When “Our Miss Brooks” made the transition from radio to television the entire cast made the jump–except for one.

At the time, Jeff Chandler, who played the role of Mr. Boynton–Connie Brooks’ timid love interest– was becoming a major movie star. Although, Ms. Arden says he was sentimental and hated to leave the show his time could stretch only so far.

In addition, it was felt that his “macho” appearance didn’t lend itself to a visual portrayal of the Boynton character who had to be handsome and manly while portray shyness and diffidence.

But then they found Robert Rockwell. His portrayal of Phillip Boynton caused viewers to accept the fact that this good-looking man could also be timid and reluctant while occasionally displaying enough of a spark of interest in Connie Brooks to keep her hopes alive.

Ironically, because of his identification with the role and his excellent job in portraying the character Rockwell became so identified with the role of Mr. Boynton that other roles, particularly dramatic ones, were often denied him.

Success in a role sometimes brings typecasting.

Still, he had a fifty-year acting career, appeared in over 350 television shows and on stage. Perhaps his greatest role on stage was playing opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac. As an interesting footnote, he played Superman’s father Jor-El.

When “Our Miss Brooks” made the transition from radio to television, Eve Arden says there was no problem with the supply of scripts. She says they had a backlog which could easily be translated to the new visual medium.

But there was a problem with the cast.

At the time, Jeff Chandler, who played the role of Mr. Boynton–Connie Brooks’ timid love interest– was becoming a major movie star. Although, Ms. Arden says he was sentimental and hated to leave the show his time could stretch only so far.

Ms Arden tells also of an unexpected incident which occurred when she and Mr Chandler parted.

“One day after a radio taping of ‘Miss Brooks,’ Jeff Chandler took my hand and pulled me back into the studio as the others left. I looked at him questioningly, as Brooks {Arden’s husband] was outside waiting for me. Jeff had been seeing Annie Sheridan since he’d broken up with his wife. I was fond of both of them, and with my matchmaking tendencies, I’d been very happy for them.

“Only in pictures am I prepared for the unexpected, and when Jeff kept holding my hand and said that he had to tell me that he was very much in love with me, I’m sure I stood there with my mouth wide open. Maybe that’s why I was always the girlfriend of the heroine. I’m sure that heroines, even if they’re married, have hormones that quicken and react properly when told that someone is ‘in love’ with them. Not Evie the one-man-on-her-mind-at-a-time girl. I think I mumbled something about ‘not knowing what to say’ and left poor Jeff feeling foolish, but somehow we parted friends–why was it only in the movies that I said all those clever things?” ( from Three Phases of Eve: An Autobiography )

Hey, that’s what puts the “show” in “Show Business.”

As frequently happened in television of the 1950′s, hit programs were translated from radio. Sometimes this process led to a continuation of the show’s popularity. Sometimes the program were broadcast in both mediums for a time. This category of articles will deal with the shows that made the transition successfully and those that didn’t, and the changes made in the translation.

There were often cast changes made necessary due to the visual nature of television, just as there were decades earlier when movies added sound. Not every silent screen star had the voice needed for sound. By the same token, not every fine radio voice was possessed by an actor with the expected physical presence.

For example, William Conrad, known for the TV show “Cannon” previously played the part of Matt Dillon in the radio version of Gunsmoke. While not as rotund as he later appeared later he was still not fit the producers’ visual concept of Matt Dillon. Instead they asked John Wayne who turned it down but recommended a young James Arness.

Bud Collyer, who later hosted “Beat the Clock” and “To Tell The Truth”, played the role of Superman/Clark Kent in the Superman radio show. Despite his beautiful baritone voice–which he could modulate from a higher tone for the part of Clark to a deeper resonance for Superman, his slender frame did not lend itself to the role. Besides, who can imagine Superman–or even the mild-mannered reporter for a metropolitan newspaper, Clark Kent, wearing a bow tie?