Jack Benny

[joeybabe25]

We who love classic radio and tv should remember one of the greatest of the greatest tomorrow, as Jack Benny celebrates his 139th birthday!

He was born Benjamin Kubelsky February 14, 1894 to Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs Kubelsky in Chicago not Waukegan, Illinois where he grew up.

Let's celebrate this wonderful dear man who brought so much laughter and joy to generations of radio and television listeners and viewers.

My Mom, who grew up during the depression always like Eddie Cantor better. I loved my Mother more than anyone, but we had trouble with that one ;D

Viva Benny!

Joe

 

[cd637299]

<palm against cheek> WELL!!

If you have Antenna TV, he is on very late nights, although it seems to me that Antenna didn't get all the episodes. I know that much of the run of the TV show, he was only on every 2 weeks; but I thought he did more TV episodes that there seems to be shown.

I did want to ask this about the Jack Benny Program: I wonder why different studios handled the show during the TV run (McCadden Prods., Revue, Desilu, and back to Revue/Universal). And, does anyone have the timeline on the studios--i.e., what years of the TV run the different studios had? (Oh---I'd think that the live shows before 1954 may have also been credited to a different studio than the filmed ones I listed here.)

And BTW, wouldn't that make him 119 years old, not 139? I know the "39" gag though.

cd

 

[EJ204]

If you have JLTV on your cable system, they also run the Jack Benny Show. Not sure if the episodes are any different than on Antenna.

For a while, his shows also showed up sometimes on PBS stations. I know I'd see it from time to time on NJ Public Broadcasting. I suppose the shows are in the public domain now.

 

[cd637299]

If you have JLTV on your cable system, they also run the Jack Benny Show. Not sure if the episodes are any different than on Antenna.

For a while, his shows also showed up sometimes on PBS stations. I know I'd see it from time to time on NJ Public Broadcasting. I suppose the shows are in the public domain now.

I don't have cable/sat, only Antenna OTA. I'd think that any other network would have the live/kinescope public domain eps.

I guess it could be an unusual package where networks split the available non-PD eps, but I don;t think that would be the case.

cd

 

[MCarney]

When RTV ran the Benny show on Sunday nights they only had the later Revue/Universal episodes. JLTV has been running public domain episodes, often with the wrong set of credits.

 

[joeybabe25]

And BTW, wouldn't that make him 119 years old, not 139? I know the "39" gag though.

cd

OMG, CD! You're right! I was thinking of when he died (1974) and something went zing in my brain (I think I pulled a Mars Bar out of ear) and I fouled the whole thing up! Sorry. But let us celebrate the 119th birthday of this great man!

Joe

 

[onairb]

And BTW, wouldn't that make him 119 years old, not 139? I know the "39" gag though.

cd

OMG, CD! You're right! I was thinking of when he died (1974) and something went zing in my brain (I think I pulled a Mars Bar out of ear) and I fouled the whole thing up! Sorry. But let us celebrate the 119th birthday of this great man!

Joe

Oh, for heaven'ssake! ;D

 

[BD Sullivan]

For the first two years of the series (1950-52), the show was a special every now and then; for the 1952-53 season, it was on once a month; and from Septemeber 1953-June 1960, it was on (as noted) every other week. From that point, until it ended in 1965 (the last year was on NBC), it was a weekly show.

In that final NBC year, CBS had the show not only on weekdays, but Sunday afternoon as well.

In August 1977, CBS briefly brought back the show with four episodes (from the early 1960's) on Tuesday nights.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

In that final NBC year (1964/65), CBS had the (reruns of the) show not only on weekdays, but Sunday afternoon as well.

Officially, he "retired" from weekly prime-time TV in 1965 to do a few specials each year, but had he wanted to continue doing a weekly series after 1965, NBC might well have said no because the ratings had started to decline noticeably.

The network change (to NBC) and the change in timeslot (to Fridays) were two reasons, but a third may have been the fact that reruns of filmed "Jack Benny Program" episodes from 1958 to 1964 were being shown on CBS six times a week. Many fans may have caught at least one of the repeats and maybe didn't need to see the new prime-time episode on NBC Friday night.

