JACK BENNY FAN CLUB GETS BAD NEWS FROM CBS

[Tim L]

About that NBC 1964-65 season:

I think I read, maybe in one of the several Benny Biographies, that upon being told that First-year series Gomer Pyle, USMC was pretty much beating the Jack Benny Show in the ratings.. Jack says something to the effect of,"I cant believe it. Jim Nabors is probably a fine actor and a nice young man, but to be beaten out by GOMER PYLE?"

 

[bpatrick]

Another version of that story is that Benny said something like,
"I wouldn't mind if we were getting beaten by Lucy, but Gomer Pyle?"

In 1962 CBS had moved Benny to Tuesdays and set up a successful block of
Red Skelton, Benny, and Garry Moore (Benny, in fact, enjoyed some of his
highest ratings in years that year). In 1963 CBS split Benny and Skelton and
put "Petticoat Junction" between them (a concept known as "hammocking,"
putting a new show between two established hits). Benny was quite unhappy
about this: first, because he thought he and Skelton made a great one-two
combination (they did), but also because he hated "Petticoat Junction." So
despite even better ratings than the year before, Benny was--according to some
accounts I've read--planning to leave CBS even before Jim Aubrey told him,
"You're through."

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...is that Benny said something like, "I wouldn't mind if we were getting beaten by Lucy, but Gomer Pyle?"

And there's no truth to the rumor that Gomer responded with:

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!" ;D

 

[Kurt Toy]

By 1964-65 Route 66 and Twilight Zone were off the air.

 

[ixnay]

The owners of copyrighted material such as TV shows, movies, and music, should be required by law to make the material available in some form [...] as a condition of having the copyright renewed. Otherwise they lose any right to sue over copies made by other individuals or companies.

Sorry to resurrect this thread to those who object to someone doing so, but would this mean the material would enter the public domain? Permanently? Speaking of which, when material enters public domain, does it stay there irrevocably? Legal experts of R-I Land, your time to shine.

ixnay

 

[azumanga]

There is the case of "It's a Wonderful Life", which escaped Public Domain Hell because of its music, which was still copyrighted. As a result, you can't find PD copies of the film anymore, though you could find PD copies of "The D-V-D Show" and "The Bevery Hillbillies", but with their music replaced.

 

[therealjm12]

News from Sitcoms online sounds good:
http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2012/06/digital-digest-jack-benny-from-shout.html

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Hopefully someone will come out with an authorized release of the entire 15-year Jack Benny series on DVD.

Because Jack's show only aired weekly during it's final five seasons (1960-65), it will be possible for two or three of the early seasons to be released in one DVD set.

I could see the entire series release this way:

* Volume 1: 1950-51 (4 episodes), 1951-52 (10 shows), and 1952-53 (17 episodes).

* Volume 2: 1953-54 and 1954-55 (show aired every other week for those two seasons, 20 per seasons)

* Volume 3: 1955-56 and 1956-57 (see above)

* Volume 4: 1957-58 and 1958-59 (see above)

* Volume 5: 1959-60 (20 shows) plus some later (post-1965) Jack Benny specials as a "bonus"

Volumes 6 through 10: Each volume covers one season (1960-61 through 1964-65), when Benny did a weekly series. I think there were about 30-36 shows each season during this period.

Properly promoted ("See Long-Lost Performances By The Man Who Set The Standard For Today's Comedians!"), these DVD sets could sell well.