It stars Jackie Cooper as Socrates "Sock" Miller, who is a former Marine Korean War veteran and a young politician living in fictitious New City, California. Sock has a basset hound named "Cleo", whose thoughts (voiced by Mary Jane Croft), baleful observations of Sock's dilemmas, are recorded on the soundtrack for the viewers' amusement. The real name of the dog that played Cleo was "Bernadette". Much of Cleo's dialog consists of wisecracks. The popularity of the basset hound breed increased markedly with the run of the show.