"Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest

[Yhtapmys]

The Date on the episode is 12/23/45..Don Wilson mentions that the last night for postmarks on the "I Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest is 12/24/45. Does that mean they took the entire Month of January to choose a winner?.

Ingenious, that Steve Bradley. He had everyone listening for a whole month!

Is it me, or does the Steve Bradley character stick out like a sore thumb on the Benny show?

Yhtapmys
"Drive Your Blues Awaaay!"

[JohnM]

Is it me, or does the Steve Bradley character stick out like a sore thumb on the Benny show?

Yes, he does. But maybe that was the point?

[Mister Kitzel]

I never gave it much thought, but the Steve Bradley character did not fit in with the rest of the gang.

Phil was the bandleader, but he joked around with Jack. Rochester worked for Jack, and he would complain or make little jokes about Jack. Mary, Dennis, and Don were part of the "show." They were able to interact with Jack personally, including a few insults along the way. Within a family there are complaints or insults that people outside the family cannot make. That is why Jack's cast got away with so much.

Steve Bradley was all business without personal interaction. He did not come in witha smooth introduction like Dennis, Larry Stevens, or Bob Crosby. It may be the exaggerated voice for the character that made him seem less human. Had the character been more subtle he may have come across better.

[Roman]

I think the better comparison to Steve Bradley were characters like the Tout, Mr. Kitzel, the waitress in the diner ("Whaddya want Mac?), the telephone operators, John Silvoney and, of course, Frank Nelson - characters that make a brief appearance, do their shtick, and leave. With the possible exception of Mr. Kitzel, none of these characters really interacted with Jack in any sort of normal human way. They were all basically cartoon characters. And seen in that light and that company, Steve Bradley was pretty funny. At least I thought he was and I did enjoy his appearances. I liked the crazy ideas he had for getting Jack publicity and his obliviousness to what it required Jack to do. The Steve Bradley scenes also reflected a wonderful modern cynicism to the whole overblown Hollywood publicity mill and struck me as being particularly apropos to our times with personalities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and all the overdramatic press coverage of our stars' doings.

[Mister Kitzel]

I have to agree that the over-the-top cartoonish character of Steve Bradley was fun.

The character just did not last very long. He appeared in more than one season, did he not?

[JohnM]

I think the better comparison to Steve Bradley were characters like the Tout, Mr. Kitzel, the waitress in the diner ("Whaddya want Mac?), the telephone operators, John Silvoney and, of course, Frank Nelson - characters that make a brief appearance, do their shtick, and leave. With the possible exception of Mr. Kitzel, none of these characters really interacted with Jack in any sort of normal human way. They were all basically cartoon characters. And seen in that light and that company, Steve Bradley was pretty funny. At least I thought he was and I did enjoy his appearances. I liked the crazy ideas he had for getting Jack publicity and his obliviousness to what it required Jack to do. The Steve Bradley scenes also reflected a wonderful modern cynicism to the whole overblown Hollywood publicity mill and struck me as being particularly apropos to our times with personalities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and all the overdramatic press coverage of our stars' doings.

I enjoyed the Steve Bradley appearances, even if he did stick out like a sore thumb. Good points about the social commentary, and the cartoon-like nature of the tertiary characters.

[Yhtapmys]

I never gave it much thought, but the Steve Bradley character did not fit in with the rest of the gang.
<snip>
It may be the exaggerated voice for the character that made him seem less human.

That's part of it.

Roman has a very good assessment. There were two kinds of characters on the Benny show: those he chose to be surrounded with (ie. the people who were on his "show"), and the odd people who sort of barged into his life that he couldn't do anything about (Tout, the door-guy, Frank Nelson, etc.)

The "surrounded" group—Mary, Don, Rochester, Dennis, Phil—all had realistic foibles and you could accept them as people. But Steve Bradley really didn't. He was a one-dimentional stereotype. I just can't picture Jack wanting to hire this guy. To me, Steve Bradley would have worked better if it wasn't really Jack's PR guy—he was just someone who, on his own, worked up unauthorised goofy promotions he inflicted Jack. This would allow Jack to express some of the exasperation he used on the others in the "barged" group and would have made the character funnier.

I appreciate the satirical element—Jack satirised Hollywood hype really well in one sketch in the Jell-O years—but the Bradley character didn't work as well for me as it could have. The writers must have at least partly agreed as Bradley really didn't last long. But, that said, I think the writers did the best they could with him and there are some funny moments.

Yhtapmys
"Drive Your Blues Awaaay!"

[Roman]

Actually, I found it very believable that insecure vain envious Jack would hire a PR guy to boost his image and name. Jack was eternally looking for Hollywood recognition and acceptance but destined never to receive it. So hiring a guy like Steve Bradley made perfect sense for Jack. The humor wouldn't have worked if this guy was pushing himself uninvited on Jack. It's Jack's desperate need to be noticed that leads him to seek out Steve Bradley.

As far as Steve Bradley's rapid-fire staccato delivery, yes it was very affected, very unnatural and unlike a normal person. But I think that was the point. Jack wanted him to sound like an aggressive, overbearing, low-rent used car salesman. Because THAT'S the kind of PR hack that Jack would get.

[LLeff]

They're at UCLA.

Can you get copies of those transcriptions or do you have to go to UCLA to look at them?

You have to go there in person. Sorry!

[LLeff]

The Date on the episode is 12/23/45..Don Wilson mentions that the last night for postmarks on the "I Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest is 12/24/45. Does that mean they took the entire Month of January to choose a winner?

Well, there was a LOT of mail to go through. And just guessing, but I think the mail took a little longer back then. I've noticed that when I was a kid (which was a couple-plus decades after this show), you basically counted on coast-to-coast letter as taking a week. Now I've dropped letters in the mail and have it show up on the other coast about 3 days later. So not sure how long it would have taken in 1945, but if it was postmarked by 12/24 (and don't forget about that Christmas crush of mail!), it might have taken until 1/5 or even 1/10 to get to Hollywood.

[Yhtapmys]

It seems Dick Lane, who played Steve Bradley, was known for similar roles.

http://www.mtv.com/movies/person/87182/personmain.jhtml

I don't know if this site mentions it, but Lane was heard on the Horn Blows At Midnight as an announcer.

Yhtapmys