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citizenscreen · 3 days

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“The Jack Benny Program” debuted on the NBC Blue radio Network on May 2, 1932. With several titles along the way, the show ran from 1932 to 1955 on radio (mostly CBS), and from 1950 to 1965 on television. #OnThisDay

#the jack benny program #jack benny #eddie anderson #old time radio

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fuckyeahbarbarastanwyck · 5 months

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#barbara stanwyck #jack benny #on set #press photo #the jack benny program #1952 #1958 #TV

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rautavaara · 1 year

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eddie anderson and jack benny, from "the jack benny show"

#eddie anderson #jack benny #my art #the jack benny program

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wgc-productions · 1 year

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I Love "The Jack Benny Program" And I Will Talk About And Analyze It At Length: Part I (The Characters)

I am going to use this humble platform of mine to gush about my extraordinarily niche interest of The Jack Benny Radio Program which aired on NBC (1932, 1933-1948) and CBS (1932-1933, 1949-1955). Let's go!!

Okay, so let's start with the general premise:

The Jack Benny Program is a show-with-in-a-show about Jack Benny, a real life 1940s American comedian and movie star (though even he would say "star" is pushing it).

The show follows the lives of Jack and the staff of his radio show (think Curb Your Enthusiasm). The characters share the names of their actors (excluding one which we'll talk about), and the characters often reference the lives of their actors and are meant to be exaggerated versions of their actors. Public events dealing with the actors are often referenced and jokes about in-show.

Now let's get to the characters*:

*This is a show that existed for 23 years. It has seen a lot of people come and go. The characters I am showing here are the core cast that stayed the longest, though many of the characters/actors that were in the earlier and later seasons are wonderful in their own right.

Jack Benny: The titular character of the show, Jack is a vain, cheap, neurotic, and charming boss to all of his staff. He has a massive crush on his co-worker, Mary Livingstone (who he was married to in real life). He has deep friendships with all of his staff and is often around them. He is famously bad at the violin, insists that he is 39 even though he is clearly not, and insists that he has blue hair and blonde eyes though (once again, he obviously does not)

Rochester: Jack's long term valet, Rochester is a sly, clever, fun-loving man who prefers to crack jokes over managing his boss' life. His brand of fun includes: drinking, gambling, spending time with his friends, and smoking cigars.

Mary Livingstone: Mary is an actor on the show. She is thoughtful, smart, wise-cracking, and always up to go along with Jack's schemes. She has a massive crush on Jack (who she was married to in real life). She is never afraid to push against Jack's more ridiculous beliefs and ideas. She has a sister,

Dennis Day: The perpetual youngster, Dennis is a kind-hearted, naive, idiotic, silly, young man who lives with his mother whom he loves very much. He is a crooner, which means he sings a song every episode and it is often joked about that singing once a week is his only job. He is often treated like a beloved annoying little brother by the cast and crew. Jack often exploits his good nature by shortchanging his pay or making him work on things outside of his job description. He is a proud red-haired Irish man.

Phil Harris: Phil is a wild child if ever there was one. The orchestra director, Phil stays up late, drinks often, and always advocates for his orchestra members who are ex-convicts with interesting fashion styles. He is a womanizer who is sitll deeply in love with his wife, Alice. He is also illiterate and dropped out of school as a boy. He has a flippant older brother energy with Jack and he is easy going with everyone else.

Don Wilson: Don is the announcer and he always opens the show. Don is self important, quick is be ruffled, loyal to Jack, and a resident straight man. Jokes are often made about his weight. He and Jack often pick at each other, but he is well liked by the other characters.

I'm going to do more of these talking about specific episodes, the form of the show, it's impact on modern comedy, the lives of the actors, and more, but I think this is a good place to stop before it gets too long. In the meantime: here's a video of an episode which I think is a good introduction to the characters, style, and premise.

In this episode Jack and Rochester pick up the cast so they can car pool to work. Hijinks ensue. This episode aired October 4, 1942.

