Worst Benny program?

[LLeff]

Here's something potentially inflammatory, but may prove interesting. Any time you start talking about the "worst" of something, someone usually gets upset. But we're all mature here, right? OK, let's go...

I just gotta say that the Benny radio show of 10/31/43 has got to be my least favorite show of the entire radio series. The new writers don't seem to have hit their stride yet, the gags just don't gel, they're experimenting with the format, and I can't stand the "Lazy, Lazy" Brazillian sketch. It seems almost pointlessly stereotypical (even in the context of the time) and endlessly repetetive, they start gags that don't go anywhere, and it just ends up trailing off with no payoff.

But I'll stop holding back and let you know how I *really* feel about the show...

Is there a redeeming quality of the show? Well, it's Butterfly McQueen's first appearance. I might be able to find one if I had the patience to listen to the show again...but not today...

Hey, I love Jack. You all know that. And none of us can hit the target all the time. But is there another contender for the worst Benny radio show?

[Kathy FS]

So far I haven't actually laughed outloud when I have listened to any Jack Benny broadcast from 1932 until late 1935. The first routine CHRONOLOGICALLY that really impressed me was 11/3/35, when Jack and Mary do a skit set in a Hollywood studio (Metro Pathamount, says 39 Forever), wherein he is a producer who wants to make a big blockbuster picture with hundreds of camels or elephants or something. Raucous and hilarious! I had to pull the car over to the side of the road, I was laughing so hard. That and a skit from a week close to that where he is getting a shave from Pasquale, was that a continuing skit? Has anybody found anything especially redeeming in shows of those earliest 2 1/2 years?
Kathy

[Gerry O.]

So far I haven't actually laughed outloud when I have listened to any Jack Benny broadcast from 1932 until late 1935. The first routine CHRONOLOGICALLY that really impressed me was 11/3/35, when Jack and Mary do a skit set in a Hollywood studio (Metro Pathamount, says 39 Forever), wherein he is a producer who wants to make a big blockbuster picture with hundreds of camels or elephants or something. Raucous and hilarious! I had to pull the car over to the side of the road, I was laughing so hard. That and a skit from a week close to that where he is getting a shave from Pasquale, was that a continuing skit? Has anybody found anything especially redeeming in shows of those earliest 2 1/2 years?
Kathy

In defense of the pre-1935 Benny shows, true, much of the humor IS dated and rather unfunny when listened to today....however, considering how cornball, hokey and "baggy pants" most of the OTHER radio comedy shows from that era were, Jack's early shows seem smooth and sophisticated in comparison.

There WAS a line from one of Jack's early General Tire programs that made me laugh out loud. I believe it was Schlepperman's first appearance on the show (or at least ONE of his first appearances).....

Jack and the gang are on a train and they meet Schlepperman in one of the train cars. Jack offers him a cigar and Schlepperman says, "No thank you....I just ate some herring and I don't want to kill the taste!"....

Don't ask me why, but that line (and especially Sam Hearn's great delivery of it) cracks me up!

[LukeJB]

I think the overly used and repeated "Easter Parade" Show that is repeated over and over toward the end of the radio programs run, is the worst.

[sydneybrown]

I've listened to a handful of the first two seasons, and while granted, he wasn't the same Jack we would all come to love, he does have this added degree of smartassness that kinda caught me off-guard. It's like a combination of Fred Allen and the old NBC David Letterman, and for 1932, that seemed a bit ahead of its time.

I've liked all of his radio shows, really the only Jack Benny program that I admit I didn't much care for was The Jack Benny Hour off of one of his DVD 2-packs. Obviously the times were changing in the mid-60's but it's just almost painful watching Jack trying to change with them. You can almost feel Jack's discomfort in the Beach Boys sketch (and then feel the Beach Boys discomfort after they forget which part of the song they're supposed to lip synch.)

[Gerry O.]

