The Jack Benny Program
Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, and Rochester (Eddie Anderson) in a group portrait. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 270 × 200 pixelsFull resolution (270 × 200 pixel, file size: 18 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Photograph of Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, and Eddie Anderson - some of the cast of the Jack Benny Program. ...
Other names	The Jack Benny Show The Canada Dry Program The Chevrolet Show The General Tire Show The Jell-o Program The Grape Nuts Flakes Program The Lucky Strike Program
Genre	Comedy
Running time	30 minutes
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	NBC (Blue) (05/02/32-10/26/32) CBS (10/30/32-1/26/33) NBC (Red) (03/03/33-09/28/34) NBC (Blue) (10/14/34-06/21/36) NBC (Red) (10/04/36-12/26/48) CBS (01/02/49-05/22/55)
Television adaptation(s)	The Jack Benny Program (1950-1965)
Host(s)	Don Wilson
Starring	Jack Benny Mary Livingstone Eddie Anderson Phil Harris Dennis Day Kenny Baker Mel Blanc
Creator(s)	Jack Benny
Writer(s)	George Balzer, Sam Perrin, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry
Air dates	May 2, 1932 – May 22, 1955
No. of episodes	931
Opening theme	Love in Bloom/The Yankee Doodle Boy
Ending theme	Hooray for Hollywood

The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, was a radio-TV comedy series which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century comedy. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American radio and television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... See also: 1949 in television, other events of 1950, 1951 in television and the list of years in television. // Events February 12 - European Broadcasting Union (EBU) inaugurated. ... See also: 1964 in television, other events of 1965, 1966 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1965-66 American network television schedule. ... Don Wilson (September 1, 1900 – April 25, 1982) was an American announcer and occasional actor in radio and television. ... It has been suggested that The Jack Benny Program be merged into this article or section. ... Jack and Mary Benny Mary Livingstone (born Sadye Marks in Seattle, Washington on June 23, 1905) was an early co-star of American radio, and the wife and collaborator of radio and comedy king Jack Benny. ... Eddie Anderson (September 18, 1905 - February 28, 1977), often known as Eddie Rochester Anderson, was a black comic actor who became famous playing Rochester van Jones (usually known simply as Rochester), the valet to Jack Bennys eponymous title character on the long-running radio and television series The Jack... Phil Harris and Alice Faye Phil Harris (born Wonga Philip Harris) (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American singer, songwriter, jazz musician and comedian. ... Dennis Day (May 21, 1918 - June 22, 1988) Irish American singer who appeared for years on Jack Bennys radio and television shows. ... Kenneth Laurence Kenny Baker (September 30, 1912 – August 10, 1985) was an American singer/actor who first gained notice as the featured singer on Jack Bennys radio shows during the 1930s. ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor, performing on radio, in television commercials, and most famously, in hundreds of cartoon shorts for Warner Bros. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... John Tackaberry (1912-10-09 – 1969-06-24) was a radio writer for the The Jack Benny Show. ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... // March 1 - Both NBC and CBS go to Hopewell, New Jersey to provide live coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping. ... May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... // September 22 - The character Grace Archer dies in the BBC serial The Archers, a spoiler for the launch of ITV on the same day. ... Love in Bloom is a popular song. ... The Yankee Doodle Boy is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. ... Hooray for Hollywood is a movie song first featured in the relatively obscure 1937 movie Hollywood Hotel and which has since became the staple soundtrack element of any Academy Awards ceremony. ... It has been suggested that The Jack Benny Program be merged into this article or section. ...

Radio

With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor, Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program, beginning May 2, 1932, on the Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933. May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1, 1934. He continued with sponsors General Tires, Jell-O and Grape Nuts Flakes. But in 1944, the practice of using the sponsor's name as the title faded out, and the show was then known as The Jack Benny Program. Lucky Strike was the radio sponsor from 1944 to the mid-1950s. NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The show returned to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's notorious "raid" of NBC talent in 1948-49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired reruns of old radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny. January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... William S. Paley (1901-1990) This article is about the broadcast executive. ... May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Television

The Jack Benny Program was telecast on CBS from October 29, 1950, to September 15, 1964, and on NBC from September 25, 1964, to September 10, 1965. 343 episodes were produced. CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the Gregorian calendar (254th in leap years). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ...

The television show was a seamless continuation of Benny's radio program, employing many of the same players, the same approach to situation comedy and some of the same scripts. The suffix "Program" instead of "Show" was also a carryover from radio, where "program" rather than "show" was used frequently for presentations in the non-visual medium.

The Jack Benny Program appeared infrequently during its first two years on CBS TV. The show then ran every fourth week for the next two years. During the 1953-54 season, half the episodes were filmed during the summer and the others were live, a schedule which allowed Benny to continue doing his radio show. From 1955 until 1960, the show was on every other week, and it was seen weekly after 1960.

