Early on, much of this came from Endicott's single sister, Harriet, who followed them to Rome, apparently for the sole purpose of dissuading them from living there and cajoling them into returning to Iowa.

Harriet soon departed, but her place was taken shortly afterward by Andy Pruitt, Endicott's father-in-law and the children's grandfather.

Originally airing on Sunday nights, the show went up against ABC's Land of the Giants and NBC's The Wonderful World of Disney and never garnered the ratings CBS had hoped for.

Also, Kay Medford as Aunt Harriet did not catch on with viewers and, as a result, was phased out of the series shortly after its premiere.

In order to give Forsythe a strong co-star, Walter Brennan joined the cast as Michael Endicott's father-in-law, Andy Pruitt.