The rerun titles were "The Jack Benny Daytime Show" and "Sunday With Jack Benny" (the latter was occasionally pre-empted during the Fall of 1964 for NFL games).

Much of Jack's comedy on TV and radio is timeless and holds up well even today. I suspect Jack now has many fans who weren't even born when he passed away on Boxing Day (December 26th) 1974.

Some episodes (mostly from the live shows of the early and mid 1950's) are out on DVD; I hope there will eventually be an authorized DVD release of the full 15-year series.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

For the first two years of the series (1950-52), the show was a special every now and then; for the 1952-53 season, it was on once a month; and from September 1953-June 1960, it was on (as noted) every other week. From that point, until it ended in 1965 (the last year was on NBC), it was a weekly show.

One reason he only did four specials in the 1950/51 TV season was logistical: There was as yet no way to transmit live TV shows from one coast to the other, and since most TV sets were in or near cities connected to the East?Midwest network, Jack and his cast, writers, and producers had to fly to New York to do the live TV shows. The other was that Benny and his staff wanted to "dip their toes" into TV without making a full-blown commitment to the new medium.

It was possible to do live TV shows in Los Angeles, but the only other cities in 1950 that could have gotten a live TV show from L.A. were San Francisco and San Diego.

In the Fall of 1951, once the transcontinental "coaxial cable" had been completed, Jack and his "gang" were able to do live TV shows in Hollywood that could also be seen live on the East Coast.

Jack's radio show ended in May of 1955, and many of his fans expected that with the radio show ending, that his TV show would have gone weekly that Fall. But of course, Jack didn't go weekly until September of 1960.

It's my understanding that Benny's close friend, CBS chairman Bill Paley, was the one who convinced Jack in 1960 to finally do a weekly TV series.

 

[BD Sullivan]

News of Jack Benny's terminal cancer broke on Christmas Day 1974 and he died the next day. Two nights later, CBS had a special program to note his passing, and on the New Years Eve edition of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson began the program not with his monologue, but a replay of Benny's last appearance on the show.

 

[therealjm12]

I had heard about the discovery of the lost episodes in a CBS vault. Here's more info:

Here is a little more from our friends at the "Sitcoms Online" website:

The Jack Benny Program has had several DVD releases over the past decade, but all of those releases have been from low-budget studios and have included (exclusively) public domain material. But on September 11, it appears that Shout! Factory may be bringing us something a little bit better with The Jack Benny Program - The Lost Episodes! We haven't heard anything about this anywhere else, but according to another listing for the item on Movies Unlimited, the set will include 24 episodes of the classic series, not seen since their original airing, with guest stars including Milton Berle, George Burns, Gary Cooper, Frank Sinatra, President Harry S. Truman, John Wayne, and others. The information also suggests that there will be a few special features as well. There is no word on the source for these episodes, but an article appeared in The New York Post in early 2010 indicating that CBS had discovered "roughly 25 episodes" of the classic series in their vault, but was being "stingy" (remember, The New York Post is a paper which likes to sensationalize news) and refusing to let them ever be seen again... but the real news in the article is that the real problem is likely costs for music clearance, something which CBS is not necessarily always eager to pay for on their DVD releases. So, is it possible that these episodes being released by Shout! Factory are indeed these episodes? Perhaps they are some other lost episodes? Or are they just more of the standard public domain releases we've seen in the past? We don't know just yet, although given Shout! Factory's history, it is unlikely that it would be more like the releases we've seen in the past. We'll let you know when we know more. Our appreciation goes to the poster of this message on the website Home Theater Forum for bringing the matter to the attention of others! By the way, if you're hungry for some of the standard public domain Jack Benny fare already out there, check out Mill Creek's 39 episode collection of The Best of Jack Benny... it may be public domain, but it is a much nicer public domain release of the series than the other collections out there.

 

[Tim L]

I can vouch for the Mill Creek Set..Very good material, and for public domain it looks very good..
It includes more than just episodes..It also has Jack in varied special programs like an Easter Seals Show, 2 GE Theatre episodes, a Family Theater program called "You Can Change The World, with many other stars of the 50's, also a Bing Crosby GE Special..