I've listened to a handful of the first two seasons, and while granted, he wasn't the same Jack we would all come to love, he does have this added degree of smartassness that kinda caught me off-guard. It's like a combination of Fred Allen and the old NBC David Letterman, and for 1932, that seemed a bit ahead of its time.

I've liked all of his radio shows, really the only Jack Benny program that I admit I didn't much care for was The Jack Benny Hour off of one of his DVD 2-packs. Obviously the times were changing in the mid-60's but it's just almost painful watching Jack trying to change with them. You can almost feel Jack's discomfort in the Beach Boys sketch (and then feel the Beach Boys discomfort after they forget which part of the song they're supposed to lip synch.)

Yes, you're right about Jack's early "smartassness".....it really took me by surprise the first time I heard Jack's first show for Canada Dry (with his wisecracks about the rest of the cast, the choice of musical numbers, etc.) However, I also found that side of Jack to be quite funny.

As for Jack's later TV specials with then-contemporary rock groups, I thought that he handled the situation rather well. Unlike Bob Hope, who seemed to try to be "cool" and "with it" right along with the younger stars, Jack distanced himself from the "young scene". It was almost as if Jack was saying, "I HAVE to put these kids on my show to please the younger viewers....but I have NO idea who these guys are or what they're singing about!". It made Jack look like an old "fuddy-duddy", but for HIM it WORKED!

It's like when Jack was a guest on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"....poor Jack went through that show looking confused, bewildered and out of place in the various sketches ("The Party", etc.)....but it didn't look sad or pathetic, it looked FUNNY....and we didn't laugh AT Jack, we laughed WITH him.

[LLeff]

It's like when Jack was a guest on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"....poor Jack went through that show looking confused, bewildered and out of place in the various sketches ("The Party", etc.)....but it didn't look sad or pathetic, it looked FUNNY....and we didn't laugh AT Jack, we laughed WITH him.

Another good example of that is Jack and George Burns on the Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour. You can tell that Tommy and Dickie knew that they were in the company of legends they greatly admired, and that Jack and George could see the quality in the young Smothers comedy. There are segments where Jack and George talk about how to appeal to the younger audience and seem "with it" (Jack's suggestion: "Maybe we could get acne."), and the Smothers are there to help them do it.

Three words: bell bottom tuxedos.

[Kathy FS]

Didn't Jack get mileage out of (not?) trying to understand "that younger generation's music" from the 1930s onward? He made lots of jokes about not understanding Phil's jive talk in the 30s; the 40s bobbysoxers and their obsession with Frank Sinatra flummoxed him; and fifties kids and popular music....one of my favorite routines with the Sportsmen Quartet was their singing "Shaboom" and Jack trying to understand the lyrics but continually butting in with "shaBOOM?" So by the 1960s he had been playing the part of the older generation for 30 years? Wow, that is some history....
Kathy

[Gerry O.]

Didn't Jack get mileage out of (not?) trying to understand "that younger generation's music" from the 1930s onward? He made lots of jokes about not understanding Phil's jive talk in the 30s; the 40s bobbysoxers and their obsession with Frank Sinatra flummoxed him; and fifties kids and popular music....one of my favorite routines with the Sportsmen Quartet was their singing "Shaboom" and Jack trying to understand the lyrics but continually butting in with "shaBOOM?" So by the 1960s he had been playing the part of the older generation for 30 years? Wow, that is some history....
Kathy

EXACTLY! Jack's character had been an old-fashioned "square" for YEARS, and that's why his later TV appearances with rock stars worked so well. He not only had them appear on his various specials, but he was also able to get comedy mileage out of those appearances with his "un-coolness".

This also worked on other TV shows that Jack hosted (like "The Hollywood Palace"). Most of the "Hollywood Palace" shows were hosted by veteran show-biz "legends" (George Burns, Milton Berle, Maurice Chevalier, Bing Crosby, etc.)....but the shows also featured many contemporary musical acts (just like "The Ed Sullivan Show" did).

