No Competition

During rehearsals, blonde Comedienne Eve Arden kept her hat on because she felt "like all those lights are drying up my brains." After four days of it, she got the feeling "of not being able to take a deep breath." Fortunately, not a bit of her uneasiness showed up last week in the first TV film of Our Miss Brooks (Fri. 9:30 p.m., CBS). Despite the secret agonies of the star, Our Miss Brooks had a smooth professional look and seemed to have made the move to TV without dropping a pun or a pratfall.

Using all the situations that have won it enthusiastic listeners in four years as a top-rated radio show, Miss Brooks presents Schoolteacher Eve Arden in hot pursuit of a biologist who appears more interested in frogs than in girls. Also on hand for laughs: a hot-tempered principal, an absent-minded landlady, two nitwit teenagers.

This pretested, well-flavored radio corn has been packaged for TV by a team of experts--the same Desilu Productions cameramen and crew who make I Love Lucy. The sponsors (Sanka and Swans Down cake mixes) are happy enough about the series to pay $32,000 for each film. Like the Lucille Ball show, Miss Brooks is filmed before a live audience and its laughter is cued into the final print. Like Lucy, it is played in short speedy scenes, and sight gags supply much of the humor. Like Lucille Ball, Eve Arden dominates her own show.

The two actresses, who are close friends, do not encourage comparisons. Says Eve: "We aren't at all alike. She has a great show, and we don't even know what we've got yet." Lucille is more relaxed on the subject: "Don't forget that I'm vice president of Desilu Productions,* which means the better Miss Brooks does, the better off I am. That's not exactly competition, if you see what I mean."

*President: husband Desi Arnaz.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.