Re-cycled scripts?

[helloagain]

I now have all the Benny shows on MP3, and I listen to them all day as I drive. Although I have a pretty large collection on tape, I am hearing many of these shows for the first time. It's interesting to hear the characters evolve. I have noticed that a lot of gags are repeated, which I guess is natural, but in some instances entire scripts are re-used. I know this was common during the latter years, but I've noticed some from the early 40s as well. One of my favorite shows is 'The Rose Bowl Game' of 1-6-46, which featured the first appearance of Mr. Kitzel as the hot dog man. This show used the same script, almost word for word, of the 1-5-41 Jello Show, with Shlepperman selling the hot dogs. The following show was about Jack's writers not having the scripts finished by air time, which was also repeated later on. I wonder how many times this was done. Weren't they required to come up with an original script each week?

[shimp scrampi]

Weren't they required to come up with an original script each week?

I think they were required to come up with a SHOW every week above considerations of originality! Hey, even the best chef serves the same dish twice on occasion, which is not always a bad thing. Remember this was the era before reruns too. So, why -not- use a good script last heard five or eight years ago? It was probably fresh to at least a plurality of the audience, who also had no other means to hear an encore of a popular episode.

I personally find studying the recycling pattern interesting ... why they'd sometimes recycle HALF a script wholesale, but the remainder would be original; or tweak just a couple of gags - why those particular ones were altered. Or sometimes they'd do the same basic premise but with many different gags (e.g., the Christmas shopping shows).

[helloagain]

Yes, I guess you have to consider the fact that the audience probably didn't remember, even if they heard the same show a few years before. They didn't have the ability to listen to them over and over to compare them, as we do. The shows were meant to be heard once and that's it. We must remember to put things in perspective.

[shimp scrampi]

It's interesting how this issue plays out depending on what time period you became interested the Benny show. As you note, if you were an original era listener, they were on the air once then gone for most people's purposes.

In my case, I got hooked on Jack as a kid in the '80s. No internet, no radio rebroadcasts - the only avenue to hearing the programs was purchasing cassettes. So, between elementary school and college I had maybe, I dunno, 10 or 15 total Jack Benny programs at my fingertips? Combing through the Metacom catalog deciding which show to plunk down my hard-won $3.98 for, mail in the order and wait a month for it to come back was a big honking deal. So, I know every beat of those 10 or so shows almost by heart. Same with a handful of Burns and Allen, etc. And, there's something to be said for that kind of detailed, repeated enjoyment of the show - I "re-cycled" them myself!

Now, things have kind of come full circle - since you can pretty much download any existing OTR show at the click of a mouse - I get to hear a lot more of them, but rarely replay a show unless it's a real corker. Almost back to the old ways!

[helloagain]

I first became aware of Jack Benny on TV, back in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up. I liked him then, as did my parents, but it was years later that I discovered the radio shows, which I like much better. Most other so called 'comedy' radio shows pretty much leave me cold. I find them predictable and generally unfunny. The Benny shows are just the opposite. I can listen to a show again and again and I always hear something new. They not only make me laugh, they make me feel good, too. It's the kind of a show that wouldn't be funny on paper, or if you weren't familiar with the characters. The more you understand the personalities of the cast members, the funnier it becomes.

[Yhtapmys]

Most other so called 'comedy' radio shows pretty much leave me cold. I find them predictable and generally unfunny. The Benny shows are just the opposite.

While I think of Jack as a comedian, I still tend to think of his show as a comedy/variety show, as opposed to a comedy show like 'My Friend Irma' or "Ozzie and Harriet'. Most radio sitcoms I find predictable and trite.

Jack's show works so well because ..
1. Jack is likeable and his people can identify with his traits;
2. The characters he surrounds himself with are funny, and don't come across as one-note (meaning the writing and acting is tops).

Too many radio sitcoms are based on the fact the lead character is a dunce. The variety shows, to me, are much more fun, and they seem to be the ones (along with the music programmes) I listen to the most.

