The Bickersons: A Biography of Radio's Wittiest Program

For the past 20 years or so, television has introduced situation comedies about married life where the couples are anything but happy (Married With Children, for example) or not even married. We move with the times. But in television's infancy, all couples kissed at night, never quarreled but had a little "spat" and by the final fade out, money never seemed to be an issue. The Honeymooners seemed to break out of that mold more than any other sitcom. But how did it begin? Well, I was surprised but Mr. Ohmart wrote a short and sweet history of the first "realistic" look at married life where things were not always rosy. Don Amache and Frances Langford portrayed the characters of John and Blanche Bickerson (sometimes known as The Battling Bickersons) on radio. The segment was captured as "The Honeymoon Is Over" and on radio, it did its best to shake up American listeners. Gone were the "more juice, darling?" conversations while junior came home late from a date. The Bickersons were deeply etched, quite complex characters who were way ahead of their time. And radio audiences loved them! It is to Mr. Ohmarts credit that he gives us a very liberal sampling of the scripts which, even without the actors voices leading the way, show how sharp and witty the writing was. Furthermore, the author traces the history of the radio program both forward and back in time. It seems that some variation of the Bickersons existed until the early 70's! Cable radio is rebroadcasting some of the episodes and this book (although quite good as a stand-alone) is an excellent companion to a fantastic, nearly forgotten, series.