Topper

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Topper is one of the first, if not the first, fantasy US sitcoms. Based on two novels by Thorne Smith and three Screwball Comedy movies, the series starred Leo G. Carrol as Cosmo Topper, a stick-in-the-mud banker who buys a house owned by his late clients George and Marion Kerby, recently killed in a freak avalanche. Soon after, Topper finds himself haunted by the ghosts of the couple, along with the ghost of Neil, the perpetually-drunk St Bernard that tried to rescue them. The Kerbys try to make up for wasting their lives by helping Topper loosen up and enjoy life more.

A TV Movie Remake starring Kate Jackson and Andrew Stevens as the Kerbys -- and intended as a Pilot for a new series -- was broadcast in 1979.


Tropes used in Topper include: