The Television Scripts of Philip Rapp

Philip Rapp will remain immortal through his catty
creation, The Bickersons, an insanely funny radio vignette
that later emerged on TV and stage, and which influenced a
generation of Honeymooners-loving viewers. But he was a far
more prolific author than that.

In late 1958, he pitched an idea for a series called Deputy
Seraph, starring the Marx Brothers, which would wind up
being their penultimate appearance on film together. Only a
few minutes of their scene was shot, however, along with the
photos inside this book, and nothing else. The project was
scrapped too quickly once Chico failed to pass the medical
physical exam required for insuring its stars during the series.
Those few minutes have since wound up on DVD, but this is
the first public viewing of their entire divine adventure.
Around the same time, Joan Davis filmed her adventurecomedy
pilot of Joan of Arkansas, about a dental assistant
who is press-ganged into government service. But the
series failed to sell, and this also ended up being the last
appearance of that star on film.

Squeegee was a pilot written for comedian Ben Blue
around 1954 and filmed in April 1955, about the same time
that Rapp was trying to sell the residual rights to the 78
Topper episodes he owned (having directed or produced a
number of them). It was his Topper hit that helped Rapp get the
funding he needed for several of these later pilots, which failed
to catch on.

Now, read on . !