Yhtapmys

[helloagain]

Yes, I agree completely. And on the Benny show, It wasn't just Jack; all the characters were interesting and funny because they were allowed to develop. Unlike most other comedians, Jack wasn't afraid to let the other cast members have the spotlight.

[mackdaddyg]

One other note regarding recycled scripts, although it may not apply in this situation....

Since most of the listening audience just got to hear this stuff only when it aired, and reruns weren't really feasible at the time, didn't some radio shows reuse comedy bits by popular demand? Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First" bit comes to mind. That was performed numerous times on radio. I'm sure it might have been used a few times to fill space, but didn't popular demand sometimes call for comedy skits to be used a second or third time around?

[helloagain]

You may be right about that. I know audiences loved to follow Jack down to his vault or take a ride in the Maxwell. I found that this was also done in television. The show he did with Marilyn Monroe on the ocean liner was re-done years later with Jayne Mansfield. In this one, Shlepperman appeared instead of Mr. Kitzel, but not in the same role. Artie Auerbach had died by this time. I think I'm noticing this now because I am sort of studying the programs. Before this, I probably just thought it was the same show I heard before, and not a re-make. Hey, maybe Jack didn't pay his writers enough after all! Just kidding.

[shimp scrampi]

but didn't popular demand sometimes call for comedy skits to be used a second or third time around?

Sí.

[TimL2005]

Interesting Topic:
Another of my favorite OTR shows Aside from Jack's, is Fibber McGee and Molly..They were expert at reusing old gags and bits:

The Hall Closet
Myrt (Is that you Myrt?,,Hows every little thing?)
That aint the way I heered it! (Bill Thompsom)
T'aint funny, McGee (Molly after one of Fibber's lame jokes)
All businesses in Wistful Vista being at "14th and Oak"
Teeny the Little Girl (Marian Jordan..)

The writers changed it up every so often so there'd be a surprise now and then..

I am listening to the entire 1941 year of Fibber and Molly on my MP3 player..I think Jack, Fibber and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve and Our Miss Brooks are the four best OTR comedies..

[Maxwell]

I don't think you're talking about recycling. I think you're talking about running gags, which Jack used a lot on his show, everything from Mary's poems, to Mary doing Mae West to Si-Sy to cimarron rolls with numerous others I haven't mentioned.

Johnny Carson talked about the use of running gags in his senior thesis (or whatever that was we listened to last year for one of the chats). Carson had a few himself: "How [fill in the blank] was it?" for one.

[TimL2005]

Youre right Maxwell..
I meant to also mention that Fibber McGee and Molly also recycled scripts tp a degree..but never actually stated that in my last post..

[Maxwell]

I think the pressure of the same writers putting out a new script every week for ten or more years, which was the case of many writers long-lasting radio shows, would have been so great that scripts had to be recycled just to preserve their sanity. When Jack's show moved to television, it became a necessity...at least until the final season when the network actually played nearly have a season of reruns interspersed among the original shows.

It makes sense to take a show from a few seasons before that was well received and maybe add a few fresh jokes so it is different enough for the audience to enjoy again. People view the same movies dozens of times if they like them. Why not radio or TV shows?

The recycled script for live radio shows is probably the equivalent of a clip show on a taped or filmed TV show. It gives the writers a break and a chance to recharge their batteries.

[Yhtapmys]

I think the pressure of the same writers putting out a new script every week for ten or more years, which was the case of many writers long-lasting radio shows, would have been so great that scripts had to be recycled just to preserve their sanity.

And it only makes sense. It wasn't like people in 1949 were listening to .mp3 files of these shows over and over again. If a plot worked in 1945, people would have heard it once, if at all. Why not bring it back? Especially if it's good?

As a side note, Jack came from vaudeville where the same show was done twice a day on stage. I'm sure one repeat of an old script every few years in radio would have seemed like nothing by comparison.

On top of that, as mentioned, listeners liked certain bits, so variations on a theme would occur during the lifetime of a show, such as Jack listening to the radio, or Jack falling asleep and pretending he's a character in a book (both concepts are good for a laugh with me). So it wasn't like listeners weren't conditioned to hear .. and accept .. something familiar anyway.

Yhtapmys