The Great Gildersleeve

The Great Gildersleeve is an American radio situation comedy that premiered on NBC in 1941, spun off from the established hit Fibber McGee and Molly, starring Harold Peary as the blustery, self-important bachelor Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve as he raises his orphaned niece and nephew in the small town of Summerfield. It was one of the first successful spin-offs in American radio, a format built directly on an existing show's audience rather than launched independently, and it went on to outlast the very series that spawned it. The Great Gildersleeve is widely regarded by broadcast historians as an early proof that a supporting radio character could carry a long-running series of his own.