Here Come the Brides
Here Come the Brides is an American comedy Western television series from Screen Gems that aired on the ABC television network from September 25, 1968, to April 3, 1970. It was loosely based on Asa Mercer's efforts in the 1860s to import marriageable women (the Mercer Girls) from the East Coast cities of the United States to Seattle, where there was a shortage.
For the Brides of Destruction album, see Here Come the Brides (album).Here Come the Brides
- Hugo Montenegro
- Jack Keller
- Ernie Sheldon
"Seattle"
United States
English
2
52
60 minutes
September 25, 1968 –
April 3, 1970
Release[edit]
Syndication[edit]
Reruns were aired on CBN Cable during the mid-1980s.
Early in January 2011, digital sub-network Antenna TV began airing the series.
INSP began broadcasting a back to back 2 episode block of the series on Sunday mornings in 2018 continuing through 2020.
The Decades channel aired most of the series during a weekend marathon on June 2–3, 2018; February 1–2, 2019 and again January 23–24, 2021 in widescreen format. The episodes were cropped for the widescreen presentation.
In autumn 2021 the series began airing on MeTV+.
In January 2022 GetTV began airing episodes in a 75 minute format on Saturday & Sunday at 11:15 am Eastern.
Reception[edit]
First season ratings were impressive enough to ensure its renewal for a second season, though only 152 ABC affiliates agreed to broadcast the series, compared to another Screen Gems' series, Bewitched, which was broadcast on 217 ABC affiliates in the same 1968/69 season, prompting ABC affiliated radio and television stations to add a voice-over in all related HCTB promotional commercials inviting viewers to watch " ...Here Come the Brides!, Wednesdays at 7:30, 6:30 central, over MOST of these ABC stations!" [2] For the second season, the family-geared series was moved from the 7:30 Wednesday night "Family Hour" to the more adult-oriented time slot of 9:00 Friday night in September 1969. This move to the Friday night death slot combined with the low ABC affiliate support caused the ratings to quickly slide out of the top 40, and production ceased in the spring of 1970, although most of those ABC affiliates repeated episodes throughout the summer months, as was then a standard procedure with most series. The final primetime episode in the United States was broadcast on Friday September 18, 1970.
Joan Blondell received Emmy Award nominations each season for her performance as Lottie Hatfield. She lost to Barbara Bain in 1969, and to Susan Hampshire in 1970.
Media information[edit]
French version[edit]
A French-language version of the show and theme song (performed by a chorus of male singers) was a smash hit in French Canada, under the title Cent filles à marier (A Hundred Girls to Marry Off). The show capitalized on the popularity of the American version and the fact that a similar "bride drive" (see Filles du roi) is also part of Québec's cultural mythos.
Home media and books[edit]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD in Region 1 on May 16, 2006.[3]
On October 14, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the home-media rights to the series, and it later released the final season on DVD.[4] It was subsequently released on February 28, 2012. However, the season 1 opening cast-and-credit sequence was used for this release, using the New Establishment's vocals, but ignoring Henry Beckman's and Susan Tolsky's respective credits.[5]
In December 2009, BearManor Media released a nostalgic look into the program's history, Gangway, Lord: (The) Here Come The Brides Book by Jonathan Etter, which featured a foreword by Robert Brown. Bobby Sherman was the only (then) surviving cast member who did not cooperate with the author. However, Sherman did discuss the series in his autobiography, Bobby Sherman: Still Remembering You, whose contents he dictated to Dena Hill, and was subsequently published by Contemporary Books in 1996.
Star Trek crossovers[edit]
Barbara Hambly's Star Trek novel Ishmael has Spock traveling back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides after discovering a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stempel (spelled "Stemple" in the book) before he could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stempel, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins.[6]
At the end of the story, Captain Kirk discovers that Stempel is one of Spock's mother's ancestors, a reference to the fact that Mark Lenard also played Spock's father Sarek in episodes of the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as several of the Star Trek motion pictures.[6] Also the same actor played descendants of Mr. Spock on his father's and his mother's sides of the family.
Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, appeared as Tessa a dancehall woman in the first-season episode "Lovers and Wanderers".
Jane Wyatt who played Spock's mother in the original series, made a guest appearance in the final episode of the series, "Two Women". She did not have any scenes with Mark Lenard.
In addition to Lenard, other Brides actors appeared in Star Trek: Robert Brown (both of the Lazaruses in "The Alternative Factor"), David Soul (Makora in "The Apple"), and semi-regular Carole Shelyne (the visible representation of a Metron in "Arena", whose voice Vic Perrin provided in that installment).[7][8][9]