In his unpublished autobiography, I Always Had Shoes (portions of which were later incorporated by Jack's daughter, Joan, into her memoir of her parents, Sunday Nights at Seven), Benny said that he, not NBC, made the decision to end his TV series in 1965. He said that while the ratings were still very good (he cited a figure of some 18,000,000 viewers per week... although he qualified that figure by saying he never believed the ratings services were doing anything more than guessing, no matter what they promised), advertisers were complaining that commercial time on his show was costing nearly twice as much as what they paid for most other shows, and he had grown tired of what was called the "rate race." Thus, after some three decades on radio and television in a weekly program, Jack Benny went out on top.

In Jim Bishop's book A Day in the Life of President Kennedy, JFK said that he was too busy to watch most television, but that he made the time to watch The Jack Benny Program each week. James Alonzo Jim Bishop (November 21, 1907—July 26, 1987) was an American journalist. ... JFK redirects here. ...

Cast

• Jack Benny - Himself
• Eddie Anderson - Rochester Van Jones
• Don Wilson - Himself
• Dennis Day - Himself
• Mary Livingstone - Herself, although in real life she was Jack Benny's wife, on air (TV or Radio) she only played a friend to Jack. Sometimes she was presented as a date, sometimes as a love interest and sometimes she was just there. Her role changed from plot to plot and she was never a steady girlfriend for Jack.
• Mel Blanc - Carmichael the Polar Bear, Professor Pierre LeBlanc, Sy the Mexican, Polly (Jack's parrot) and many other assorted voices. An occasional running gag went along the lines of how the various characters Mel portrayed all looked alike. He was also the sound effects of Jacks Maxwell(car).
• Frank Nelson - the "Yeeee-essss?" man. He was constantly the person who waits on Jack wherever he was, from the railroad station, to the clerk in the store, to the doorman, to the waiter.
• Sheldon Leonard - a racetrack tout who frequently offered unsolicited advice to Benny on a variety of non-racing-related subjects. Ironically, he never gave out information on horse racing, unless Jack demanded it. One excuse the tout gave was "Who knows about horses?" His catchphrase was "Hey, bud...c'mere a minute."
• Joseph Kearns - Ed, the superannuated security guard in Jack's money vault
• Artie Auerbach - Mr. Kitzel, the hot dog vendor
• Dale White - Harlow Wilson
• Ronald Colman and his wife, Benita - as themselves. Not actually members of the cast, they were among Benny's most popular guest stars, portraying his long-suffering next door neighbors. Dennis Day often impersonated Ronald Colman. In real life, the Colmans lived a few blocks away from Benny's home.

Earlier cast members include: It has been suggested that The Jack Benny Program be merged into this article or section. ... Eddie Anderson (September 18, 1905 - February 28, 1977), often known as Eddie Rochester Anderson, was a black comic actor who became famous playing Rochester van Jones (usually known simply as Rochester), the valet to Jack Bennys eponymous title character on the long-running radio and television series The Jack... Don Wilson (September 1, 1900 – April 25, 1982) was an American announcer and occasional actor in radio and television. ... Dennis Day (May 21, 1918 - June 22, 1988) Irish American singer who appeared for years on Jack Bennys radio and television shows. ... Jack and Mary Benny Mary Livingstone (born Sadye Marks in Seattle, Washington on June 23, 1905) was an early co-star of American radio, and the wife and collaborator of radio and comedy king Jack Benny. ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor, performing on radio, in television commercials, and most famously, in hundreds of cartoon shorts for Warner Bros. ... Frank Nelson was an American born comedic actor best known for playing put-upon foils on radio and television. ... Sheldon Leonard (February 22, 1907 – January 10, 1997) was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor. ... Tout is a semi-colloquial, mainly British term for a person who earns money by reselling tickets to popular events. ... Joseph Kearns (born February 12, 1907; died February 17, 1962) was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as Mr. ... Ronald Colman (February 9, 1891 – May 19, 1958) was an English actor. ...

• Kenny Baker (singer/actor) - the show's tenor singer who originally played the young, dopey character replaced by Dennis Day
• Andy Devine - Jack's friend who lived on a farm with his ma and pa. He usually told a story about his folks and life around the farm. His catch phrase was "Hiya, Buck!"
• Phil Harris - a skirt-chasing, arrogant, hip-talking bandleader who constantly put Jack down (in a mostly friendly way, of course). He referred to Jack as "Jackson." An on-air joke explains this by having Harris say "It's as close to jack ass as I can get without being fired or getting into trouble with a censor.

• Schlepperman (played by Sam Hearn) - a Jewish character who spoke with a Yiddish accent.

Kenneth Laurence Kenny Baker (September 30, 1912 – August 10, 1985) was an American singer/actor who first gained notice as the featured singer on Jack Bennys radio shows during the 1930s. ... For the Emmerdale actor, see Andy Devine (actor). ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... Phil Harris and Alice Faye Phil Harris (born Wonga Philip Harris) (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American singer, songwriter, jazz musician and comedian. ...

External links

• The Jack Benny Program (TV pilot) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Jack Benny Program (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Jack Benny Program at TV.com