The Jack Benny Show/Program
1 9 5 0 - 1 9 6 5 (USA)
343 x 30 minute episodes
The last great superstar of radio to make the transition to
television was Jack Benny, who proceeded cautiously, in an almost
stingy manner - befitting his carefully cultured persona.
The Jack Benny Program was not really a situation comedy
except as it dealt loosely with with the domestic and professional
tribulations of the star.
In the first few years, before her retirement, Benny's wife
Mary Livingstone played herself on the show. Otherwise the series
was a comedy-variety program of skits, monologues and music, the
foremost example of a series built on the personality of the star.
Part of Benny's persona was the humiliation and insults he
allowed himself to suffer at the hands of second bananas. Together
with his dozens of running schticks - being forever 39, keeping
his hard-earned pennies in an impenetrable vault, his noisy
Maxwell automobile, his vanity about blue eyes and his prowess on
the violin - enabled a brilliant ensemble cast of supporting
players to combine for the comfort of predictability and the
freshness of variations.
Among the cast were Dennis Day, the daffy Irish tenor; Eddie
'Rochester' Anderson, Benny's sarcastic valet; the headstrong
announcer Don Wilson (and his pampered son, also overweight, named
Harlow); the impertinent store clerk Frank Nelson ("Yesssss?"),
who surreally worked behind every store counter where Benny would
shop; and the Man of a Thousand Voices, Mel Blanc.
Blanc played several running characters on the show, including
Professor LeBlanc, the weeping violin teacher who despaired of
ever teaching Benny to play even adequately. He also occasionally
played a monosyllabic Mexican, engaged in the predictable exchange
with Benny: "What's your name?". "Sy". "Sy?".
"Si". "And your sister?". "Sue".
"What does she do?". "Sew". "Sew?".
"Si".
Blanc was even the off-screen source of the inspired sound
effects like the chugging, dilapidated Maxwell, and the creaking
vault door.
More than other comedians who made the switch from radio, stage
and movies to television, Jack Benny had found his perfect medium.
Just as his character evolved from one of somewhat arrogant
egotism to that of being eternally set-upon, so too did television
provide the perfect frame for his style.
Benny's classic pauses and comic timing were funny enough on
radio (one famous routine had a robber approaching him demanding
"Your money or your life!", followed by a minute of
silence and finally Benny's "I'm thinking! I'm
thinking!".
But on television these devices were supplemented by eye
contact and droll mannerisms. No comedian crafted so finely such a
large assortment of inflections and routines central to his
character, and so perfectly suited to the intimate small screen.
The show aired originally on CBS and later switched to NBC
where it was known as The Jack Benny Show.
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