My favorite episode

[friggle]

Its hard to pick a favorite of Jack's radio shows. But there was one from 2-20-1955 that had me almost drive off the road when I heard it. The Beverly Hills Beavers are doing a school play. The show that they are doing is "The Jack Benny Program". A group of "Kid" actors are doing Jack, Mary, Don, Dennis, Rodchester, Sheldon Leonard's Race Track Tout, Frank Nelson, and Bob Crosby. They do a scaled down verion of the show (complete with "KID" orchestra. If you are a fan of the Benny Programs, this one is a real treat. I could just see in my minds eye the Adult cast on stage watching this and not keeping a straight face. Gems are "Kid - Dennis" singing Clancy lowered the Boom, and The Race Track Tout. The audience really went wild.

[helloagain]

This is a very funny show. They did it at least twice that I recall. I think the first one was done in the late 40s, with different kids playing the parts.

[friggle]

I did not know there was one from the 40's like that. I'd love to hear it. Do you know the date of the show?

Also, I have tried searches to see if I could find out the names of the KID actors who did the roles. Have you ever seen any link, or publication that listed them?

Regards
Friggle

[helloagain]

The 2/20/55 show to which you refer was actually a rerun of 2/22/53. However, the first time it was done was on 4/23/50. If you listen to this show you will find that it is slightly different than the later one. I don't really know much about the kids that played the Beavers, except for Harry Shearer, who is still very active as an actor and writer. You may remember him from Saturday Night Live. He appeared on some Benny TV shows, but I'm not sure if he was on radio. I think he was on the show where Jack took the Beavers to a carnival, on which Mr. Kitzel had a very funny role.

[shimp scrampi]

Yeah, Harry Shearer definitely did some of the radio shows in the fifties. Laura's got about twenty entries for him in 39 FOREVER. Well worth a purchase, it answers ALL the questions like these.

As an aside, we were just discussing in the last chat, the TV show where Jack goes to Edgar Bergen's house and meets a real, walking-talking Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Well, 'little people" Billy Curtis and Karl Swenson played them in the filmed version, but I just watched an earlier 'live' version of the script, and kids Harry Shearer and Stevie Wooton played Charlie and Mortimer (not sure which played which). So, there's one for the Trivial Pursuit cards. Who played Mr. Burns AND Charlie McCarthy on TV?

[itsme_crazydad]

Hi. This is my first post in this community.

I think my favorite(s) are the Christmas shopping where he meets the clerk played by Mel Blanc. "Metal tips, plastic tips.Water color, oil paint. With dates, without dates. Put this card in it." Adding on, year after year.

[kbbl]

I also find interesting that, according to the script from 2/20/55 (the 4/23/53 repeat) Harry Shearer was the kid that played the Frank Nelson kid part. So it's one of his first impersonations, you could say. (It's also ironic that the Simpsons have a Frank Nelson character, but it's voiced by Dan Castellenetta)

That too was one of my favorites. I'll have to compare those two shows more thoroughly side by side someday. I know there are some differences, the biggest being Bob, not Phil, but other little changes (like Shearer doing Frank Nelson as the messenger for one.

[altfactor]

Wasn't this adapted into a TV episode in 1961 without Mary Livingstone??

[mrdj]

For me, it's hard to pick a specific episode and say it's my favorite. I have found though, there are 2 types of shows that I enjoy the most... any show with the Colemans, or any show where Jack has a dream. Whenever I hear ''Oh, Ronnie!'' or the orchestra playing the segue into Jack's dream, I know I'm in for a good laugh. Of course, any show with Frank or Mel featured is likewise good. What am I saying! I can thinks of only a handful that when I hear them come up again on my play list I skip and go to the next.