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#jack benny #the jack benny program #old time radio #analysis #audio fiction #audio drama #fiction podcast #Fun fact: when I was a pre-teen I would listen to Jack Benny and The Saint to fall asleep #old time radio shows were how my grandma and mom bonded #the old shows are important to me!#let's discuss!#Youtube

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leonardcohenofficial · 10 months

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Always been curious, how did you get into the Jack Benny show as a kid? What was your first exposure?

it was through a ten disc CD set of 20 episodes of the show with celebrity guests that my father randomly bought and gave to me when i was about seven! here's a photo of the specific set included below:

when i first started listening to the show, the only celebrity i really knew of the twenty featured was bing crosby, because i loved white christmas (danny kaye is also one of the guests included in this set, but i didn't have as strong an appreciation for him at that point), so i listened to that episode on repeat a lot; i eventually was curious enough to start listening to the other nineteen episodes included, and fell in love with the show as a whole

for MANY many years, these twenty episodes were all i knew of the show; much later on i saw jack benny's movies and watched episodes of the television show, but it wasn't until at least middle school that i found that people had digitized hundreds of episodes of the show and shared them in podcast form on itunes. it was then that i truly dived into the backlog of the show and fully got to experience the phenomenon that it was (albeit many decades late). it also led me to get into the bob hope show (though not as strongly because i don't like bob hope as much LOL) and the phil harris-alice faye show (which is hilarious and i also really like)

i have many favorite episodes of the jack benny program but the ones that are ingrained into my memory are the ones that were included in this set because they were the ones that made me fall in love with the specific humor and style of the show and i am always willing to recommend specific episodes to those looking to get into the show!

#thank you so much for asking della this really makes me so happy to talk about <3 #jack benny #the jack benny program #fieryphrazes #of the episodes included in this set the ones featuring robert taylor ed sullivan barbara stanwyck peter lorre danny kaye orson welles #richard widmark and bing crosby were/are my faves #the jimmy stewart and bob hope ones feature some period typical racism so i can't really fully recommend them #but for real i am always happy to talk jack benny anytime

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tvthemesongs · 8 months

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The Jack Benny Program intro

#the jack benny program #cbs #nbc #1950s #1960s

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cursemewithyourkiss · 16 days

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Have had Love in Bloom stuck in my head for weeks now. Am I in my Jack Benny era?

#the jack benny program has genuinely changed my daily speech too. it really isn't funny #the jack benny program #fuck off me

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thebestestwinner · 3 months

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See pinned post for the full bracket!

#frasier #the jack benny program #emmys #emmy awards #best sitcom #bracket tournament #brackets #poll #polls

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tenderbittersweet · 7 months

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I’ve been reading a Halloween book to the kids at work, and I was pleasantly surprised when this scene happened. Somewhere out there, Jack Benny is smiling! I wish I could tell the author that his Venn Diagram of target (someone who works with kids + someone who adores Jack Benny = Me) has been reached!

#old time radio #the jack benny program #jack benny #lmao #personal #op

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ilovemesomevincentprice · 3 months

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I can find a million uses for this gif. I had to post it.

Vincent Price guest stars on The Jack Benny Show (1957)

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alloftheclassics · 1 year

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@neil-gaiman spoke with the International Jack Benny Fan Club (501c) for the Jack Benny Convention about Why He Loves Jack Benny

Thank you, Neil! Like you said, “knowing and loving Jack is a responsibility”.

#Jack Benny #Neil Gaiman #old time radio #otr #Benjamin Kubelsky #All of the classics #classics #radio #Jack Benny Show #Jack Benny Program #comedy #writing #author #writers on tumblr #writer #interview #Good Omens #Doctor Who #Thank you

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martinandlewislive · 1 year

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Comedy icons and 💝best friends💝 George Burns and Jack Benny

#george burns #jack benny #Jack Benny program #comedy #old hollywood

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spacelazarwolf · 4 months

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in honor of that anon who said jews have done nothing for the world, here’s a non exhaustive list of things we’ve done for the world:

arts, fashion, and lifestyle:

jeans - levi strauss

modern bras - ida rosenthal

sewing machines - isaac merritt singer

modern film industry - carl laemmle (universal pictures), adolph zukor (paramount pictures), william fox (fox film forporation), louis b. mayer (mgm - metro-goldwyn-mayer), harry, sam, albert, and jack warners (warner bros.), steven spielberg, mel brooks, marx brothers

