Thanks for the Christmas Shows Jack!

[Jack Benny]

Merry Christmas Jack!

Even though you were Jewish, you put on a great Christmas show each year! I've been listening for about a half a decade now, and each year you make Christmas time a little brighter. I love to hear the changes and tweaks made to the Christmas Shopping episodes over the radio years right on up through the TV years. Thank you again. From one very happy fan! I'm so glad so many of your shows still exist.

[Yhtapmys]

Merry Christmas Jack!

Even though you were Jewish, you put on a great Christmas show each year!

Have you got a favourite? I can't pick one. I can pick a bunch of moments.

- Bea Benederet going nuts when waiting on Jack.
- Tout Sheldon Leonard telling Jack to pick a nightgown.
- The Sportsmen singing the Choo Choo train song.
- The indecipherable English butler at Jack's Christmas party (and the Benita-Ronnie dialogue scene preceding it.

I could go on and on.

Yhtapmys
"Drive your blues away!"

[TimL2005]

Mel Blanc going crazy was always a highlight, though I thought in later years his committing suicide by shooting himself at the end was a bit over the top in my opinion..Was really not necessary to the plot..Also..Why was he always finding it hard to buy for Don Wilson..Not say Dennis or Phil?..Christmas shows are a real highlight of many OTR shows.especially Jack's.

[JohnM]

Mel Blanc going crazy was always a highlight, though I thought in later years his committing suicide by shooting himself at the end was a bit over the top in my opinion

Which year was this episode?

Also, anyone else notice the recurring mentions of suicide in gags and jokes? Dennis Day twice joked about commiting suicide that I can remember. I also remember hearing other casual references to it, one being a remark about a competing radio star commiting suicide with his sponsor's product (Gillette razor blades), or something like that.

I don't think there's anything to it - except perhaps less sensitivity in those days to mental illness, emotional problems, etc. (overall in society, not just in radio/entertainment).

Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I'd find that funny -- the Mel Blanc character eventually killing himself because of Jack driving him insane every Christmas. Over the top, yes -- but because I'm in on the back-story -- funny!

[Yhtapmys]

Mel Blanc going crazy was always a highlight, though I thought in later years his committing suicide by shooting himself at the end was a bit over the top in my opinion

Which year was this episode?

I think the fatal shooting was on TV, wasn't it? Mel shot at himself in the 1953 'Dates' radio episode but missed because he was too nervous.

Yhtapmys
"Drive your blues away!"

[Floorwalker]

Mel committed suicide in the 1952 "cuff links" ep.

[Yhtapmys]

Mel committed suicide in the 1952 "cuff links" ep.

Shows you how much I know. I was listening to the 1948 "wallet" show and he did there, too.

Yhtapmys
"Drive your blues away"

[LLeff]

Also, anyone else notice the recurring mentions of suicide in gags and jokes? Dennis Day twice joked about commiting suicide that I can remember. I also remember hearing other casual references to it, one being a remark about a competing radio star commiting suicide with his sponsor's product (Gillette razor blades), or something like that.

There are also a number of times when Mary will mention something about Jack being so upset that he tried to kill himself, or saying something like, "Here's a gun, why don't you kill yourself?" I have no problem with dark humor, but these lines from her always sound overly harsh to me. I can't imagine telling someone to go kill themselves, even in jest.

[Roman]

Of course, the harsh words weren't Mary's - they're Jack's writers, which means ultimately they came from Jack. In Mary's case, it never sounded like she meant it (as contrasted with Frank Nelson and Dennis's mother). It was more in the nature of "stop being such a crybaby, Jack."

[Jhammes]

Granted, the public domain DVDs are... well, public domain picture quality (average). Still, along with the famous shopping episodes, what a joy to have the 1954 Edgar/Francis Bergen Christmas Show, along with the two versions of Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson's New Years, and the radio re-creation of "The New Tenant".

Thanks to CD and DVD, Jack Benny is once again a New Year tradition,
like Guy Lombardo or Dick Clark.

Well, maybe not Clark...

"Jack Benny's New Year's Rocking Eve"?

[Yhtapmys]

Even though you were Jewish, you put on a great Christmas show each year!

Why wouldn't he? What does Judiasm have to do with a Christmas radio show? They didn't have the attitude back then that Christmas-only-equals-Christian religion.

Yhtapmys

[krledu]

I love the Christmas shows that Jack put on. My favorite Cristmas moment has to be in one of the Christmas shoppping episodes on radio but it wasn't with Jack. My favorite is with Sheldon Leanard playing Santa Clause and he has a kid on the lap. They do the tout routine except with the kid as the tout and Sheldon playing Jack's usual role. It got lots of laughs from the audience because it was such a switch up. I love how the Jack Benny program was funny but not just with the main character. Everyone has their part and it was hilarious. Does anyone know what the date was for that episode was?

[Yhtapmys]

Dec. 2, 1951. The boy was Harry Shearer.

It's so hard to pick out a best Christmas shopping moment. I think I mentioned on the board once about Bea Benaderet being driven nuts by Jack. She never got a chance to go over the top like that.

Mel's just tremendous. Then there's the Sportsmen and the Choo-Choo train song. And Elliott Lewis being a goof. So much to pick from.

Yhtapmys

[LLeff]

Thanks to CD and DVD, Jack Benny is once again a New Year tradition, like Guy Lombardo or Dick Clark. Well, maybe not Clark...

"Jack Benny's New Year's Rocking Eve"?

Poor Dick Clark. I think someone must have busted his Dorian Gray portrait. I wasn't quite ready to be that deeply disturbed right before the countdown this year! Not often that I'm prompted to mimic Jack's shocked pose of both hands on the face.

Speaking of, Dick Clark was a guest on "Jack Benny's Bag" from 1968! Well worth a watch...

[Jack Benny]

Thanks to CD and DVD, Jack Benny is once again a New Year tradition, like Guy Lombardo or Dick Clark. Well, maybe not Clark...

"Jack Benny's New Year's Rocking Eve"?

Poor Dick Clark. I think someone must have busted his Dorian Gray portrait. I wasn't quite ready to be that deeply disturbed right before the countdown this year! Not often that I'm prompted to mimic Jack's shocked pose of both hands on the face.

Speaking of, Dick Clark was a guest on "Jack Benny's Bag" from 1968! Well worth a watch...

What's funny is that I had seen him a couple of times after the stroke, so he looked and sounded pretty good to me. I can not imagine the amount of rehab work he must have gone through. I say good for him. I was watching him on "What's My Line," from the mid fifties, and of course he and Tom Posten are the young guys on the show, interesting juxtaposition seeing him then and now. Hey, I mean, everyone else on the show is dead, so he's doing pretty good considering.