The writers did the same thing with Sidney Poitier’s character that they used to do with gay characters in the '90s and 2000s: making them impossibly perfect: a handsome doctor who donates his time and skills to charity and is a widower besides and can probably heal many conditions with a kiss and a kind word. Not saying that they should have had her bring home Flavor Flav, but I was turned off by how over-the-top wonderful he was.
I liked Isabel Sanford’s maid character and that his parents weren’t cool with the engagement either, and thought Katharine Hepburn was hypocritical for hiring her prejudiced assistant.
Trivia for anyone who doesn’t know it: the actress who played Katharine Hepburn’s daughter was Katharine Houghton, Hepburn’s real life niece and namesake (and I think one of her principal heirs).
