''Biff Baker, U.S.A.'' is an American adventure television program starring

Alan Hale Jr. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; March 8, 1921 – January 2, 1990) was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead ro ...

in the title role and

Randy Stuart Randy Stuart (born Elizabeth Shaubell; October 12, 1924 – July 20, 1996), was an American actress in film and television. A familiar face in several popular films of the 1940s and 1950s, and later in Western-themed television series, she is p ...

as his wife, Louise. The series was broadcast on CBS from November 6, 1952, until March 26, 1953. After the show's network run ended, it was syndicated, with reruns being broadcast until late in the 1950s.

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cigarettes sponsored the program.

Premise

As the operator of an importing business, Biff Baker traveled around the world with Louise to find merchandise. They usually became involved with international intrigue of some kind, often related to spying. Baker did not look for trouble, but trouble usually found him. The Bakers' travels enabled the use of a variety of locales for episodes, with a different setting each week, "ranging from

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to Pakistan and from

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Some sources say that the Bakers were spies who posed as businesspeople.

Critical response

Leon Morse, writing in the trade publication ''

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'', found the program's November 6 episode "another thriller, similar to many of its kind, but with two personable leads ...". He wrote that the production's quality was high, but the episode lacked sufficient suspense, and "The characters and the scenes were written on a juvenile level." Newspaper columnist Hal Humphrey found flaws in the program, based on the first two episodes. He noted that Baker was so busy with his spying activity that he had little time left for his business, and he found fault with the sometimes silly conversations between the Bakers. He wrote that the characters were "portrayed in such a namby-pamby manner that the viewer finds himself not really caring whether they escape from their predicament or not."

Production

Richard Irving was the director of ''Biff Baker, U.S.A.''. Frank Burt and Fenton Earnaham were the writers. The program was produced by Alan Miller at Revue Studios. Of the 26 episodes filmed, 21 were shown on CBS in the initial run.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0044238 1952 American television series debuts 1953 American television series endings CBS television dramas American English-language television shows Television series by Universal Television American adventure television series American spy television series Television series about marriage