Going My Way

In 1944, a film about a St. Louis Priest who got relocated to an impoverished neighborhood in New York City to help a group of wayward boys, became a smash hit. Bing Crosby played the priest and it went on to win a slew of Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor for Mr. Crosby and Best Song for the hit "Swingin' on a Star"

Then, in 1962, a very different time and place, though the very same location, we got this television adaptation.

In this small screen adaptation of "Going My Way," Gene Kelly essentially plays the Crosby role of Father Chuck O'Malley who is less focused on the youth of the parish than the character was in the movie. That's because Tom, Fr. O'Malley's friend, played by Dick York, also helped out around the Cathedral, and ran a program for kids and teens. Also, crucial was Leo G. Carroll as Father Fitzgibbon, in charge and who had the final say on all the decisions to be made.

The interest in the Catholic Church was reaching a peak at this moment in history. After all, America had its first Catholic President in the White House as this show was first broadcast. Really, the plots of the series could reasonably be seen as a kind of PR statement for the Kennedy Administration. And the interests of the church were on display in how they helped their parishioners.

New York played a part in a lot of ways here, as the city was still evolving into what it would become. For example, construction of The Pan Am Building was still ongoing and could be seen in the opening credits of this series. And the run down neighborhood depicted here was yet another of the places that became gentrified and turned into some of the most valuable property on the planet. It's something else to attach to the name, Robert Moses.

But also the Church had a hold on The City (and to some degree, still does). And it's within that control that the archdiocese has that gave it an immediate sense of importance - through the stories that allowed the characters to display their goodwill and caring. Everyone needs a little help through a world where not everything is nice. And it's just a great comfort to have someone to whom you can share your troubles, deal with your problems and will listen and support what you're attempting to do. That's where this show shines brightly.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the series was a lack of conflict. Both Fr. O'Malley and Tom were hard-working, dutiful, caring, helpful and kind guys. They were basically the same character, only Tom was not married to the cloth. And even when they pitched their concepts to Fr. Fitzgibbon, there wasn't a lot of friction involved. Every show needs a little bit of a battle to push the concepts being offered and to challenge the audience to take a side. If there's only a little discord, then that opportunity is lost.

The other, more practical, problem was that the second half of "Going My Way" ran opposite the Number One show on all of television: "The Beverly Hillbillies" on CBS, so it's likely that the bulk of America never got to see Kelly in his collar.

I often wondered whether Bing Crosby ever was given any scripts to update Going My Way. Had I been able to secure his services for a television series like this, I would have had the show with him returning to St. Dominic's Parish taking over from the recently deceased Father Fitzgibbon. Then I would have cast some younger priest fresh out of the seminary with a good voice of his own. Then with Bing roughly the age Barry Fitzgerald was when he was the new curate at St. Dominic's the roles would have been nicely reversed with the young priest having to face all kinds of crises and wise old Father O'Malley to lean on. I think it might have worked.

But instead St. Dominic's was updated to the Kennedy years and the roles that Crosby and Fitzgerald played and made so beloved were taken by Gene Kelly and Leo G. Carroll. They added a secular social worker in the television series played by Dick York. The reason being was that it left room for romantic involvements that the two priests couldn't participate in.

It was a pleasant enough series, but it didn't take hold. Ironically Crosby later did a half hour situation comedy that also didn't last. Gene Kelly never went back to a weekly television series, but Leo G. Carroll did several seasons as Mr. Waverly on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Dick York became immortalized as Darrin number one on Bewitched.

I wouldn't mind seeing any of the episodes now, but they linger somewhere in a vault and few enough people remember that the Best Picture of 1944 was made into a television series.