From the Jack Benny fan club site:
“1949 – 1964: Television
On May 8, 1949, Jack did a test program for television at CBS Radio Studio A. Guests included Isaac Stern, Lum and Abner (Jack was a friend of Chet Lauck, who played the role of Lum Edwards), the Andrews Sisters, Rochester, and others. Unfortunately, it seems that any recording of this program has been lost to the ages. However, it was clear that Jack would be able to transfer his comedic talents to the small screen.
While still maintaining the radio program, Jack traveled to New York to do his first television shows on October 28, 1950. His first line was: “I’d give a million dollars to know what I look like!” The first show (and likely subsequent ones) was shown live to the East Coast, and broadcast at a later date for Western viewers due to the lack of coast-to-coast television transmission facilities. The 1950 show ran 45 minutes, as Jack thought that half an hour was too short and an hour was too long. Subsequent shows were half-hours, and aired on January 28, April 5, and May 20, 1951. Early guests included Dinah Shore, Ken Murray, Frank Sinatra, Claudette Colbert, and Ben Hogan.
On November 4, 1951, Jack broadcast his first show from the new CBS Television City in Los Angeles. The budget for radio had been reduced, and the shows began to reflect it. Guest stars went from people such as Ronald and Benita Colman, Tyrone Power, and Gene Kelly appearing each week or every other week, to stars appearing once every month or two, and often friends of Jack who would appear for reduced or no salary. On June 1, 1952, Phil Harris broadcast his last regular show with Jack. Sources vary on why he left, but Phil himself said that he had just “had enough”, didn’t want to go into television, and preferred to concentrate on helping Alice raise the family. He was the first member of the well-recognized Benny cast to leave, after being on the program for 16 years.
However in some ways, Mary can be considered the first to have “left” the program. In 1948, Jack had started transcribing his radio show. At the end of that season, Mary had talked with Jack about leaving the program due to the overwhelming stage fright she had developed over the years. However, she was persuaded to continue with the program by recording her lines at home, with either her brother (Hilliard Marks, also the show’s producer) or George Balzer giving her the cue lines. Another woman stood in for her during the actual performance (these stand-ins included daughter Joan Benny, the script secretary Jeanette Eyemann, or occasionally an unknown actress), and Mary’s lines edited in at a later time. Ironically, on a couple of occasions the stand-in would fluff a line and get a good audience reaction, requiring Mary to fluff the same line intentionally in her home recording. Mary was not eager to follow the program to television, although filming of the show persuaded her to appear on selected appearances through the mid-50s.
While doubling between radio and television, the writers started creating running gags for the radio show. One of the most long-lived was born on September 30, 1951 when Jack “wrote” the song When You Say I Beg Your Pardon, Then I’ll Come Back to You. His trying to get the song published or performed by a notable celebrity ran until the end of the television series, with it being performed by people ranging from Frank Sinatra to Lawrence Welk to Peter, Paul, and Mary. Other running and reused gags include Mel Blanc delivering “cimeron rolls” and a few versions of the Beverly Hills Beavers (a fictitious Boy Scout-type group that Jack led) performing their version of Jack’s show. To handle the extra writing, Hal Goldman and Al Gordon were added to the writing staff.
Also, many scripts were reused between radio and television. Jack dreamed he was married to Mary with Joan as their daughter on both radio and television. He also had visits from the IRS confirming that he spent only $17 on entertainment in a year, with the agents confirming such with the Colmans on radio and Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Stewart on television. Jack was awakened by a DJ at 4AM and hit the jackpot in Las Vegas on both media.
The television shows fit two basic styles: the “in one” (theatre term referring to an act done at the front of the stage before a closed curtain) and the situation comedy. “In one” shows would start with Jack’s monologue (something he had discarded in radio years prior), the introduction of a guest and banter with Jack (and possibly a musical performance or two if they had that capability), and a skit in the second half. Situation comedy shows would have Jack, often at home, dealing with various storylines and surrounded by Rochester, Don Wilson, Mary, Dennis Day, Frank Nelson (“yessss?”), Mr. Kitzel, and various other characters. These shows more closely mirrored the format that had become so familiar on radio. On some occasions, the first half would be “in one” and the “skit” would be a situation comedy.
Around 1952, Jack began to rediscover his love of the violin. He took his practicing seriously this time, working for hours in the bathroom adjoining his bedroom. He began giving benefit concerts with a combination of monologue and serious concert work, starting with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Jack had long made comedy of his mediocre violin playing, but he was now playing Mendelssohn and Rimsky-Korsakov as opposed to “The Glow Worm” and “Love in Bloom”. Isaac Stern became his informal manager, connecting symphony orchestras with him. When Jack once wondered aloud at why a symphony orchestra would want to hire him over Isaac Stern, Stern replied, “We real important violinists can only get $5.50 a ticket–but somebody as rotten as you–for you, they can charge a hundred dollars a ticket!” Jack also had a running joke that at most concerts, the expensive seats are down front. In his, the cheap seats were down front, and got more expensive the further away you sat. “For $200, you don’t have to come at all!”
