember watching I MARRIED JOAN as a young kid and thought it was so entertaining. It still is. Thanks for posting these gems. Nothing compares to Joan Davis these days

It seems Joan Davis was a cross between Danny Kaye and Lucille Ball.

Peter Thomas the announcer at the beginning. The most used and recognized voice from 1950'ish post WWII, up through 2005'ish. What a pro he was.

We appreciate your comments, and we agree with you completely. There's room for all of these great female comedians. We respect them all and their individual contributions. Thanks very much, All best from the JDC.

The divorcing husband was Hal March, best known for hosting the "$64,000 Question". The delivery boy was Charles Smith, best known for playing "Dizzy Stevens" in the "Henry Aldrich" series for Paramount.

Let us not forget his signature role of Quincy Magoo. This year, incidentally, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Gilmore Backus.

This is one of my favorites show Joan is the best and very funny ☺️

WOW this was actually pretty hilarious. Catch you later, gonna visit episode 2.

I Love Lucy was based loosely on the radio show "My Favorite Husband", which Lucille Ball had been doing since 1948.

I subscribed love u!

Yes Joan Davis Has 2 Stars on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame"! for Motion Picture & Radio also!She did have a Heart condition that got severe starting in the 2nd to 3rd seasons! &unfortunately died in May 1961& also her shows and any chances of them being aired were stopped as out of respect it was felt disrespectful to have people responding with laughter to a dead person etc,plus her daughter played her younger sister in this series Etc all very interesting! & historically important to TV History

Back when flight attendants were known as either hostesses or stewardesses.

I Love Lucy premiered on CBS October 15, 1951, a whole year before Joan premiered.

I loved I Married Joan !!!!!!!!

I remember this being aired in the late fifties/early sixties and I was between 9 and 10 years old. I was so excited as I was a fan of I Love Lucy. I remember remarking about how I enjoyed them both.

Always loved the chorale background music. It gave an odd but distinctively "1950s" feel to the show. There was that one show that featured something like "Little Brown Jug" by the chorale at the beginning or end of a scene, and it was delightful!

@ 17:05 "JOAN! Hand't you better answer the door"? " NO! Did it say something"?(laughter!

I hadn't ever heard of Joan Davis before tonight..........but I must say that she is hilarious😄😄😄😄😄

Hard to believe this premiered almost 60 years ago to the day.

That Leg of Lamb skit was a gag of laughter(smile)

btw: I LOVE THIS SHOW! I just saw 'Tailspin' (1939) and Joan steals every scene she's in!

When Hal March is sitting in the living room telling Joan about how he slugged his wife and he showed her in the news paper where a man flattened his wifes head for cold toast! THIS pilot would have been the last show today (laughter)

I used to watch this show as a young boy in the 1950's. Joan Davis was a very funny woman. Someone commented that her shows were stopped out of respect to her dying. I agree with that sentiment. Contrast that with the heartless slobs we have today. I remember when Freddie Prinz killed himself. His show, "Chico and The Man" ran as though nothing happened.My wife and I initially stared in total disbelief at our television sets, tuned to NBC. I believe this is when this lack of respect started. We are a heartless society in many respects, yet, we can open our hearts to things that don't make a lick of sense!

I’m so happy to see that this has been uploaded. It was one of my mom’s favorite shows; she and I used to watch the reruns on cable when I was a teenager. Great show! ❤

a great series, in the great tradition of american comedy actresses, we watched this on TV on the BBC in the UK in the mid 50's probably a few years after you had them in the US. thanks.we love america.

Joan filmed her series at General Service Studios, where "THE GEORGE BURNS AND GRACIE ALLEN SHOW" was also produced. In fact, Al Simon, Herb Browar, and cameraman Philip Tannura worked on both series that season.

What a performer! I see where Lucy and Carol got it from...Joan was more subtle than Lucy whose slapstick was always a little bit over the top. In comedy tto much is the enemy of good. Yet...Lucy was great but I do think that Carol and Joan are more alike...By the end of the day the three ladies were fantastic. each of them in her own right.The preferences are only a matter of opinion.....

Happy 60th Anniversary to I Married Joan.

Loved the 1950 's shows !

7:18 My baby is waiting...Good kid they usually don't wait.

The ground officer in this episode was also on I Love Lucy several times. So was Shirley Mitchell as Marion Strong on Lucy.Here she is the divorcee at the beginning.

An old man just discovered your channel and some of my childhood memories. Along with Martha Raye and Lucy, Joan was an enjoyable favorite. Thanks for making Joan's (and Jim's) works available.