operetta - jacques offenbach

comic books - stan lee

graphic novels - will eisner

teddy bears - morris and rose michtom

influential musicians - irving berlin, stephen sondheim, benny goodman, george gershwin, paul simon, itzhak perlman, leonard bernstein, bob dylan, leonard cohen

artists - mark rothko

actors - elizabeth taylor, jerry lewis, barbara streisand

comedians - lenny bruce, joan rivers, jerry seinfeld

authors - judy blume, tony kushner, allen ginsberg, walter mosley

culture:

esperanto - ludwik lazar zamenhof

feminism - betty friedan, gloria steinem, ruth bader ginsberg

queer and trans rights - larry kramer, harvey milk, leslie feinberg, abby stein, kate bornstein, frank kameny, judith butler

international women's day - clara zetkin

principles of journalizm, statue of liberty, and pulitzer prize - joseph pulitzer

"the new colossus" - emma lazarus

universal declaration of human rights - rene samuel cassin

holocaust remembrance and human rights activism - elie wiesel

workers rights - louis brandeis, rose schneiderman

public health care, women's rights, and children's rights - lillian wald

racial equity - rabbi abraham joshua heschel, julius rosenwald, andrew goodman, michael schwerner

political theory - hannah arendt

disability rights - judith heumann

black lives matter slogan and movement - alicia garza

#metoo movement - jodi kantor

institute of sexology - magnus hirschfeld

technology:

word processing computers - evelyn berezin

facebook - mark zuckerberg

console video game system - ralph henry baer

cell phones - amos edward joel jr., martin cooper

3d - leonard lipton

telephone - philipp reis

fax machines - arthur korn

microphone - emile berliner

gramophone - emile berliner

television - boris rosing

barcodes - norman joseph woodland and bernard silver

secret communication system, which is the foundation of the technology used for wifi - hedy lamarr

three laws of robotics - isaac asimov

cybernetics - norbert wiener

helicopters - emile berliner

BASIC (programming language) - john george kemeny

google - sergey mikhaylovich brin and larry page

VCR - jerome lemelson

fax machine - jerome lemelson

telegraph - samuel finley breese morse

morse code - samuel finley breese morse

bulletproof glass - edouard benedictus

electric motor and electroplating - boris semyonovich jacobi

nuclear powered submarine - hyman george rickover

the internet - paul baran

icq instant messenger - arik vardi, yair goldfinger,, sefi vigiser, amnon amir

color photography - leopold godowsky and leopold mannes

world's first computer - herman goldstine

modern computer architecture - john von neumann

bittorrent - bram cohen

voip internet telephony - alon cohen

data archiving - phil katz, eugene roshal, abraham lempel, jacob ziv

nemeth code - abraham nemeth

holography - dennis gabor

laser - theodor maiman

instant photo sharing online - philippe kahn

first automobile - siegfried samuel marcus

electrical maglev road - boris petrovich weinberg

drip irrigation - simcha blass

ballpoint pen and automatic gearbox - laszlo biro

photo booth - anatol marco josepho

medicine:

pacemakers and defibrillators - louise robinovitch

defibrillators - bernard lown

anti-plague and anti-cholera vaccines - vladimir aronovich khavkin

polio vaccine - jonas salk

test for diagnosis of syphilis - august paul von wasserman

test for typhoid fever - ferdinand widal

penicillin - ernst boris chain

pregnancy test - barnhard zondek

antiretroviral drug to treat aids and fight rejection in organ transplants - gertrude elion

discovery of hepatitis c virus - harvey alter

chemotherapy - paul ehrlich

discovery of prions - stanley prusiner

psychoanalysis - sigmund freud

rubber condoms - julius fromm

birth control pill - gregory goodwin pincus

asorbic acid (vitamin c) - tadeusz reichstein

blood groups and rh blood factor - karl landsteiner

acyclovir (treatment for infections caused by herpes virus) - gertrude elion

vitamins - caismir funk

technique for measuring blood insulin levils - rosalyn sussman yalow

antigen for hepatitus - baruch samuel blumberg

a bone fusion technique - gavriil abramovich ilizarov

homeopathy - christian friedrich samuel hahnemann

aspirin - arthur ernst eichengrun

science:

