Synopsis
The show announced itself each week as "America's favorite comedy show, starring America's queen of comedy, Joan Davis, as Mrs. Joan Stevens." The series focused on a married couple, Joan and Bradley Stevens. Joan Stevens usually found herself in numerous wacky jams, with or without the help of her younger sister. (Davis's real-life daughter, Beverly Wills, acted out Joan's sister, Beverly Grossman.) The installments usually began with Backus, as Judge Stevens, recalling yet another merry mishap; this was followed by the unfolding of the mishap, and the installments ended with Stevens summing it up.
Sponsored by General Electric(which later took over NBC's parent company, RCA), I Married Joan was aimed at the viewers who watched I Love Lucy, which had debuted the previous year and was already television's top-rated situation comedy. Displaying Davis's considerable physical and verbal comedy talents, the show ran three seasons in first-run production before falling victim to weakening ratings and Davis's personal health problems. It would be Davis's last appearance on camera before her death.
Though I Married Joan was an NBC television series, CBS Paramount Television subsequently became the primary owners of the program's copyright. The copyrights on some of the episodes eventually lapsed without being renewed; as a result, I Married Joan has several episodes in the public domain.
Read more about this topic: I Married Joan