Jack's Early TV Shows

[Gerry O.]

Many of Jack's early live TV shows were radically different from his radio shows of the same era. The TV shows didn't have the "family" atmosphere of his radio show. Sure, various members of his radio cast would appear from time to time, but they didn't usually appear together and on a regular basis.

This must have been quite shocking for fans of the radio show, who probably just assumed that Jack would bring his entire cast and format intact from radio to television....which of course, he didn't.

Does anyone here know what the general thoughts were from the press and public regarding the "new" TV version of Jack's show? As entertaining and enjoyable as those early TV episodes are, I imagine that they took some getting used to!

[LLeff]

Does anyone here know what the general thoughts were from the press and public regarding the "new" TV version of Jack's show? As entertaining and enjoyable as those early TV episodes are, I imagine that they took some getting used to!

I'm told Michael Biel (of Yesterday USA fame) has been doing a lot of research on this. But I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet about it. He's on the OTR Digest if you want to get hold of him...I'm just busy trying to finish the book and the 39 Man March and have almost no time to spare at the moment!

[Roman]

Well, the fact was that Jack's TV show ran for 14 years and, for most of that time, it was a very highly rated show. I don't know about press reviews but the public seems to have had little problem adjusting to the different format.

[Alan]

Also, content aside (and even despite content), .....most people prefer TV over radio.

[LLeff]

Also, content aside (and even despite content), .....most people prefer TV over radio.

Who do? Prefer Jack's TV show over his radio show? Or prefer TV in general over radio?

[Alan]

My saying that most people prefer TV over radio was a speculation about Gerry's original post:

I was guessing that at least part of the acceptance of JB's less family-of-regulars oriented TV format was based on the tremendous appeal of the television medium itself.

To be fair, i havn't seen very many TV eps, and i mostly luved the ones i have seen. Still, while i personnally prefer the early 50's heyday of the radio show (and that might put me in the majority on this board).....i believe that for MOST people, (even then, when dramatic radio was a major force), the preference for the visual medium more than makes up for any difference in content/quality.

[Gerry O.]

Something else occurred to me after I posted my original message on this topic....

Jack's first few years on TV weren't on a weekly basis...or even a bi-weekly basis (that would come a little later). His first TV shows were spaced months apart, and were treated more like "specials" than a regular series. Being that that was the case, people probably weren't thinking of Jack's early TV shows as a "series", but rather as special events separate from the radio series....and that would make it easier for viewers to accept Jack doing a TV show without his radio "gang".