 It also starred John Calvin as Barbara's husband, Howie Dickerson, an eccentric university student who was of genius intelligence (IQ 185) and was a whiz with everything and full of advice, but inexplicably, he could not manage to hold down a job, and Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara as Howie's parents, Barney and Grace Dickerson.Howie's misadventures around the house and his lack of steady employment drove his father-in-law to distraction and got him in a slow-burn anger.Critics perceived the show as derivative of "All in the Family", then television's most popular primetime program, and the Paul Simms role bore similarities to Lynde's best-known film role, that of Harry MacAfee from the film and musical "Bye Bye Birdie".