Name: The Jack Benny Program
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 6.8
Cast: Jack Benny, Don Wilson, Mel Blanc, Maudie Prickett, George Burns

Jack Benny

Don Wilson

Mel Blanc

Maudie Prickett

George Burns

Richard Reeves

Herb Vigran

Bea Benaderet

Bob Hope

Verna Felton

Laugh along with funnyman Jack Benny as he brings his underplayed humor to TV along with regular performers from his radio show days.

The Jack Benny Program

Premiere Show

Faye Emerson and Frank Sinatra Show

Claudette Colbert and Basil Rathbone Show

Ben Hogan Show

Dorothy Shay

Hélène Françoise Show

Gaslight

Gracie Bit

Isaac Stern Show

Jack Prepares a Trip to England

Bob Crosby's Contract

Buck Benny Rides Again

Bob Crosby sings 'Peter Pan.' Jack signs an autograph for a little girl from Washington named Margaret Truman. At home, Jack falls asleep and two men try to rob him, encountering many booby traps in his bedroom.

Jack Gets Robbed

Cafe Skit

60 Piece Orchestra Skit

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Monologue includes long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Fred Allen. Also includes lunch cart skit with Rochester.

Fred Allen Show

Visit to the Vault

After Jack's monologue he tells about his cruise to Hawaii with Rochester, where they encounter a series of characters on the ship Jack takes a nap and dreams that Marilyn Monroe is on board with him. Marilyn sings to Jack and tells him she is crazy about him.

Honolulu Trip

Jack recalls his childhood for his biography.

Jack as a Child

Bob Crosby gets angry at Jack for cutting his song, and Don is upset because his commercial is to be cut. In the sketch, Jack plays a detective trying to get a confession out of 'Baby Face,' the killer, played by Bogart. Bogart is promoting his new picture Beat the Devil.

Humphrey Bogart Show

It is Rochester's day off, and Jack has to make his own lunch. Don arrives, and Rochester sings the commercial to him; they do a soft-shoe routine together. A messenger arrives with Johnnie Ray's contract for a guest appearance, and Jack is horrified to see that Ray wants $10,000. Jack goes to Ray's home to tell him off, and have him sing to see if he is worth the money. Ray sings 'Please don't talk about me when I'm gone,' and 'Cry.' Jack is devastated and agrees to Ray's price. At the end of the show, Danny Thomas makes a guest appearance to plug Make Room for Daddy.

Johnnie Ray Show

While Benny is getting a haircut, he reads that Gregory Ratoff is planning a new production starring Irene Dunne and Vincent Price. Since he has always wanted to play against Irene Dunne, he goes to first Ratoff and then Dunne to try to get them to give him Price's part. He then invites himself to Dunne's house for the first rehearsal, which he disrupts by cracking walnuts and bungling lines.

Irene Dunne Show

Benny does a monologue on his Christmas gifts, then remembers last New Year's Eve: Mary is giving a party, but Jack is not planning to go because he has a date with Gloria. After the show, the cast gathers in Jack's dressing room. Crosby sings 'Let's start the new year right,' with the Sportsmen Quartet. Jack gets a call from Gloria cancelling their date. He refuses to go to the party, and instead wanders the streets alone, finally stopping for coffee at Nick's Cafe, where the waitress turns out to be Gloria. He goes home, where he and Rochester ring in the new year together.

English

Reminiscing About Last New Year's

Jack tries to call Liberace. Two operators, Gertrude and Mabel, talk about Jack. Jack finally decides to go to Liberace's home. The house is filled with candelabra. Liberace asks Jack to appear with him in concert. After Liberace performs solo, the two play 'September song' together, Jack on his violin.

Liberace Show

Mary calls and says she is coming over because she has something delicate to discuss; Jack thinks she is going to agree to marry him at last, but she just wants him to stop being so cheap. He daydreams about what their 21st anniversary would be like if she would marry him: in the dream, he is a would-be radio actor who keeps house while his wife works; his daughter Joan plays herself.

