Series Description

The Here Come The Brides TV show was a 60 minute western/comedy series that aired on ABC for 52 episodes from 1968-1970. It was about a logging company in the tiny frontier town of Seattle, Washington (population 152!) where the male employees threatened to leave because there were no women! The head of the company, "Jason Bolt" promised to get 100 available ladies to come to the town who would stay for at least one year. The ladies first impression of the bachelors and their town was "disgust" but they eventually agreed to give the men a chance to clean up their act.

Cast

Robert Brown .... Jason Bolt
David Soul .... Joshua Bolt
Bobby Sherman .... Jeremy Bolt
Bridget Hanley .... Candy Pruitt
Mark Lenard .... Aaron Stempel
Joan Blondell .... Lottie Hatfield
Susan Tolsky .... Biddie Cloom
Henry Beckman .... Captain Roland Frances Clancey

Theme Song

Title: "Seattle"

Originally Written By: "Jack Keller, Hugo Montenegro, & Ernie Sheldon"

Modified For TV By: "Hugo Montenegro"

Performed By: "The New Establishment

The bluest sky you've ever seen, in Seattle.
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle.
Like a beautiful child
Growing up, free and wild.
Full of hopes and full of fears,
Full of laughter, full of tears,
Full of dreams to last a year
In Seattle.

Here Come the Brides Trivia

Here Come the Brides was loosely based on a real-life need for women in the old west. A man named, "Asa Mercer" moved to Seattle in the 1860s to where his brother was already living and working as a Judge. He soon noticed that the biggest problem bothering his brother and the other men of Seattle was the lack of females. It was a rough life there at that time and most women wouldn't consider tackling the hard work that life required. Asa realised though that the recent U.S. Civil War had left many women in the East without potential marriage partners so he headed back East to Lowell, Massachusetts and convinced eleven women to come back to Seattle with him. In very little time, nearly every one of them was married. That first trip was so successful that Asa decided to make a second, much bigger attempt. He planned to bring back 1000 eligible women that time and while he didn't quite achieve that goal, he did bring back many more than the first time. Oh yes ... this time Asa married one of the ladies himself!

Barbara Hambly wrote a Star Trek novel titled, "Ishmael" where Mr. Spock travels backwards in time to the setting of "Here Come the Brides" in order to save Aaron Stempel. Aaron would apparently thwart a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Stempel before he could stop an alien invasion of Earth in the 1800s! In the novel, Spock also learns that Stempel is one of his ancestors. Ironically, Stempel is played by "Mark Lenard" on "Here Come the Brides" and he also played Spock's father on "Star Trek: The Original Series", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and in a few of the Star Trek movies!

The Here Come the Brides theme song was written before any thought of it being used as the theme for "Here Come the Brides". Both Perry Como ("Perry Como Show") and Bobby Sherman both recorded it with its original lyrics. Como scored a minor hit, getting to #38 on the "Billboard Top 40". Sherman never managed to get his recording released as a single. The words, "Here Come the Brides" was not uttered in the original version. When "Here Come the Brides" came on the air, the theme was an instrumental with no lyrics. About half way through the first season, the version above replaced the instrumental. That didn't last long, however, as the lyrics were quickly removed. When "Here Come the Brides" went into syndication, they went back to the original instrumental version and the lyrics were never heard again!

The sets used to film Here Come the Brides were ruined in a huge forest fire in 1974.

Bruce Lee ("The Green Hornet") appeared in the episode titled, "Marriage Chinese Style" which aired near the end of the first season on April 9, 1969. He played a Chinese immigrant named Lin who had no martial arts skills. That was the only dramatic role that Bruce ever had without performing any martial arts!

Jeremy Bolt had a persistent stammer. On one episode a visitor from Seattle cured him. When Jeremy found out that the fellow was a con artist it upset him so badly that his stammer returned.

Here Come the Brides may only have lasted two seasons but it made big stars out of David Soul and Bobby Sherman. In addition to doing a ton of TV movies and guest-starring on other shows, David Soul starred on two more series titled, "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Yellow Rose". Bobby Sherman became one of TV's biggest teen idols. He appeared as himself on several variety shows during the early 1970s where he typically sang love songs oriented toward teenage girls. He recorded several hit songs and also appeared in acting roles on many TV movies and had guest-starring roles on other series. Bobby appeared on an episode of "The Partridge Family" which "spunoff" into a series of his own titled, "Getting Together" but it only lasted for 14 episodes and his career began fizzling out. Amazingly, Bobby became a success in an entirely different career! In 1988 he joined the Los Angeles Police Department as an instructor of first aid and CPR for at the police academy! Bobby was a cerified emergency medical technician. Eventually, he reached all the way to the rank of Captain on the LAPD! In 1999, he moved to an identical position with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Here Come the Brides did very well with audiences during its first season. It aired at 7:30 PM eastern time, the perfect slot for a family comedy series. When the show returned for its second season, however, ABC moved it to Friday, a lousy TV night, and to 9:00 PM, a bit late for the younger members of the family.