Early Sitcoms Where The Stars Played Themselves

[Gregg]

I recently applauded Antenna TV for adding "Burns & Allen" to its weekday line-up. I remarked that George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen played themselves in the program. While we only saw their suburban home and never went with them to the TV studio, the fact that they were TV hosts was written into the scripts. Their son Ronnie Burns and announcer Harry Von Zell were also characters in the show, playing themselves.

That got me thinking that quite a few early TV sitcoms had the stars playing themselves. Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante and George Gobel all played themselves in their shows. In I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz wasn't playing himself exactly. But he was Ricky Ricardo, a singer and Cuban band leader, which is what Arnaz was, in addition to actor, producer and husband of Lucille Ball. And in Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld played a stand-up comedian named Jerry Seinfeld, although he didn't have a TV show and was not as successful as he was in real life.

Any other sitcoms where actors played themselves... or people very much like themselves?


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[EZway2go]

First and foremost in this category would have to be Jack Benny as previously mentioned, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Two others that come to mind: Danny Thomas' character in Make Room For Daddy was a comedian and Joey Bishop played a talk show host in The Joey Bishop Show.

 

[azumanga]

I recently applauded Antenna TV for adding "Burns & Allen" to its weekday line-up. I remarked that George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen played themselves in the program.

Any other sitcoms where actors played themselves... or people very much like themselves?

On the subject of George Burns, he played himself in the 1964 sitcom "Wendy and Me", in which he was a landlord of an apartment building and Connie Stevens ("Wendy") was one of his tenants.

 

[azumanga]

Joey Bishop played a talk show host in The Joey Bishop Show.

Actually, on the sitcom, he played Joey Barnes, the talk show host. It wasn't until the talk show, "The Joey Bishop Show", that he was himself.

 

[searadiofreak]

Interesting. TCM ran a "Lucy" 100th tribute today with a 1954 film titled "The Long, Long, Trailer". This was made after I Love Lucy had started, or very near the same time, and I noted that Ricky was "Nicky", and Lucy was "Tacy". Perhaps CBS requested this, or maybe it was a deliberate decision by Lucy & Desi. The movie, while has some funny moments, is not nearly as funny as the series, but that is a high bar. Nice to see them in color from this era, though.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Can't forget Abbott and Costello.

 

[EZway2go]

Not sure about this one... maybe someone else on here knows... The Goldbergs with Gertrude Berg... was that based on her real life or was it entirely fictional?

 

[Markxxx]

Speaking of "Burns and Allen" when they first started their radio show, they were married in real life, but on the radio they played single people. It's kind of hard to get used to George having dates with other women and Gracie going out with other men.

 

[deltas69]

not sure if this qualifies as TV..but the three stooges are classics...the ones with curly..not so much his replacements after he died..although shemp would receive distant approval i think..

 

[landtuna]

Speaking of "Burns and Allen" when they first started their radio show, they were married in real life, but on the radio they played single people. It's kind of hard to get used to George having dates with other women and Gracie going out with other men.

On his radio show Jack Benny also played a single man but in fact was married to his "girlfriend" Mary Livingstone (whom Jack first met when she was but 14 and did, in fact, work at The May Company before they married).

 

[landtuna]

not sure if this qualifies as TV..but the three stooges are classics...the ones with curly..not so much his replacements after he died..although shemp would receive distant approval i think..

Moses Horwitz (Moe), Shemp (Samuel Horwitz) and Curly (Jerome Horwitz) were brothers. Shemp was actually part of the original act before his disagreements with then-boss Ted Healy caused him to leave. Curly then took his place until his debilitating stroke in 1946 required Shemp to rejoin the act. The boys had left Ted Healy some years before.

Shemp was quite a comedian in his own right but wasn't anything like Curly (who was?).

 

[bpatrick]

On the Benny show Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Mary Livingstone,
and Phil Harris played themselves; only Eddie Anderson (Rochester)
did not, a point which may strike some as racist today even though
Benny was one of the most racially-tolerant entertainers of his era
(I remember his telling a story of his refusing to stay in a hotel in
Louisiana that would not allow Anderson to stay there because he
was African-American). OTOH, Mel Blanc and Frank Nelson (and,
occasionally, Sheldon Leonard) played characters (who can forget
Benny's perpetually-exasperated violin teacher, Prof. LeBlanc?),
although I seem to remember at least once when Benny referred to
Nelson by his last name.

 

[onairb]

Usually, Jack just referred to Frank Nelson as 'you'(face to face), 'him'(after the confrontation, 'I ALWAYS bump into HIM!'), or 'THAT guy!' ;D

 

[EZway2go]

Aside from the far-fetched plots, would you include The Monkees in this category?

I also thought of The Partridge Family, but David Cassidy's hits came after the show premiered.

 

[searadiofreak]

Of course, the Partridge Family never existed except on TV. Their radio hits were David Cassidy and a studio band, with some background by Shirley Jones, but not the original family.

 

[nocomradio]

Bob Cummings in "Love That Bob" comes to mind, although he was Bob Collins in the show, it seemed to mirror his real life pretty closely in some respects.

Plus it was a darn good show too!

 

[cd637299]

I'd definitely include the Monkees in this. Micky Dolenz played Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones played Davy Jones....

cd

 

[bpatrick]

Anybody mention Hank McCune? This obscure comedian had
his own sitcom on NBC in 1950 and is remembered mainly as the
show that introduced the laugh track; he, too, played himself.

And all of Bob Cummings' sitcom characters were named Bob:
Bob Beanblossom ("My Hero"), Bob Collins ("The Bob Cummings Show"/
"Love That Bob"), Bob Carson ("The New Bob Cummings Show"), and
Bob McDonald ("My Living Doll"). Not even Bob Newhart could say that,
since his character on "Newhart" was named Dick Loudon.

Likewise, all of Lucille Ball's characters were not only named Lucy, their
names sounded alike (supposedly she thought the "ar" in the names brought
her good luck): Lucy Ricardo, Lucy Carmichael, Lucy Carter, and Lucy Barker.

And have I missed something? Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Rick Nelson all played
themselves, as did the boys' wives, although David's wife June kept her name of
June Blair while Rick's--Kris Harmon (Mark's sister)--was billed as a Nelson.

 

[cd637299]

Hank McWho??

I'll take that, but we can go farther back....I believe the couple in "Mary Kay and Johnny" in 1947 played themselves with their last names.

I had read that they were the first married couple to share the same bed on TV.

cd

 

[Tim L]

One of ABC's early comedy shows, The Stu Erwin Show (aka Trouble With Father) had Erwin, and June Collier (Mrs. Erwin) play themselves, though Stu Erwin's Character was a school principal on the show..Shelia James Kuhel played their younger daughter a few years before Dobie Gillis..The show wasnt a big ratings hit, but managed to hang around from 1950-55..