Sometimes having the Hollywood Palace "Old Timers" introduce the "Young Kids" proved to be awkward.....people today still remember "Hollywood Palace" host Dean Martin sneering at and ridiculing The Rolling Stones. (I'm a big fan of Dean, but that "Hollywood Palace" show was not one of Dean's finest hours due to his obvious and unfunny disapproval and disgust of the Stones).

However, Jack never ridiculed the young acts or tried to make them look foolish.....he wisely made HIMSELF the butt of the humor by not understanding the new type of music, the long hair, the wild outfits, etc. He didn't HATE it, he just didn't GET it....and that made for FUN, non-threatening humor that both young and older viewers could enjoy.

[Maxwell]

It's like when Jack was a guest on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"....poor Jack went through that show looking confused, bewildered and out of place in the various sketches ("The Party", etc.)....but it didn't look sad or pathetic, it looked FUNNY....and we didn't laugh AT Jack, we laughed WITH him.

Another good example of that is Jack and George Burns on the Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour. You can tell that Tommy and Dickie knew that they were in the company of legends they greatly admired, and that Jack and George could see the quality in the young Smothers comedy. There are segments where Jack and George talk about how to appeal to the younger audience and seem "with it" (Jack's suggestion: "Maybe we could get acne."), and the Smothers are there to help them do it.

Three words: bell bottom tuxedos.

Wow! I'd forgotten that appearance! Thanks for bringing that memory back to the surface!

[Jack Benny]

I too don't enjoy Jack and the hippies from the 60's and 70's, as much as I enjoy Jack trying to understand Phil Harris "on the beam" and such in the '30's and '40s. I will agree whole heartedly that Jack's bit worked much better with the young rockers of the 70's then any other performer from his era. The Rolling Stones, etc. made everyone look very old from Bob Hope to Dean Martin, from Ed Sullivan to Jack Paar. Jack was the only older performer who seemed to know a bit that would work with the younger generation, and he was the only performer that seemed at all comfortable being around them, but it's still not my favorite era for Jack or even close.[/quote]

[Frank Nelson]

The Rolling Stones, etc. made everyone look very old from Bob Hope to Dean Martin, from Ed Sullivan to Jack Paar. Jack was the only older performer who seemed to know a bit that would work with the younger generation, and he was the only performer that seemed at all comfortable being around them, but it's still not my favorite era for Jack or even close.

[/quote]

Wow that must have something when Keith Richards & Mick & the rest of the Stones actually looked younger than someone else!

[Maxwell]

The Rolling Stones, etc. made everyone look very old from Bob Hope to Dean Martin, from Ed Sullivan to Jack Paar. Jack was the only older performer who seemed to know a bit that would work with the younger generation, and he was the only performer that seemed at all comfortable being around them, but it's still not my favorite era for Jack or even close.

Wow that must have something when Keith Richards & Mick & the rest of the Stones actually looked younger than someone else! [/quote]

I can barely remember that myself!

[Jack Benny]

Worst Benny... those words just don't seem to go together.

[obafgkm]

Is there a redeeming quality of the (10-31-1943) show? Well, it's Butterfly McQueen's first appearance. I might be able to find one if I had the patience to listen to the show again...but not today...

I know this is from 10 years ago, but I thought I would listen to this show tonight (the chat was postponed).

How about this sequence -- I laughed out loud at this...

Butterfly: What kind of hair has Mr. Benny got?
Rochester: Mr. Benny's hair is... Uh-oh. I'm in for it. I still got it in my pocket.

I know, to each his (or her) own. The fall of 1943 had some of my favorite episodes (such as the 11-28-1943 Dennis Wants a Raise and one of my absolute favorites, 12-12-1943's Dennis's Mother Visits the show).

I just finished the episode. Yeah, the "lazy, lazy, lazy" bit was just ... lazy, lazy, lazy. I guess my favorite part of the episode was the Butterfly McQueen/Rochester bit quoted above.