The Super Barbershop of Television

You’ve no doubt heard horror stories of temper tantrums around the sets and writing rooms of TV comedy/variety shows of the 1950s. This isn’t one of them.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite.

Jack Benny was calm and cool, even though his “Benny character” on camera could be exasperated or annoyed. There are plenty of stories about how stars felt at ease with him (Ronald Colman was one). Here’s a syndicated story that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen of January 23, 1953 showing how Benny, who actually had a reputation in the ‘30s as a worrier, was seemingly unruffled as he put together his TV show and, occasionally, dealt with last-minute emergencies.

"Easy-does-it" approach guide for Jack Benny awes his guest stars
By Don Royal
HOLLYWOOD—It IS possible to produce a top-flight TV production without an accompaniment of ulcer-sparking tensions, screaming, ranting and other temperamental outbursts. That has been proved to a growing group of stellar and diverse personalities which includes Ernie Kovacs, Gary Cooper, Phil Harris, Marilyn Monroe, Mrs. Bob Hope and Marvin (the Millionaire) Miller. About the only thing any of these people have in common is a deep-seated admiration and open-mouthed awe for the way Jack Benny puts a program together.
Each of these personalities, you see, has been Jack's guest on his top-rated CBS Television Network show, "The Jack Benny Program."
"We don't get into a raging fuss about every, little thing," says Jack Benny about his own way of working. "We've all been together long enough to anticipate difficulties and cope when they happen. That's why it looks so easy."
Never, reports the average Benny guest star, has a network broadcast been approached so smoothly and recalled as fondly as the average Jack Benny program.
Fond Recollection

About the same formula for success was followed when Jack went to an hour-long format with his "Comedy Specials."
"Sure, these shows are more work and require more concentration," Jack admits. "But that doesn't mean we're climbing the walls— or over one another—by dress rehearsal time."
The men most responsible for this ease of operation in the Benny organization are the Benny organization: the producer Hilliard Marks, his writers, Sam Perrin, George Balzer, Hal Goldman and Al Gordon, and of course Benny himself.
Bob Hope, who has been Benny's guest before was the latest star to experience the Benny "easy does it" policy, as Jack's guest star on the first Benny Comedy Special.
"I remember the last time, a couple of years ago, that I appeared on Jack's show," Hope recalls. "It was even sort of complicated, with a song-and-dance number and everything.
"So did we have a lot of big and little detail to iron out before air time? Not on your life. It was like walking into one of those super barbershops, where the attendants do everything for you but pay the tips."
Follows Routine
The schedule for a Benny program goes something like this. As soon as a guest star is signed, usually four or five weeks in advance, a script is worked out among the four writers, Benny himself and producer Marks, who once wrote for the show.
About three weeks before the show, a finished script is prepared and sent to the guest star. In about a week, everyone— Benny, his staff, the guest, and any other players in the skits— get together for an informal reading in Benny's Beverly Hills office.
A week later, the Friday before the show, the cast and crew assemble for the first time on the stage in Studio 33 of Television City in Hollywood, where the program will go out on the air two days later.
That Friday session is usually devoted to "walk-through" rehearsals, where the movements are timed to co-ordinate them with the 50-odd punch lines that make up an average Benny half-hour.
Benny's director, Semour Berns [sic], uses this opportunity to inject any bits of comic "business" into the action, as well as timing the various routines, commercials and musical numbers that must be included the next Sunday.
Somewhere off to the side during this is Mahlon Merrich [sic], the Benny musical director, who works with his orchestra on numbers for the show, for the "warm-up" and on arrangements with a singer like Dennis Day.
Saturday is the polishing day. The pace is stepped up slightly, the lines are smoothed into comic sharpness, and the actors' and cameras' movements are finalized.
The first dress rehearsal occurs exactly one hour and a half before the show hits the air. Even then, an air of calm sureness pervades Studio 33. Benny himself appears ready for an afternoon nap rather than a fast-paced comedy program.
If there are any rough edges in the dress rehearsal (and there seldom are), they are worked out between Berns, the director, Marks, the producer, and the writers.
Typifies Approach
Jack comes out to do his "warm-up" before the studio audience about five minutes before "air." One of his regular cracks in this period rather typifies his whole approach to show business. "I don't really have to come out here, you know," he quips. "But I do it just to make myself nervous."
Then, at exactly 4: 30 p.m., PST, he makes his entrance for the show.
As Benny himself says: "There's no sense getting into a snit about things. I remember when Nanette Fabray had to bow out at the last moment because of an injury.
"You know what happened? We got Janis Paige to step in as a last-minute replacement. She took the script home one night and came back the next day ready for work.
"Sure there are ragged spots in the show, but part of this business is learning to make the unexpected look as if it were brilliant."
The Benny approach: never panic, always relax and remain unalterably optimistic.