 

[joeybabe25]

For the first two years of the series (1950-52), the show was a special every now and then; for the 1952-53 season, it was on once a month; and from Septemeber 1953-June 1960, it was on (as noted) every other week. From that point, until it ended in 1965 (the last year was on NBC), it was a weekly show.

In that final NBC year, CBS had the show not only on weekdays, but Sunday afternoon as well.

In August 1977, CBS briefly brought back the show with four episodes (from the early 1960's) on Tuesday nights.

Were there some "Jack Benny Programs" on a show called "Star Time" (I think thats the name of it). I believe these were live or taped shows sometime in the 50's. Any info, anyone?

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

News of Jack Benny's terminal cancer broke on Christmas Day 1974 and he died the next day. Two nights later, CBS had a special program to note his passing, and on the New Years Eve edition of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson began the program not with his monologue, but a replay of Benny's last appearance on the show.

I read Joan Benny's book about 20 years ago, and in it (this is all from memory...it may be one of the other "Benny" bios) she says that a large crowd of friends had assembled at Jack and Mary's home after learning he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Johnny Carson, perhaps his greatest admirer was in the room when he died. He then left the room and at the top of the stairs announced to those assembled that "our Jack is gone".

I'm going completely by memory here.

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

I had heard about the discovery of the lost episodes in a CBS vault. Here's more info:

Perhaps they are some other lost episodes?...although given Shout! Factory's history, it is unlikely that it would be more like the releases we've seen in the past. We'll let you know when we know more. Our appreciation goes to the poster of this message on the website Home Theater Forum for bringing the matter to the attention of others!

Wasn't there a color episode of Jack Benny around 1954 or so using the CBS color system?

Joe

 

[EZway2go]

News of Jack Benny's terminal cancer broke on Christmas Day 1974 and he died the next day. Two nights later, CBS had a special program to note his passing, and on the New Years Eve edition of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson began the program not with his monologue, but a replay of Benny's last appearance on the show.

I read Joan Benny's book about 20 years ago, and in it (this is all from memory...it may be one of the other "Benny" bios) she says that a large crowd of friends had assembled at Jack and Mary's home after learning he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Johnny Carson, perhaps his greatest admirer was in the room when he died. He then left the room and at the top of the stairs announced to those assembled that "our Jack is gone".

I'm going completely by memory here.

Joe

Was that last appearance on The Tonight Show a recent one or from years before?

 

[Tim L]

Wasn't there a color episode of Jack Benny around 1954 or so using the CBS color system?

Joe

If there were any episodes on Jack Benny in "CBS Color", they would likely have been produced in 1951, as CBS Color was only in use during a few months during that year..

Here's a blog I wrote about CBS Color Experiments in Cleveland during the fall of 1951..

http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/september-29-1951advertisement-for.html

Upon further research, it appeard the only Benny Color show in the original series was done in March 1955, and that was using RCA Color, which was the standard by that time..

 

[MCarney]

Other than the first show in CBS Color, there were no prime time shows done in the format. There was just too much money on the line to lose 99% of viewers.

From Ed Reitan's color TV site here's a list of CBS Color programming:
http://novia.net/~ereitan/CBS_Color_Programming_rev_h.htm

 

[BD Sullivan]

News of Jack Benny's terminal cancer broke on Christmas Day 1974 and he died the next day. Two nights later, CBS had a special program to note his passing, and on the New Years Eve edition of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson began the program not with his monologue, but a replay of Benny's last appearance on the show.

I read Joan Benny's book about 20 years ago, and in it (this is all from memory...it may be one of the other "Benny" bios) she says that a large crowd of friends had assembled at Jack and Mary's home after learning he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Johnny Carson, perhaps his greatest admirer was in the room when he died. He then left the room and at the top of the stairs announced to those assembled that "our Jack is gone".

I'm going completely by memory here.

Joe

Was that last appearance on The Tonight Show a recent one or from years before?

He had appeared on the show four months earlier, but it appears I was slightly off. It looks like they showed his second-last appearance two months before that because I remember he asked the crowd to acknowledge his wife's birthday (it was in late June) and the crowd did so. Johnny Carson then joked, "That'll cost you $10,000(?)" Jack then pulled out his wallet and jokingly tossed it.

Jack died just one week after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.