You know what the nice thing is about having a blog? It’s there to scratch your itch, as far as writing goes. You can write about whatever you want, for as long as you want. I, for example, decided to do detailed write-ups of every multi-part episode of “Happy Days.” Was anybody asking for that? I am doubtful. But that’s okay–it’s out there in the universe along with every other itch I’ve scratched.
Take Jack Benny, fr’instance. I wrote two posts to summarize and critique the Jack Benny specials which aired on NBC from 1965 to 1974. And now, I’m going to write a little something about the Benny tribute special which aired in 1981, “A Love Letter To Jack Benny.” Again, I don’t think the world is hungry for this particular subject…but to paraphrase the always delightful Lesley Gore, it’s my blog and I’ll scratch an itch if I want to.
“When you hear those two words, Jack Benny, the first thing you think of is: cheap.” -Johnny Carson
“And the second thing you think of, is cheap.” -George Burns
“A Love Letter To Jack Benny” is hosted by Burns, Carson and Bob Hope. Their respect and admiration for Jack is genuine, even when tossing off one-liners. The three hosts are seated for the show, and for what may be the first time, Jack’s character traits and running gags are explained for the younger members of the audience.
The special does a nice job of alternating between nearly full sketches and clip packages. The sketches are well-selected, including Jack’s visit to Gregory Peck; his encounter with Sy the Mexican Traveler and the Tijuana Strings; and Jack as carnival owner with Lucille Ball as his wife and Johnny Carson as young Jack Benny. Another sketch, the “Mary Poppins” meets Italian movie finale from Jack’s first NBC special, is edited via cutaways to Hope, who cracks wise about his own 16-year-old performance (“There’s more to the sketch, but you didn’t tune in to see great acting”).
Also featured in the special is Frank Sinatra’s memorable entrance on Jack’s 20th anniversary special. Ol’ Blue Eyes arrived into the studio via helicopter.
JACK: Did you fly in from Palm Springs?
FRANK: No, I was having a cup of coffee across the street.
JACK: You flew over here from across the street in a helicopter?
FRANK: Somebody stole my elephant.
JACK: Well, that I don’t understand at all.
George Burns, Jack’s dearest friend, gets a segment all his own, including he and Jack as fountains in Rome; and the vaudeville act “Two Bushels and a Peck”. Gregory, that is. There is also a nice segment devoted to Jack’s radio days, spotlighting some of the great visual gags that made Jack’s radio series the best the mediium had to offer, then or now.
One of the most entertaining host segments involves Jack’s legendary love–unrequited though it may be–of the violin.
“When Jack Benny walks out in white tie and tails in front of those ninety musicians, he looks like the world’s greatest violinist. It’s a shame he has to play.” -Issac Stern
“When he played with the Israeli Philharmonic they say that Moshe Dayan took the patch off his eye…and put it over his ear.” -Johnny Carson
The only demerit one can give to “A Love Letter To Jack Benny” is that it relies solely on the nine years of periodic NBC specials. Which brings us to the discussion of Jack Benny’s “regular series” television work, and who owns what parts of it. Jack Benny started very delicately into television in 1950, doing ocassional telecasts…then a show every six weeks….every four weeks…every three weeks…finally settling on alternate-week TV episodes from 1954 to 1960. The 1960-1961 season found Jack taking the big step into a weekly series.
Early on, every Jack Benny TV episode was broadcast live. These live episodes, along with episodes that were pre-recorded in a very early use of videotape, are the property of the Benny Estate. As early as the third or fourth season some episodes were shot on film. This included episodes shot “single-camera” like a movie, with canned laughter added; and, increasingly as the years went on, episodes filmed with multiple cameras before a live studio audience. The then-burgeoning Desilu company handled many of these multi-camera Benny shows; by Jack’s last year of weekly series television the show was filmed at Universal Studios. Universal seems to be the current rights holder to these filmed episodes. I say “seems” because I am not 100% certain. There may be some ownership shared by the Benny Estate. But I remember that it was MCA Home Video (MCA being the parent company of Universal at the time) who released a set of four home videocassettes of “Jack Benny Program” episodes. (Being only 14 or 15-ish at the time I could only afford one of the tapes….15 dollars! That was big bucks and no whammies in 1987.)
And in 1995, when NBC ran another love letter to Jack–this one hosted by Kelsey Grammer and featuring clips from the weekly “Jack Benny Program”–the copyright notice at the end of the show was made in MCA’s name. Circumstantial evidence, but there you go.
You may have noticed the title of this essay is “Three Love Letters To Jack Benny.” Well, I thought I would include my own “love letter.” I think the first of Jack Benny I recall experiencing was an episode of the Burns and Allen radio show with Jack guest starring. Cassette tapes of old radio shows had started to pop up in a lot of stores and I was radio-crazy then as now. George and Gracie become fed up with Jack’s stingy nature, with Jack ordering “crackers and milk”, the cheapest item on the Brown Derby menu.
I started getting quite a collection of old time radio cassettes, and I found that the Benny shows were far and away the best. Benny maintained the same small group of writers for years, and they always delivered. Jack’s character was a deep well of potential story ideas, and along the way the show introduced such ingenious visual gags as Carmichael the polar bear, the Maxwell car, and the underground vault (complete with elderly guard who asks questions like “Are we still fighting the Kaiser?”)
I discovered Jack Benny’s television work around the same time as the radio shows. There was a cable channel called CBN, which today is called Freeform. I think. The network has changed names at least five times. Anyway, it started out as CBN, and they ran old TV comedies late at night.
At first I had to watch CBN at the homes of people who had cable. We didn’t get it until 1988 or thereabouts. But, when visiting friends and relations, I became very good at finding the cable TV and the remote. In retrospect I was pretty obnoxious about it! But said friends and relations were tolerant, knowing as they did of my obsession with old TV shows and such. My Aunt Judy always said that after one of my summers living with her and Uncle Bob and working for old man Claus*, her TV set automatically went to channel 14…Nick at Nite.
Okay. I believe my itch is fully scratched on the subject of the pride of Waukegan, Illinois. You know, there’s a Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan. I have a jersey. Their sports teams are called “The 39’ers.” I’d like to shake the hand of whoever came up with that.
*Yes, I worked for Santa. I have my elf badge and photos. Perhaps I should write a blog about that.