Movie with a bad Jack Benny impersonation

[rostopowicz]

Hello, I am hoping someone on this board can help me with something that has been driving me nuts lately.

There was a cheesy (most likely B) movie in the 1980s that featured a character who thought he was Jack Benny. This guy walked around in a blue terricloth bathrobe wearing a captain's hat. Does anyone know the name of the movie?

I would greatly appreciate the help!

Best,
Doc Rick

[bboswell]

Do you remember any other things about the movie, or any quotes from it?

[LLeff]

There was a cheesy (most likely B) movie in the 1980s that featured a character who thought he was Jack Benny. This guy walked around in a blue terricloth bathrobe wearing a captain's hat. Does anyone know the name of the movie?

No chance you're thinking of Jet Benny, is there? *shudder*

[rostopowicz]

I don't believe so. The character was just a supporting player who was introduced off-screen by someone saying that ever since he got either a boat or a captain's hat he has been walking around wearing a bathrobe thinking he's Jack Benny. Then he comes on screen and, while doing a decent Benny impersonation, talks about how he was telling Rochester something about a boat.

I can see everything in my mind (sorry I can't transfer that to video), but I remember it being a funny moment.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but hopefully someone else has seen it.

[Brad from Georgia]

Doesn't ring a bell, but wouldn't it be great if the shark in Jaws had traumatized Roy Scheider like that--

BRODY: "Yeah, you come down here and chum some of this--"

[SHARK REARS OUT OF THE WATER; SHERIFF BACKS AWAY, PETRIFIED]

BRODY: "Oh, Don! Don Wilson. Lookit, you have GOT to stop eating so much--"

HOOPER: "What's the matter? Why are you talking like that?"

BRODY: "Oh, Rochester. We have GOT to get a bigger boat."

QUINT: "What's wrong with Chiefey?"

HOOPER: "I dunno, he think's he's Jack Benny. We'd better play along. Uh, Boss--"

BRODY: "Where's Dennis?"

QUINT: [Falsetto voice] "Ah, yes, please?"

BRODY: "Oh, there you are, kid. Listen, what are you gonna sing for us today?"

QUINT: "I thought I'd sing 'Three Ittie Fishies.'"

BRODY: "NOW CUT THAT OUT!"

Sorry for the hijack!

[shimp scrampi]

Jack as Quint, in the back of the meeting room, screeches on his violin and then opines:

"Well, you know, Roch will find him for five, but he'll catch him, kill him and clean him for ten!"

[Brad from Georgia]

The shark rears up behind Brody and says,

SHARK: Friends, when you want a tempting, filling meal or a simple snack to tide you over, remember chum. It's tantalizing, it's tasty, it's satisfying, and it comes in those six delicious flavors: haddock, flounder, tuna, orange roughy, grouper, and cod. So look for those big red gobbets in the water that tell you you're getting genuine chum!

[scottp]

This thread has definitely jumped the shark!

[Brad from Georgia]

I'm trying to be good now. Could the film be Dirty Tricks from 1981? That featured impressionist Rich Little as "Robert Brennan." Elliot Gould was the star. I saw a still from it in a book on B-movies (wish I had a scanner) that shows Little wearing a captain's hat, but there's no information about the movie or his role in it, other than the name of the character, and the IMDB doesn't help, either. Little really likes to do Benny, so it's a possiblity, if this rings any bells.

[Jhammes]

Thank you, Laura Leff, for such a good website. It means a lot, for so many people, to still visit Jack! A very pleasant website, sad that there is so much junk passing today for comedy.
"Movie with a bad Jack Benny impression". Of all things, that was a "Happy Days" three part episode! (Possible a local station played the three half hours to fill a ninety minute slot? Dunno.) I am not a "Happy Days" fan, but have to tip my hat to any good reference to JB.
The "plot"? Somehow, Richie and the gang wind up in Hollywood for a screen test. During some outdoor beach front filmed locations ( a laugh track is dubbed in ) the gang meet their "local Hollywood" counterparts: the Jack Benny impersonator is sort of the Ralph Malph of the bunch. The tough guy
challenges Fonzie to motorcycle over a shark tank, so this "landmark"(???)
episode also gave birth to the pop culture "jump the shark" expression!!!
Jack sure does turn up everywhere, if in a subtle way!

[Brad from Georgia]

And I found the name of the actor playing "Charlie," who pretends to be Jack Benny: David Agress. He seems to have become a lighting director later on.

[rostopowicz]

That's it!!!

It was from Happy Days!

Thanks!!!!

[Jhammes]

Has to be seen to be believed... clips of the Happy Days episode that presented "jump the shark", AND "Jack Benny".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72nPf4UaemU

(The bathrobe? That I DON'T understand at all...)