“It’s An Hour Show!”: The Jack Benny Specials Part One

I’m a Jack Benny nut. He’s my favorite dead comedian, and that’s saying something considering Johnny Carson is no longer with us! But Johnny himself would bow to the greatness of Benny, and was not shy about using some of Benny’s takes and reactions on his “Tonight Show”. Though not quite as obviously as this:

That clip is from one of the “Jack Benny Program” TV series episodes. Trying to figure that series out is one of the great challenges of classic TV; at first all of the shows were done live from CBS Television City in Hollywood, frequently from what is now The Bob Barker Studio. AFter a while some episodes were done on film–some produced “single-camera” like a movie, and others filmed with multiple cameras before a live studio audience. And once the technology came through, episodes–including a tour of the Harry Truman Presidential Library– were done on videotape. And that’s not even getting into the slow, gradual increase from ocassional one-shot programs to a weekly series.

Many of the live shows, like the Johnny Carson guest star episode I have here, survive as kinescope copies. (Kinescopes are 16mm films with a movie camera pointed at a TV screen…kinda like when someone points their cellphone camera at their TV and puts it on YouTube.

Anyway, let’s wrap up the preamble to this thing. Benny’s weekly television series moved to NBC in 1964 after notoriously repulsive CBS President James Aubrey told the legend, “You’re through.” The weekly series ended in 1965, by Benny’s choice. Thus began a series of specials that aired on NBC from 1965 through 1974.

Oh! About the title of the article:

Benny’s first “hour show” for NBC in 1965, prudently titled “The Jack Benny Hour”, is a really great hour of comedy and music. Guest stars Bob Hope, Elke Summer, Walt Disney and The Beach Boys join in on a variety of sketches and production numbers. One sketch is a lampoon of then-current TV series including “Bewitched”, “The Munsters”, “My Mother The Car”, “The Fugitive”, “Peyton Place” and more. Benny is not in the sketch; he simply stands to the side and does his trademark reaction takes. Hope and Benny play surfers in a scene with The Beach Boys, who sing three of their hits. The finale begins with a filmed visit by Benny to the Walt Disney Studio, where Jack tries to finagle 100 or so free passes to Disneyland for his cast party. Jack promises Walt (who was at that time a member of the NBC family with his “Wonderful World Of Color” ) that he’ll promote the mousetro’s newest film, “Mary Poppins” on the special. The second half of the finale is an Italian movie parody of “Poppins” including the song “Mozzarella Provolone Parmesan Ricotta.” (Sung to the tune of “Supercalifragilistic etc.”

Most of the NBC specials after this one have some kind of theme or throughline. This one is just a really well-written, well-produced comedy hour.

The second NBC Benny special, again titled “The Jack Benny Hour”, features guest stars Phyllis Diller, Trini Lopez, The Smothers Brothers and “The Ten Most Beautiful Girls In The World.” The beautiful girls are the “theme” for this hour. Diller, working as chaperone to the beauties, complains to Jack about the gig.

PHYLLIS: The girls aren’t even allowed to accept dates!
JACK: Who made that rule?
PHYLLIS: I did!
JACK: Oh yes, I remember…we did have a deal where you get the overflow.
PHYLLIS: Yeah, I feel like a motel next to the Hilton!

The Smothers Brothers, one year or so away from starting their own CBS variety show (and welcoming Jack and George Burns as first-season guest stars), perform “I Talk To The Trees”, with interjections from Tommy. One of the classic Benny routines is revisited with a mod twist: Mel Blanc’s “si/Sy/Sue” character now plays with “The Tijuana Strings.” The finale, of course, is the beauty pageant, with Benny dressed in pageant host attire (including an obvious toupee). Trini Lopez and The Smothers Brothers are judges in the crowning of Miss Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This finale is not one of the better ones…it seems like a sketch that could have been written for any variety show, and pageant spoofs had certainly been done before this one aired. Also, Jack Benny was always best as Jack Benny. He was not a great character sketch actor like Harvey Korman or Phil Hartman. Sometimes he could play a different character than himself and make it work, other times not so much.

“Jack Benny’s Carnival Nights” is the most ambitious, and dare I say the best of the NBC specials. The theme is rife with possibilities, as seen in sketches and musical numbers featuring sideshow entertainment and the like. “Carnival Nights” also has a killer guest list: cameo blackouts from Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, The Smothers Brothers, Dean Martin and George Burns; and guest stars Johnny Carson, Lucille Ball, comic Ben Blue and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

There are two especially noteworthy segments in this hour: Lucille Ball does a pretty fantastic production number including “It’s So Nice To Have A Man Around The House” and, ironically, a takeoff on the theme to the Broadway musical “Mame.” Lucy played her singing voice for laughs on her many sitcom episodes, and on many variety show appearances (including one of Jack’s later NBC hours) she would have her singing voice dubbed by Carole Cook. But she comes off quite well doing her own singing in this Benny special. However, doing this kind of comedy singing for a TV variety show, and doing the lead part in the film of a Broadway musical are two very different things. When Lucy played “Mame” in 1974 the critics were not kind.