theory of relativity - albert einstein

theory of the electromagnetic field - james maxwell

quantum mechanics - max born, gustav ludwig hertz

quantum theory of gravity - matvei bronstein

microbiology - ferdinand julius cohn

neuropsychology - alexander romanovich luria

counters for x-rays and gamma rays - robert hofstadter

genetic engineering - paul berg

discovery of the antiproton - emilio gino segre

discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation - arno allan penzias

discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe - adam riess and saul merlmutter

discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity - roger penrose

discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of the milky way - andrea ghez

modern cosmology and the big bang theory - alexander alexandrovich friedmann

stainless steel - hans goldschmidt

gas powered vehicles

interferometer - albert abraham michelson

discovery of the source of energy production in stars - hans albrecht bethe

proved poincare conjecture - grigori yakovlevich perelman

biochemistry - otto fritz meyerhof

electron-positron collider - bruno touschek

#jewish #jumblr #am yisrael fucking chai

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wgc-productions · 1 year

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I Love "The Jack Benny Program" And I Will Talk About And Analyze It At Length: Part II (The Show)

Last week I started talking about my love for the fantastic radio show: The Jack Benny Radio Program which aired on NBC and CBS from 1932-1955. Here is Part I if you want to read up before we get into Part II.

There is a reason that The Jack Benny Program ran for 23 years and then got turned into a TV show that then ran for 15 years and that is because this show is REALLY GOOD!

When we're talking best sitcoms of all time I think that The Jack Benny Program definitely needs to be put in the Top Five, hands down. Now let's get into why.

WHAT IS THE SHOW ABOUT?

The Jack Benny show is a fictionalized account of the life of Jack Benny, the entertainer. As mentioned in Part I, Jack Benny and all of the characters (excluding Rochester) are meant to be exaggerated versions of their actors. You can see this sort of technique used in modern sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm (which can very well be described as a modern Jack Benny Show).

The show follows the life of Jack and the radio show's crew, actors, and writers. This includes Mary Livingston, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Kenny Baker (an early character that would be replaced by Dennis Day), Phil Harris, Bob Crosby (who replaces Phil), Barbra Stanwyck (who appears in the later seasons) and more.

The episodes take place in the CBS and NBC studios, famous LA locations, or Jack's home.

HOW WAS THE SHOW MADE?

Every Sunday at 7:00PM, the show was recorded in front of a live studio audience who can be heard in all of the episodes. Due to the live nature of the show, the cast often would mess up lines or choose to riff and interact with the audience. The video below is a compilation of some of the bloopers.

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The show featured a number of writers (Bill Morrow, Ed Beloin, Al Boasberg, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry, George Balzar, Cy Howard, Sam Perrin) and unlike other programs of the time, Jack always made it known that the show used writers.

One of my favorite jokes in the whole series reflects this (Broadcast September 9, 1954 Timestamp 03:59-04:28):

Jack: So you were paid every week. What good is that? A man needs a little relaxation. I mean, money isn't everything. You oughta realize that.

Bob: Oh, usher! Usher!

Usher: Yes, sir?

Bob: Can you tell me where Mr. Benny's brodacasting from. I must be in the wrong studio.

Jack: No no, Bob, you're not in the wrong studio. It's just I have a new writer and he hasn't grasped my character yet. That's all.

Bob: Well, when he gets his first check he will.

Jack: I guess so. They all do sooner or later.

The show also featured a live orchestra which was directed by Phil Harris and, in the later seasons, Bob Crosby. The orchestra members were often treated like a character though the members rarely spoke. One exception to this is Remly who was a named orchestra member. Remly would often be engaged in some sort of inappropriate situation. In show, the orchestra was made up of a various group of felons, womanizers, drunks, and curious dressers.

In the show's later years, Mary developed a bought of serious stage fright. During these years a variety of tactics were used in order to ensure she and her character could still have a presence in the show:

She would dub in her lines after the show was recorded and before it came up for broadcast. This ensured she was able to do her lines without being intimidated by an audience.

Mary and Jack's daughter, Joan, would read lines for her mother as they sounded similar.

Friend of the show, Barbra Stanwyck, would be written in for an episode and she would explain why Mary wasn't "in the show" while fulfilling Mary's dry comedic role.

THINGS THAT MAKE THE SHOW GREAT:

Okay, so there's a lot in my opinon that makes this show so good.

