The Farmer's Daughter: I Am the Most Beautiful

Farmer's Daughter
Season 1, Episode 11: I Am the Most Beautiful
Originally aired December 4, 1963

The Morley family is gathered in front of the television set, eyes glued to the boxing match being broadcast—all except Katy, who is completely unimpressed with the sport. She watches as famous boxer Clancy (William Smith) addresses the camera and says, "Wise as Solomon. Brave as Saul. I am the most beautiful of them all!" Glen remarks, "What a character!" and Katy counters, "What a waste of time!" 

Suddenly, a familiar face appears on the screen and Katy's interest is piqued. Her old neighbor Max (Karl Swenson) is Clancy's trainer and Katy is eager to see him again, promising to gain the family access to Clancy during her meeting. When Katy visits with Max and Clancy, the boxer is instantly attracted to the "beautiful fox...the only fox I've ever seen almost as beautiful as me." 

The Morleys are thrilled to tour the gym where Clancy trains, but Katy is appalled by the brutality of the match they witness. Katy's sensitive ways and undeniable beauty draw Clancy closer to her. As Max warns him to focus on training and not a "foolish girl," Clancy answers "a foolish, beautiful girl." And when Max continues his warning, calling Katy a "snoopy girl" and a "bad luck omen," Clancy dreamily repeats, "snoopy, beautiful girl" and "beautiful, bad luck omen."

Clancy visits Katy at the Morley home, where she calls him a bully and advises him to flex his brain instead of his muscle. When he confides that he really does not enjoy boxing, Clancy becomes Katy's student in pacifism. In front of D.C. landmarks, Katy reads to Clancy the peaceful words of Gandhi. So taken with this new philosophy and the lovely Swedish lass, Clancy quits training and shows up at the big match prepared only with Gandhi's words, "I have implicit faith...that mankind can only be saved through non-violence." The celebrated fighter is knocked out on the first punch.

On returning from the ring, the injured boxer comically tells Katy where her training went wrong. "I am a pacifist. But he's a fighter. Both men must believe in peace or one will be killed!" Time passes and the episode ends with Katy and Glen watching television and catching Clancy in his new role as a theatrical wrestler known as the Super Swede.

Production Notes

Due to the gym and match scenes, a whopping sixteen cast members are listed in the Day Out of Days schedule for "I Am the Most Beautiful." Listed as Screen Gems production #3823, the episode's director is Inger's The World, The Flesh and the Devil costar (and Audrey Hepburn's husband) Mel Ferrer. As always, Peter Kortner and Herb Wallerstein serve as producer and assistant director, respectfully. Filming started on October 11, 1963, and finished on October 15, 1963. 

Main cast members Inger, William Windom, Cathleen Nesbitt, Mickey Sholdar, Rory O'Brien, and Philip Coolidge worked all days. William Smith as Clancy and Karl Swenson as Max also worked the full shooting schedule. All other cast (those serving as referees, announcers, fighters, and audience) only reported for one day of shooting. The notes indicate that boxer Clancy was originally going to be called Brutus.

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The Farmer's Daughter: The Editorial Wheel

The Farmer's Daughter
Season 1, Episode 10: The Editorial Wheel
Originally aired November 29, 1963

When reporter Margaret Selden (Katharine Bard) appears at the Morley house, Glen, Katy, and Cooper hide out upstairs until they hatch a plan. Certain that Selden, a scathing critic of Morley's politics, is only there to gain "dirt" in order to bash Glen in the press, secretary Cooper agrees to distract her—by removing her fangs, he says—while Glen escapes out the door.

Cooper admonishes Selden for her "irresponsible reporting" at Morley's expense and explains that his employer is a fine man not worthy of her fabrications. Cooper grows embarrassed when Selden explains she's not there to expose Morley at all, but rather, to deliver a letter as a kindness to a friend. In speaking with Katy, Cooper wonders how a "good-looking woman could be so mixed up!" Katy pleads with Cooper to invite Selden to dinner so that he can convince her of Glen's upstanding policies.

Cooper brings Selden flowers, takes her to the Morley house for a Swedish meal prepared by Katy, and goes out dancing. He is so enamored by the reporter—and she with him—that he completely forgets Katy's mission for him to convert Selden into a Morley supporter. The couple dance the night away and the now youthful Cooper soon sports a toupee and reverts to his given name of Chester.