Enjoyed this thank you

Joan Davis, according to comments on the internet was as funny as Lucy, she WAS in movies and radio. She earned $100,000.00 a year in the 1940's doing her radio show. I remember a radio show were she and Vincent Price are out of work in Hollywood, it was hilarious. In the early fifties she bought her own TV studio and owned her own show, this was at the same time as Desilu. In 1961, getting ready to do a new series, she died at the age of 48 of a heart attack. If things had been different her name would probably be better know today. Tragedy struck her family again two years later when a fire, I believe in her house, took the lives of her mother, daughter and two grandchildren.

Thank you for sharing these, I like these very much and used to watch when I was a child.

Thanks for the correction that is correct I meant to say that but was to concerned to write the other more important info in hopes it would put things in better perspective! If things went right "Let's Join Joannie" would have started in 1950! I also was hoping someone or group would turn up her other advanced show pilots that never aired like "Joan of Arkansas" '57/'58! etc! Besides "I Love Joan"-Davis! & we at least have about 100 episodes of this Classic!She did have a severe Heart condition!

Joan Davis and Hope Emerson worked well together. Too bad they didn't do more episodes together.

Also too speaking of "Lets Join Joannie"-'50 and "I Love Lucy"- '51. The Excercize sequence from "Lets Join Joannie" was later used in "I Love Lucy" & "The Lucy Show". One should check this out its here on You Tube!

She was so lovable ! as corny as this show is , it's still great ! - but her work in ' hold that ghost ' is a flawless tour de force ! anyway thank you very much for posting this treasure !

Great Show😂 Thank You For Sharing 😄

This is the poor man i love lucy

I Married Joan was NBC's answer to CBS's I Love Lucy, a comedy about a ditzy household. Interesting seeing Hope Emerson as the neighbor. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress as the sadistic matron in Caged.

I'm here because someone mentioned her on the Lucy Show, and posted the link to the playlist. Who knows. Maybe I'll love her! I sure love Lucille Ball

Love these two.

I grew up with this show.........she was one of the first of the t.v. funny ladies. Her daughter, Beverly Wills, played her sister.

The weirdest thing about watching this show is seeing everyone without masks and no one social distancing. It is honestly so sad for me to watch stuff like this even vlogs and videos and shows from 2019. We were all so naive. Things will never be this way again. We will always be afraid of each other from now on and no one even seems to care.

That's not correct. Joan Davis did get nominated for Best Comedienne in 1953, but Lucille Ball won.

good episode

I adore Jim Backus! He's so cute and funny, and he was my favorite on Gilligan's Island

I find this as entertaining as I Love Lucy!

I Love Lucy debuted on October 15, 1951 and I Married Joan debuted a year later exactly. Check the Wikipedia pages of I Love Lucy and I Married Joan if you don't believe me.

I watched this entire series as a child, and was fascinated (thanks to Wikipedia) to learn that NBC who had it in first-run sold the rights to CBS, who let the copyrights expire. so all three seasons are in the public domain.. I only had faint memories of it, but now, having re-discovered it on yt, I've been watching episodes of it daily.. Joan Davis was, IMO, MUCH more talented a comedienne than Lucy, and this series often dips its toe into the realm of surrealism.. in a way, it reminds me of some of the stuff Ernie Kovacks did way back when he had a tv series..so, I figure posting this question in the comments of the pilot might actually get a response.. here goes.. Even though it was so long ago, I remember one episode that's stuck in my mind for nearly sixty years, and I'd love to watch it again, but I don't know its title, and Googling all over the place through episode guides has not yielded results, but I'm not giving up.. yet.. the episode I'm trying to find had something to do with Joan and "Brad" having a bbq in their back yard.. through some typical screw-up, Joan is flipping grilled burgers or steaks, and flips one or more so high, it / they end up on the roof of their house.. and so does she, as she climbs up there to retrieve the food before the judge finds out what an idiotic thing she did.. does this plot device ring anyone's doorbell?.. I'm 100% certain I didn't imagine seeing that episode, and that it was in THIS series.. so.. if anyone else reading this knows the episode title, I'd be more grateful than words can express.. Thanks..

I learned to read watching the opening credits to this show. The singers were Joan Davis' brothers who sand accapello in a group. She used them for the segue 'music' so they didn't have to hire musicians as 'I Love Lucy' did. But what was the significance of the ringing doorbell at the beginning of each episode?

And Hal March!

I can honestly state that, as a boy of seven when first watching IMJ, that I loved Joan Davis. That she and her comedic art are before the Public now as never before, is a thing nearly miraculous. I did not know that she owned the production. This only adds more luster and interest to the IMJ Story. Whoever is responsible for making the series availble for viewing should be thanked profusely, which I do. (Also KZfaq - can't forget them!) . : .

I could be wrong, but this show looks like it may have been the first situation comedy to directly compete with CBS's "I love Lucy" show. In retrospect, we all know who won that competition.