By 1953, it was clear that the golden age of radio was over. Jack began doing his television programs every three weeks for the 1953-54 season, and every two weeks for 1954-55. The radio program featured several reruns during the 1954-55 season. On May 22, 1955, Jack’s last regular radio program was aired. There was no major fanfare in the show–it was simply another Jack Benny program, with Mel Blanc clowning as Twombley, the sound effects man (undoubtedly a reference to sound man Gene Twombley, husband of Bea Benadaret who was also a semi-regular on the Benny program). Jack’s radio programs would continue to be rebroadcast as “The Best of Benny” from October 28, 1956 to June 1, 1958.
On March 9, 1954 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Joan Benny married Seth Baker after a whirlwind courtship. They settled in an apartment in New York, and on July 16, 1955, presented Jack and Mary with their first grandchild, a boy named Michael. As fate would have it, the marriage dissolved shortly after Michael’s arrival. Joan moved back home to North Roxbury, and gave the Bennys the opportunity to dote on their grandson at every opportunity. In March of 1956, Joan married Buddy Rudolph. Buddy formally adopted Michael, and Joan gave birth to a girl, Maria, in 1957. Again, fate would see the marriage end in 1959.
On October 2, 1956, Jack reached one of the pinnacles of his symphony career, playing a benefit to save a financially-troubled Carnegie Hall. $50,000 was raised, and Jack’s performance received a positive review (from a comedic standpoint) by New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg. He is often misquoted (and actually improved upon) as having said, “Last night at Carnegie Hall, Jack Benny played Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn lost.”
Jack’s television program continued airing every two weeks, featuring a variety of plots and skits including: a spoof of “You Bet Your Life” with Groucho Marx, Jack instructing a very young Johnny Carson on comedy, Jack standing in for Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers, and spoofing “The Honeymooners” with Audrey Meadows. In 1957, Jack won an Emmy for “Best continuing performance [male] in a series by a comedian, singer, host, dancer, MS, announcer, narrator, panelist, or any person who essentially plays himself”. In 1958, the show took the Emmy for Best Comedy Series.
On March 18, 1959, Jack’s first special–The Jack Benny Hour–was aired. It featured guest stars Mitzi Gaynor, Bob Hope, Senor Wences, and the Marquis Chimps in their first of several performances with Jack. Jack did three specials in 1959, and another in 1960.
At the start of the 1959 season, CBS moved Jack’s television program from its Sunday at 7:30PM timeslot (originally geared to follow Jack’s radio program at 7PM), to Sunday at 10PM. The second show of the season featured a guest appearance by former President Harry Truman, who was also a friend of Jack’s. In October of 1960, Jack began doing a weekly television program and moved to Sunday at 9:30PM. During the 1961-62 season, Jack’s program was opposite the second half of Bonanza, an hour-long western shows with growing popularity. Jack decided to watch it one week, and ended up missing his own program. Jack noted, “If I myself get so absorbed in Bonanza that I forget my own program, what chance have I got with the millions of other viewers?”
In September, 1962, Jack’s program moved to Tuesday at 9:30. It was the first time in 28 years that his program had not graced the Sunday night lineup. The guest stars were still top-notch, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Phil Silvers, Raymond Burr, Rod Serling, Connie Francis, Frankie Avalon, and others. Carol Burnett teamed with Jack for an unforgettable Tarzan skit. The show held 12th place in the ratings, then slipped to 14th in 1963.
In 1963, Joan married Bob Blumofe at the Roxbury home. Joan and Bob had a son, Bobby, on June 23, 1964, and a daughter, Joanna, on June 29, 1965.
At the end of the 1963-64 season, CBS elected not to renew Jack’s contract. He signed a one-year contract with NBC, which slated the show for Fridays at 9:30PM. However, the show was opposite the new Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a spin-off of The Andy Griffith Show. Gomer Pyle was a surprise hit, and Jack’s program was unable to make the top 15 in the ratings. A violinist in his late 20s appeared on the show of February 12, 1965; a young man named Stuart Canin, who had been partially responsible for the start of the Benny-Allen feud almost 30 years earlier. On April 16, 1965, the Smothers Brothers guested on Jack’s last regular television program; Jack was 71 years old. The fall of 1965 brought the first season without a Jack Benny Program in 33 years.”
Read more about Jack Benny:
http://www.jackbenny.org/
Watch the Jack Benny Show on Channel 2 on this blog.
Jack Benny Show
May 28, 2009
Categories: CBS, Classic television, Classic TV shows, Internet TV, Internet TV network, Media, Radio, Television series, Television shows, TV, TV shows, Web TV . Tags: Benny transitioned from radio to TV, Classic television, Jack Benny, The Jack Benny Show, TV show . Author: tvshowznet . Comments: Leave a Comment
