Westport and The Ramseys

So Little Ricky could be raised in the country, the Ricardos move to Connecticut! The change in location was the idea of writer Bob Weiskopf, who had done the same thing when his son was born. He sent co-writer Madelyn Pugh to his former home town of Westport, Connecticut, on a reconnaissance mission. To show her around, he asked his friends Ralph and Betty Alswang. Ralph was a highly successful Broadway designer of more than 90 plays and musicals. He also was an architect who designed Broadway’s Uris Theatre (now the Gershwin Theatre) and Paul Newman’s Westport home. They took photos of town landmarks, as well as several houses that would serve as inspiration for the Ricardo residence. One of those belonged to Oscar and Tony nominated actor Arthur Kennedy.

Back in California it was finally decided that instead of an invented town, the Ricardos would put down roots in Westport. Real references to the town would crop up for in next ten episodes (Yankee Doodle Dandy Day, the town hatchery, the Minuteman statue). 

Along with a new home came new neighbors, Ralph and Betty Ramsey. In return for their tour, Weiskopf named the characters after the Alswangs. For their surname he honored another of his former Westport neighbors, Alice and Charles Ramsey. On screen, the couple would be played by series vets Frank Nelson (best remembered as Freddie Filmore) and Mary Jane Croft (who had played Cynthia Harcourt and Evelyn Bigsby). 

Of course, today Westport is known for its historic Westport Country Playhouse. I wonder what the series would have been like had they moved instead to Millburn, New Jersey, near another famous Playhouse?