Jack Dreams He's Married To Mary

Helen Hayes Show

Jack starts recalling his old vaudeville days and the tours he made with his two partners--Bing Crosby and George Burns--in their act billed as "Goldie, Fields and Glide". Includes backyard hammock scene.

Goldie, Fields and Glide

It's ten minutes before showtime, and Gracie is nowhere to be found. Jack winds up letting George talk him into posing as Gracie for the show.

Burns and Allen Show

David Niven Show

Bob steals Jack's pants in order to precede him onstage. Jack wears Don's pants, and Bob gives Jack's pants to Don. The sketch is entitled 'On the road to Nairobi.' The Sportsmen Quartet, in African costume, sings the Lucky commercial to the tune of 'Digga digga doo.' Jack and Bob enter and are eventually placed in a pot by natives, who have trouble lighting the fire. Martin and Lewis, in the audience, offer to supply a match

The Road to Nairobi

Entire Cast Show

Jack delivers a monologue on critics. He is anxious to get home because at 8 p.m. some friends are coming over for their weekly jam session. At home, the guests arrive: Tony Martin with his clarinet, Fred MacMurray with his saxophone, Dick Powell with his trumpet, Dan Dailey with his drums, and Kirk Douglas with his banjo. Guests must purchase food, drink or smokes from vending machines in Jack's closet. They play 'Basin Street.' Jack holds a contest for the most popular guest.

Jam Session at Jack's

Jack tells an interviewer how he met Mary Livingstone years before when she worked at The May Co. Rochester sings and dances with The Sportsmen Quartet.

How Jack Found Mary

The Giant Mutiny

The Life of Jack Benny

Jack looks for Christmas gifts in a department store, and encounters Nelson as the floor manager, Blanc and Pepper as salespeople, Rubin as a bandit. The Sportsmen Quartet sing the Lucky commercial in the elevator.

English

Jack Does Christmas Shopping

San Diego Naval Training Center

Bedroom Burglar

Jack and Gisele MacKenzie's Violin Duet

Jack, awakened by a phone call at 4 a.m., cannot get back to sleep. After he decides to go for an early morning walk, he comes home exhausted, but Mary comes over and reminds him that they were to go shopping for a new suit for Jack.

Four O'Clock In The Morning Show

Jack's Lunch Counter

Jack Takes Beavers to the Fair

Gary Crosby

You Bet Your Life

Preparing for New York Trip

Jackie Gleason Show

Jack Goes to Dennis' House

Massage and Date with Gertrude

Jack is featured in Look! Magazine. Mel Blanc heckles Jack from the audience. Guest stars Peggy King and Art Linkletter.

Peggy King and Art Linkletter

Isaac Stern Boosts Jack's Morale

Jack Gives Johnny Carson Advice

Jack Hunts for Uranium

Frances and Edgar Bergen

Essentially a filmed radio show, a few chairs and a microphone on a stage, Jack and company re-create what was a tradition on his radio show, a skit where "Old Year" packs up and moves out and "New Year" moves in.

New Year's Day Show

Jack is sick with a bad cold and Rochester is his nurse and Mary is fixing him something to eat. Jack is waiting for his lawyer to show up as Jack wants him to break Don Wilson's contract as Jack is blaming him for his cold. In a flashback, we learn that after a show rehearsal, Don Wilson invites them to his house to see some anniversary gifts and Jack repeatedly warns Don to check with his wife, Lois, Don always declines. After arriving at Don's house and after Jack is told by Mary to pay the $1.85 taxi bill and Jack gives the driver a 15 cent tip., Don is now worried that he should have checked with his wife first. Don has them wait at the corner of the house while he checks with Lois. Lois informs Don that she just opened a can of tuna as she didn't have time to go shopping. Don decides to have the gang show up

Don Invites Gang to Dinner

How Jack Met Rochester

William Holden & Frances Bergen Show

Jack relies on Rochester, his toughest critic, to give him an honest evaluation of the show, but when Rochester accidentally sleeps through the program, he tries to cover up with evasive answers to Jack's questions. At first Jack is angry when he discovers the truth, but later he sees Rochester packing and is afraid that he's leaving (unaware that Rochester is simply getting ready for a camping trip). Jack offers him extra days off — even Labor Day — and makes him a steak dinner, and Rochester milks the situation for all it's worth.

