Dennis Day TV Show

[Yhtapmys]

Dennis Day Prepares for Video Debut
By BOB THOMAS
HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 27. — (AP) — Eugene Denis McNulty, better known as Dennis Day, portrays a dim-witted character on The Jack Benny radio show. If Day is dumb, many another show business personality would like to have the same brand of ignorance.
Here are some examples of Day's dumbness.
1. After years of biding his time, he landed himself a fat movie contract with Twentieth-Fox.
2. He is the only Fox player who has television rights.
3. He just signed a TV contract with NBC after weeks of bidding by that network and CBS.
Day, who talks like a normal human being and not the breathless, half-baked character he plays on the radio, indicated that he doesn't believe in rushing into things. He has had many movie offers but not until a couple of years ago did he sign up for one picture a year at Fox. The deal kept him a free agent for TV, while most other movie contract players were prohibited from the new medium.
New Film
The tenor is presently working in "Thie Girl Next Door" and will play a whimsical ax murderer in his next film. He has another film to follow that one, and so his TV show may not debut until the fall of 1952.
"They wanted me to start in January," he said. "But since I'm virtually doing three pictures a year instead of one, I may have to put the TV show off. Anyway, I'm in no hurry to get started. I've seen too many performers jump into TV before they were ready. Now the public is getting tired of them."
A few weeks ago, Day was in the enviable position of being wooed by the networks. Each day, top emissaries from NBC and CBS would visit him at the studio. Each call hiked the bidding price up a notch. Finally he accepted NBC's offer.
Variety Show
"It will be a variety show format," he said. "I made pilot films of both kinds—variety show and situation comedy along the lines of my air show. The situation comedy show turned out to be deadly. It just doesn't seem adaptable to TV."
Day indicated that he would concentrate on getting good writing for his show, "That is the most important element in a show's success," he said. "The trouble with a lot of the writing on TV today is that the writers are still thinking in terms of radio technique. They concentrate on gags. Fortunately there are a lot of new young writers coming who realize that TV depends on sight, not gags."
May Drop Radio
Day's own radio program is off the air and he said he might be giving up radio altogether.
"Jack (Benny) may drop his air show after this season," he reported. "Jack was very happy with his last TV show and thinks he has found the format that will work for him in TV. And I think he's right. He was playing the real Jack Benny and people loved him."
With Benny and others threatening to desert it, what will happen to radio?
"I guess it will be limited to recorded shows and music," Day observed. "Daytime radio will still be the same, but all the big nighttime shows will be dropping off. There's no money in radio any more."
- Associated Press, Nov. 27, 1951

Yhtapmys
"Drive Your Blues Away!"

[Gerry O.]

After reading that, I'm impressed by Dennis' show-business "savvy" and his very intelligent observations. He was obviously in tune with what worked, what didn't work and why.

Dennis made some observations and comments in 1951 that many broadcasting executives and scholars didn't realize until years later.

It's easy to see that Dennis was more than just "a silly kid"!

[Yhtapmys]

After reading that, I'm impressed by Dennis' show-business "savvy" and his very intelligent observations.

Maybe he hired Irving Fein to tell him?

He was obviously in tune with what worked, what didn't work and why.

I never thought about it until I read the article, Gerry, but Dennis is right. His radio format wouldn't have worked on TV without some retooling. Then again, maybe I'm biased because I didn't like his radio show to begin with.

Yhtapmys
"Drive Your Blues Away!"

[shimp scrampi]

The tenor is presently working in "Thie Girl Next Door" and will play a whimsical ax murderer in his next film.

Holy cow, did this raise anyone else's eyebrows? I am assuming this movie was never made, but it sounds like one I would like to see. I am picturing Dennis in the Jack Nicholson role in THE SHINING.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

I, too, am impressed with Dennis' business savvy. I guess he wasn't the dimwitted kid he played on the Benny show

[LLeff]

The tenor is presently working in "Thie Girl Next Door" and will play a whimsical ax murderer in his next film.

Dennis Day as Hannibal Lecter...

[Gerry O.]

The tenor is presently working in "Thie Girl Next Door" and will play a whimsical ax murderer in his next film.

Dennis Day as Hannibal Lecter...

I can just picture how the scene with Lecter being interviewed by the reporter would have played out with Dennis in the film:

Clarice Starling: "Dr. Lecter...."

