Christmas TV Program question?

[Jack Benny]

I know that Jack did at least two recreations of his Christmas Shopping radio episodes for TV. We always see the later one in all of the sets that I have seen, sometimes it is mislabeled as the first one, but it never is. I was wondering if someone had seen the first one? Did it have the same script? Was Mary in it? Where there any other actors in it that weren't in the later version?

[Roman]

According to the Internet Movie Database, there were three Christmas shopping episodes and Mary appeared in two of these - in December 1954 and in December 1957. However, I'm fairly certain though that I saw the 1954 version (at least the closing credits had a 1954 date) and I'm positive that Mary wasn't in it. But then the IMDB says that Mary appeared in 103 episodes and I KNOW that's not correct. According to IMDB, Don and his wife Lois appeared in the the second Christmas shopping episode. I know that Lois wasn't in the version I saw, which again leads me to believe that I saw the 1954 version - assuming there's any accuracy at all to these IMDB entries. The third shopping episode aired in December 1960, according to IMDB, with Richard Deacon in the cast. Again, that's not the version I saw.

[shimp scrampi]

The show on all those DVDs in circulation is the 1960 show. There are variously edited versions, some of which omit Don's (creepy) commercial and/or Dennis' song. Richard Deacon is in the episode "In a moment of wild enthusiasm, I sold my pants...".

The credits with the 1954 date are tacked onto a lot of existing prints of these shows, regardless of when they were actually filmed or shown, so you can't use them with any accuracy. Nor, I might add, can you use IMDB with any accuracy, particularly for TV shows. Lots of errors on there. I'm sure it will all be clear when Laura releases 39 Forever Vol. 3 on us all, someday!

And, I'd love to see the other versions as well.

[ethanmuse]

I did some checking after looking at the imdb site, and I found something interesting. According to the official scripts at the tobaccodocuments website, there was NO Christmas Shopping episode in 1954. The script for the date that imdb gives in 1954 for the first Christmas Shopping episode was actually the original television version of him going grocery shopping. So, as near as I can tell, there were only two Christmas shopping episodes on television, not three. The first one was in 1957, and Lois is in it. Her opening joke is very good. Don is trying to decide on a joke for Jack, and he can't decide between a gold tie clasp or gold cufflinks. Lois tells him neither, because he'd better not give Jack a gift he could melt down.

[Maxwell]

From tv.com (which is often a better source of information for TV than imdb.com:

First aired: 12/12/1954

ack looks for Christmas gifts in a department store, and encounters Nelson as the floor manager, Blanc and Pepper as salespeople, Rubin as a bandit. The Sportsmen Quartet sing the Lucky commercial in the elevator.

First aired: 12/15/1957

Jack goes Christmas shopping in a large deptartment store and has trouble making up his mind. Dennis Day sings "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer". Jack encounters Nelson as the floor manager, Blanc and Pepper as salespeople, Rubin as a bandit. The Sportsmen Quartet sing the Lucky commercial in the elevator.

Related but not exactly a shopping show:

First aired: 12/28/1958

Jack takes a Christmas gift to be exchanged.

Back to Christmas shopping shows:

First aired: 12/18/1960

Jack goes Christmas shopping with Rochester and drives the staff of the department store crazy.

So at least according to tv.com there were three, plus the gift exchange show.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

Which year is the one where Mel Blanc's character commits suicide? I'm assuming that's the 1960 one.