One!

The comedy comes from the characters which is why so many of the jokes can still feel fresh and modern. (There are some jokes that are so surprising and well crafted that I honest to goodness laugh out loud at them.) I think that this not only comes from the slickness of the writing but also from the fact that the writers were, in their own ways, trying to be subversive.

Mind you this is a 70 year old American show so there are a number of things that have aged poorly. The fact that Rochester never calls any of his cast mates by their first names because he's Black and a servant leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The way that Don's weight is constantly used as a punchline leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The antisemitic tropes used despite the fact that Jack, Mary, and the majority of the writing staff is Jewish leaves a bad taste in mouth. But it seems clear that the writers and actors are not particularly fond of those tropes either.

For example, Rochester often outsmarts Jack or makes the sharp biting quips. Unlike shows of the time like Amos and Andy, Rochester (especially in the later years) never had humor centering on a mocking of his race nor was he the object of ridicule. Characters did not make fun of Rochester in a way that was really unseen at the time in mainstream media.

Here's an example of a joke that displays some of that of subversive humor that makes it last till today (Broadcast: Febraury 18, 1940 Timestamp: 38:28-38:59).

Jack: Very good, Rochester. Very good. Now sing "Scatterbarained"

Rochester: Now, wait a minnute boss-

Jack: I said sing "Scatterbrained"-

Rochester: I'm tired of singing for you all the time. Why don't you put a radio in this car?

Jack: Because I only want to hear what I want to hear. That's why.

Mary: Oh, Jack let him rest. He's been singing for an hour.

Rochester: I don't mind singing, Ms. Livingston, but at 8 o'clock he wants me to imitate Amos and Andy.

Jack: Well-

Rochester: I can't do that Blackface stuff.

Two!

I love how the show breaks the fourth wall and leans into the zaniness you can get by being all audio. This is something you'll see/hear in my own show (i.e The BookMarks, Retribution, and Small Victories) and I think Jack and the gang do a great job of it.

They are never afraid to lean into the truly absurd elements of the show. For example, Jack canonically has had a man locked in his vault basement since the founding of Los Angeles. His parrot, who is played by Mel Blanc, often has very sharp conversations with him, Mary's sister Babe plays for the Green Bay Packers, and every so often a quartet of barbershop singers will appear to serenade/haunt/mock Jack and the cast. The show is never afraid to be ridiculous and I think that is something that could never go out of style.

Three!

The show isn't afraid to switch it up. When you're on the air for 23 years it'd be easy to get stale, but they manage to find ways to keep the show fresh. Sometimes they do murder mysteries. Sometimes they have focus on different characters. They, despite being a sitcom, find different ways to show off character growth without deviating too much from the establish traits. It's very organic and I think that is something that anyone can appreciate.

Well!

It's getting pretty long down here. I hadn't realized I wrote quite so much. Let me let you go, but before I do here is an episode of The JBP that I have been enjoying. The premise is that Jack Benny's famous movie star neighbor, Ronald Colman (think a 40s version of Hugh Grant) is having a movie premiere and Jack was not invited.

The only thing you need to know before you start the episode is that Ronald and his wife, Benita, find Jack extremely annoying and Jack wants to be their friend very badly.

ENJOY!

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#the jack benny program #jack benny #old time radio #i love this show so much and watching certain sitcoms shows just how impactful it is #like Seinfeld is cut from the same DNA as Jack Benny #Jack is Jerry Seinfeld #The movie premiere episode is so silly I love it.#Youtube

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leonardcohenofficial · 11 months

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hello trusted friends mutuals and followers i will be continuously traveling from 4AM PST tomorrow until 7:30AM GMT wednesday so please send me any and all podcast recs to keep me sane during an obscene number of hours of travel

#also taking audiobook and film recs i just would also like to branch out from the same six episodes of LPOTL and the jack benny program that #i alway listen to when traveling lol

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cursemewithyourkiss · 2 months

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Been listening to the Jack Benny Program a lot and it's completely ruining my sense of humour

#saw gifs of the film nightmare alley on my dash and i immediately thought oh the horn blows at midnight backwards!!!#like stoooopppp that wasn't even funny 😭#well maybe a little... i enjoy ronnies delivery immensely #the jack benny program

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