Rochester Sleeps Through Jack's Show

Jack Drives to Palm Springs

Jack Opens Beverly Hills Office

Gisele MacKenzie Show

Jack Tries to Get a Passport

Alfred Wallenstein Show

George Burns & Spike Jones Show

George Gobel & Red Skelton Show

Jack Is Invited to the Ronald Colmans

Rochester calls Jack in the middle of his monologue to tell him his Maxwell has been stolen. While he goes to the Beverly Hills Police Station, the Sportsmen cover for him, singing 'Puttin' on my top hat' while they get dressed on stage. Jack is amazed at the sumptuousness of the police station. Eventually the car is found; it has been returned to Jack's house by the thieves.

Jack's Maxwell Is Stolen

Jack Locked in the Tower of London

The Mikado

During Jack's monologue about his Christmas gifts, Don comes out to announce a purse has been found. It turns out to belong to Jayne Mansfield, who was sitting in the audience when the usher grabbed her purse she considers this to be a pretty sneaky way to get a guest star. Jack mentions The Girl Can't Help It, her latest picture. The Sportsmen Quartet and Rochester perform New Year's in Trinidad for the Lucky Strike ad. In the sketch, Jack hosts a talent contest. Mel Blanc plays an animal impersonator. The Landrew Sisters trio sings Did you ever see a dream walking. Leon Salvadore, a judo champ, is beaten by the six big men he asserts he will beat.

Talent Show

Jack and Mary in Rome

The Fiddler

Goodwin Knight & George Jessel Show

Hope and Benny in Agent's Office

Jack Falls Into a Canal in Venice

Jack makes sure Parisians remember him: he boasts to anyone he can corner that he drives a garbage truck. That's how an under-tipped hotel employee translates "star of stage, screen and television" for Jack. A garbageman compatriot is delighted to give Jack & Mary a free ride in his truck, while Maurice Chevalier takes them nightclubbing.

Jack in Paris

Mary's May Company Reunion

Visit from the IRS

Show opens with the audience in line to see the show, telling each other how their tickets were forced on them. In his opening monologue, Jack analyzes his own humor. Dennis sings 'Around the world in 80 days.' Don does the Lucky Strike commercial as a calypso number; Jack won't let him finish it. He introduces Mel Blanc as Otto Ketzler, a novelty music act from Vienna; Ketzler plays bottles filled with alcohol--as he tunes them, he becomes more and more inebriated. Don's wife makes Jack call the sponsor to explain that the curtailed commercial was Jack's fault, not Don's.

First Show of the Season

The Airport

During the monologue, the President and Secretary of the Jack Benny Fan Club, Pasadena Chapter, come onstage. Don and Harlow Wilson do a soft shoe to 'Me and my shadow' for the Lucky commercial. Hal March, host of The $64,000 Question quiz show, is the guest; Jack asks him questions, and he tries to answer them for prizes.

Hal March Show

Ginger Rogers Show

John Forsythe Show

Jack wants to star in the movie version of his life story, but producer Buddy Adler wants Van Johnson. Van Johnson and Buddy Adler play themselves. Announcer: Don Wilson. Rochester: Eddie Anderson.

Jack's Life Story

Christmas Shopping

Jack Goes to the Rose Bowl

Jack Takes a Beaver to the Dentist

Dennis sings 'The 12th of never.' In the sketch, Jack plays Ralph Kramden in a take-off of The Honeymooners, with Meadows as Alice and Dennis as Ed Norton.

The Jack Benny Program

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