Lecter: "Yes, please?"

Hmmm....no, Laura, I don't think that it would have worked!

[Maxwell]

I tried looking up Dennis Day's show on tv.com, and there is nothing. I used to have a copy of the complete prime-time series tome, but that was thoroughly demolished by my looking stuff up, and I haven't replaced it in at least a decade, so I can't rely on this.

What I do remember in reading about Dennis's show is that his show was part of the RCA Victor Show. He appeared on alternate weeks opposite Ezio Pinza. My memory may be faulty, but I thought his show was a sitcom, not a variety show.

[shimp scrampi]

When Paul Henning passed away awhile back, I remember one of the tidbits in the various obits was that one of his first solo producing jobs (he was a long-time writer, for Burns and Allen notably), was for Dennis' TV show. Given Henning's talents, it would make sense that it had a heavy comedy component even if it was a "variety" show. I've never seen a kinescope or anything of this program seem to surface. I wonder if it's totally lost. Or, chopped to bits by an AX! (Whimsically, of course...)

[Gerry O.]

I've heard and read that during the run of Dennis' TV series, some critics complained that Dennis couldn't seem to make up his mind on whether he wanted to be a singer or a comedian. I was surprised to learn that some critics looked at that versatility as a negative, because that was the great thing about Dennis....He could be both and do a fine job at each!

[bboswell]

The tenor is presently working in "Thie Girl Next Door" and will play a whimsical ax murderer in his next film.

Holy cow, did this raise anyone else's eyebrows? I am assuming this movie was never made, but it sounds like one I would like to see. I am picturing Dennis in the Jack Nicholson role in THE SHINING.

Guess What? The movie WAS made, and apparently someone out there has seen it recently:

Such an obscure '50s Fox musical that I'd never even heard of it (and I know my '50s musicals), and made very late in the cycle of modest entertainments starring the likes of Dan Dailey and June Haver, this one has a few aces up its sleeve. There's a surprising amount of sung exposition at the beginning, under the credits, and later on some very brief singing sequences in the middle of dialogue -- it's as if even standard Fox musicals wanted to be more like their Rodgers and Hammerstein cousins on Broadway. It shows how pervasive the whole musical-comedy mode was back then. Later there are a couple of animated sequences that delve psychologically into the characters' motivations, and of course a dream ballet, and an amusingly overblown production number with Haver, "Nowhere Guy." The story's no great shakes, the songs run from OK to pretty good, and Haver proves again that proficiency at singing and dancing is less vital than personality, which she lacks. Dailey is a likable romantic counterpart, and Cara Williams is an invaluable best-friend-making-tart-comments -- though it's hard to accept that she'd fall for the rabbity face and syrupy tenor of Dennis Day. The utterly '50s production design is fun, and the more thorough musicalizing than usual gives this otherwise standard effort a couple of bonus points. All in all, it's very watchable.

Hmmm, there's no talk of any axe-murdering going on, I wonder why that didn't get mentioned. (Perhaps that's where an animation "delves psychologically into the characters' motivations.")

[shimp scrampi]

Guess What? The movie WAS made, and apparently someone out there has seen it recently:

The way I read that sentence, I thought that Dennis was working on THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, and that his next role/film lined up was the ax murderer. I find it hard to believe there's an ax murderer in THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, but I haven't seen it.

[TimL2005]

There are 2 episodes of the Dennis Day Show available on Encore Home Video.

http://www.encorehomevideo.com/tv-music ... s_day.html




The Dennis Day Portion of the RCA Victor Show premiered February 8, 1952. with Ezio Pinza alternating..(He had been the sole star at the beginning) By Fall 1952 Dennis had the timeslot to himself and would do so until Fall 1954.

[Gerry O.]

Dennis Day as an ax murderer......What's next, Kenny Baker wearing a hockey mask and running around with a chain saw?

[shimp scrampi]

Dennis Day as an ax murderer......What's next, Kenny Baker wearing a hockey mask and running around with a chain saw? Shocked

Hey, it's another theory as to whatever happened to the gas man...

Glad to see at least a couple of Dennis' shows are still extant. A little googling seems to indicate that there was a format shift from variety to more sitcom somewhere along the line. And, thanks TimL, I am actually sorely tempted to order those shows. They had me at "Billy Barty as a Leprechaun"...