Jim Backus today is more famous for GI and Mr. Magoo than being the straight man for the great comic talent Miss Davis .

A big Thank You to you, JDC!!! I enjoy this show so much and it helps keep the doldrums away, big time :) It means even more to me now, although I certainly enjoyed watching it as a child. I do have a question, if I may, I miss seeing the beginning of the show with the same theme song but also featured Joan Davis in a complete wedding gown n veil, standing in front of a wedding cake. I haven't seen it yet, I'm curious if I'm just missing those shows that started like that or if it was changed for some reason? Again I thank you, it's still a huge pleasure to watch!

It's a B-movie imitation of I Love Lucy, but I like I Married Joan pretty good. I remember watching this show and My Little Margie on ION Television back many years ago. Hallmark would break from Lucy reruns sometimes, so I'd tune into Joan and Margie as alternatives.

Love this show!!❤

I love Joan Davis.

This is great! Joan Davis Won an Emmy Award in 1953 for Best Comedienne! If her Unsold- Pilot "Lets Join Joannie" 1950 was picked up it would have been a year before "I Love Lucy" so its nice this series was done! There were several more Unsold-Pilots that also should have been sold and picked up like -"Joan of Arkansas" '57/'58 About- That follow the antics of Joan Joans,a Dental Technician from Hot Springs Arkansas,when she is chosen by the SaraBack Computer to become the First Human in Space!

1:44: Let me tell you about Joan. 4:06: Tripping and falling on Brad. 4:44: Brad’s arms belted. 4:55: Coffee & Doughnuts? 5:46: There’s only one hostess! 7:29: Reclining Brad’s seat. 9:12: You think my wife is any different? 9:30: My wife is at home waiting for the delivery of lamb fur coat. 11:00: Minnie plucking a chicken. 11:26: Chicken in the face. 12:04: Joan dancing. 12:12: Who is delivering? 13:26: Shaking hands with the chicken. 15:38: Brad walking home. 15:56: Brad what are you doing home? I happen to live here. 17:35: It’s a Persian leg of lamb! 18:30: I am going to cook this Persian leg of lamb. 19:38: There’s the hat I bought last year. 19:52: An insurance man called. 20:00: Who would want to steal a leg of lamb? 20:12: The T-Bone Gang. 23:28: Last stop, Chicago.

Love Joan Davis

That's Hope Emerson as Minerva. She had appeared in Adam's Rib and Caged (as the prison matron from Hell) a couple of years earlier.

I didn't know that you had an option of having an unplucked chicken to pluck off their feathers before cooking it instead of having a ready made frozen chicken wrapped up in a meat market.

21:05 Star Trek special effects in operation here.

I could be wrong, but I think that the chicken is suffering from a broken neck. It looks real, just dead. By the way, wasn't the chicken pluckin' neighbor lady Minerva also the dame who ran 'Mother's' on Peter Gunn? Did she not also play a psychotic private nurse in a Victor Mature crime film?

Lucille Ball's closest competitor as far as doing the physical comedy thing in those days . Ms. Davis , however was not the doll face Ms. Ball was .

This is one of my very earliest memories! I was 6 years old! What a wonderful memory!

Mr Howell...as a young dude!

Great to find the Pilot program! by-the-way! @2:56 Is THAt a hot plate?

wish you had the complete show but oh well

This show ended because Jim Backus quit the show. (Still trying to find out why). Joan and Lucy were practically mirror images of each other. If Backus didn’t quit, who knows how far this show could have gone. Side note: May 23rd 1961 ( yr I was born) Joan died of a heart attack in Palm Springs CA. In 1963 her mother, daughter and 2 grandchildren were killed in a house fire in Palm Springs Ca. So sad.

20:30 I guess they were still in the " married couples sleeping in separate single beds next to each other" era

Great episode, but according to Wikipedia, it appears to be incomplete. What about the divorce case being reconciled?

I wasn't born yet .

boy that jone sure is a dim bulb she shore was bad at handing out those pilow's lmao!

I wonder if Danny DeVito was inspired by this opening scene for The War of the Roses.

I Married Joan.....starring Joan Davis and the original Mr. Magoo!!!

Who are the singers on the soundtrack? They're perfect.

Ooooo! The Flintstones stole a line from this show: Fred: Boy, look at those people down there! They look just like ants! Airline Instructor: They are ants, Mr. Flintstone! We're not off the ground yet!

Wrong. This show premiered a year after I Love Lucy, and I Love Lucy was based on Lucille Ball's radio series, My Favorite Husband, reconfigured to co-star Desi Arnaz. My Favorite Husband began in 1948.

😂

How many Persian Lambs does it take to make a coat?... It was the early 50's though... No stunt lambs were harmed,or turned into Lamb Hams, in the making of this show!

Really Love I married Joan Really the best show of the 1950s