But Selden's secretary Arlene convinces her that Cooper must have an ulterior motive and Selden decides to publish an exposé on Cooper's wooing. Always resourceful, Katy seeks out Selden after viewing Cooper's devastation. Katy turns over Glen's notes so that Selden can read first-hand that his actions are upstanding. Sharing the intensity of Cooper's feelings, Katy advises Selden to apologize to him. 

The episode ends with Katy playing successful matchmaker once again and Cooper on his way for a dinner date with Selden. This is a rare episode in which Inger Steven is not the main performer and, as a departure, Philip Coolidge is given the chance to star. However, there are some lovely Katy Holstrum moments, like rapid-fire recitation on the staircase between a supportive Katy and lovestruck Cooper, Katy's comical reaction to Cooper's new look, and Katy's longing gaze for Glen when young Steve asks her if she's ever been in love.

Production Notes

In Eddie Foy III's Day Out of Days file on the episode, it is noted that "The Editorial Wheel" was production #3817 and required 3 shooting days plus 1 rehearsal day.  The notes list Peter Kortner as producer, Paul Nickell as director, and Herb Wallerstein as assistant director. The start date was August 19, 1963, and all rehearsals and shooting concluded on August 22, 1963.

Inger, William Windom, Philip Coolidge, Mickey Sholdar, and guest star Katharine Bard (as Margaret Selden) worked all four days. Guest star Anna Karen (as Margaret's meddling secretary Arlene) only reported for duty on August 20th. 

For more summaries and information on The Farmer's Daughter, please click here.

Naked as a Jay

Inger in Photoplay, December 1964

In 1964, Inger spoke to a Photoplay writer on the topics of nudity and sex. This was a controversial move for the popular star of a family television show, but Inger never shied away from such topics—a fact that alienated her from an industry that expected her to play by their rules, but endears her to this particular blog writer. Inger shared:

How wrong it is to teach children that there is something evil, something shameful in showing the human form! Why, the human body is a thing of beauty and it should be regarded as such, without shame or without sniggering. The Swedes realize this and so they think nothing about nudity. 

I can remember my own childhood. My father, my brother and I would go to a sauna and absorb the luxury of the hot steam. Then we would go outside and roll in the snow just as God made us. Oh, how alive and fresh we felt! We didn’t think about being nude. It just seemed as natural as it could be. As I grew older, my mother taught me that there were times when it was not convenient for a boy and girl to appear in the nude before each other. But that was part of nature, too, and Swedes accept it as being perfectly natural. 

That theory of hiding an element of nature is not healthy. It takes something that is basically beautiful and makes it into something dirty. And there should be nothing dirty about nudity—or sex...Sex is nothing to hide in a closet. When you do that, it becomes something perverted, and that can be a dangerous thing. Sex is the ultimate, the most beautiful expression between a man and a woman. 

When it can create such happiness, why shouldn’t it be used? It is better to have such wonderful experiences, even without marriage, than to be married and miserable. But I do believe the element of love must be present for the right kind of relationship. Without it, sex becomes promiscuity, which is just as much an offense against its beauty as is trying to hide it from view. Certainly, I’ve had affairs. I’m a woman, am I not? Why shouldn’t I? 

When asked if she was afraid of offending conservative viewers of her television show, Inger responded directly and not without a great amount of risk to herself, "Well, I am sorry for them if their lives are so cramped and stilted that they can’t discuss such a basic matter as sex with freedom and reality."

In 1969, reporter Bob Thomas asked actresses Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bissett, Joan Hackett, and Inger how they felt about nudity in film. Jean, Jacqueline, and Joan responded in traditional answer form. Inger, ever creative and unique in her approach to the press, wrote and submitted the original poem "Naked as a Jay" as her answer:

Source: 

“Inger Stevens’ Outspoken Story.” Photoplay. December 1964.

Thomas, Bob. "Nudity in the Movies: To Shed or Not to Shed—The Actresses Speak. The Gazette Sun. July 13, 1969.

TV-Star Parade Pictorial (1964)

TV-Star Parade included a 3-page pictorial highlighting the "private life of Inger Stevens" in August 1964. The text is brief and recycles quotes you've seen here before. It also twists Inger's words about finding meaning in life into the subheading, "TV's hottest feminine terms her own work 'a waste of time.' What does she really want and where is she heading?"

On the set of The Farmer's Daughter:

Out with Farmer's Daughter producer Peter Kortner:

Playing guitar with Arnold Lessing:

Source:

"The Private Life of Inger Stevens." TV-Star Parade. August 1964.