The other memorable segment from “Carnival Nights”, which was replayed in countless TV retrospectives, featured Jack and Lucy as a married couple on the carnival circuit, with Johnny as son “Jackie”. Any chance to have Benny and Carson share a stage was something special…and this sketch turns the tables by portraying young Jack’s Dad as extremely un-Benny-like.

JACKIE: Well, I’m sick of this carnival! Y’know, I don’t have to do this. I’m gonna change my name and be a comedian…tell jokes on television, that’s where all the money is!
JACK: Money, money….there are more important things than money!
JACKIE: If you weren’t my father I’d slap your face!

“Jack Benny’s Bag” is a time capsule of its year, 1968. The hour is loaded with lots of “Laugh-In”-esque graphics, bumpers and trappings. But Jack is still Jack. Guest stars this time around: Phyllis Diller, Lou Rawls, Dick Clark, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson (nice to see this billing after years on radio being billed as simply “Rochester”), and “special guest star” Eddie Fisher. The mod vibe is only skin-deep; the guest stars are Mom and Dad material all the way.

Dick Clark appears to discuss the generation gap in a series of history blackouts, with Jack as Cleopatra’s Father, Abe Lincoln’s Dad, and Chief Crazy Horse. But the highlight of the hour is the finale, a lampoon of “The Graduate” that soaks up the final 20 minutes of the show. Lou Rawls and Eddie Fisher are the Greek chorus, singing parody lyrics to “Mrs. Robinson” throughout the sketch. Jack plays Benjamin, and Phyllis Diller plays Mrs. Robinson. Benji is returning home after finishing his college education.

BENJI: I have something for you, Mumsy.
MUMSY: What is it, my graduate?
BENJI: Four years of laundry!

The changed song lyrics are hilarious, commenting on the story and on the Benny backlog of character traits:

Forgive your age Mrs. Robinson
You’ve a right to happiness and joy
with a boy
He’s quite a laugh Mrs Robinson
Though he’s got a face like Gertrude Stein
He’ll still shine
At 39

Benji and Mrs. Robinson go out for dinner and plan to book a room at the hotel, where Benji invokes a classic Benny line:

HOTEL CLERK: Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Have you any luggage?
BENJI: Just my WaterPik.
HOTEL CLERK: In that case sir, you’ll have to pay in advance.
BENJI: How much?
HOTEL CLERK: Sixteen dollars.
BENJI: Sixteen dollars?!
(looooooooooooooooooooooooong pause)
HOTEL CLERK: Do you want the room or don’t you?
BENJI: I’m thinking it over!

After 1968’s mod affair, “Jack Benny’s Birthday Special” is as square as it gets. No “youth” band this time, as music is provided by opera singer Rouvaun. Other guest stars include Lucille Ball, Lawrence Welk in a cold-open cameo, and Dan Blocker.

This special sets a template that the remainder of the NBC Benny specials will follow. The backdrop of the famous Rene Bouche illustration, the lengthy opening monologue, the random acts of lunacy (represented in this episode by a group of penguins dropping in to visit), and the kinds of pre-written “interview” spots that would later become a huge time filler on Bob Hope specials. Although these kinds of pieces could be boring in the Hope specials, Jack’s genuine delight in a good joke told by his guest makes these much more enjoyable.

Sketch-wise, there’s a hilarious scene that mirrors the “1965 TV Season” lampoon in Jack’s first NBC special. WIth Dan Blocker in the cast, Jack sets up a take-off of every TV western and movie cliche.

JACK: Eventually the bad guy finds the Sheriff, and there’s a shoot-out. Which is the opposite of a love-in.

The finale of the show is a cavalcade of cameo guest appearances as Jack is surprised by his cast and crew with a birthday party. Old Benny standbys Don Wilson and Dennis Day are on hand, and Jerry Lewis storms the stage with a giant birthday cake. Inside the cake: Ann-Margaret!

Random Notes:

-This is the first part of a two-part article. Next time, we’ll ask: Is it weird to see Jack Benny welcome Issac Hayes as a musical guest? Did Bob Hope say a naughty word? Did Johnny Carson drop his pants? (Spoiler alert: The answers are yes, it sure seems like it, and yes.)

-The cameos are hard to keep track of in some of these Benny hours. For example, “Jack Benny’s Bag” includes cameos by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their characters of Felix and Oscar. (Yeah, I could have just gone up to that portion of the article and made the edit, but I want to be honest with you–I just plain forgot about that one until I got down here to Random Notes. Wentyworld believes in truth-in-blogging.

-I have two DVD sets of these specials. One, a “collector-to-collector” set, utilized unedited NBC master tapes, with everything you’d have seen on TV. I love this stuff!

Then, an officially sanctioned release from Time-Life came out. I bought it, because I knew the video quality would be better. But! I’m glad I have my old bootlegs, because…and let me put this in bold…Time-Life cuts music to save money. It’s a rotten fact of life, some music publishers charge obscene rates for using a song in a DVD. And some DVD companies are just really, really cheap. It’s been my experience that Time-Life is a little from column A, a little from column B.