CBS gathered them up and put them on a media tour, pushing their series for the 1963-64 season (Andes, later the voice of Birdman, was on a failure called Glynis that year). As a side note, the network had another touring group consisting of Rod Serling, Pamela Britton, Elizabeth Wilson of East Side West Side, Edgar Buchanan and Robert Reed.
Here are two of them, the first from the Atlanta Constitution of August 14, 1963 and the second from the Miami Herald of the 16th. Perrin talks about some of the routines on the show, the “all business” attitude in writing, and praises Jeanette Eymann, Jack’s script assistant who made occasional appearances on both the radio and TV shows and was periodically Mary Livingstone’s stand-in during the final radio seasons. She died in 2012.
It’s a bit of a stretch for Perrin to say he “helped create” the Maxwell. Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin did that in the ‘30s. The “age” gags started under them, too. But Perrin and the other Benny writers fine-tuned them. And you’ll be interested to read which celebrity was difficult to write for; someone you would not have guessed.
It's a Serious Job To Benny's Writer
By PAUL JONES
What's it like to write for a comedian such as Jack Benny?
"It's serious business," said Sam Perrin, for 21 years one of Benny's writers, who was in Atlanta as part of the CBS-TV stars caravan here to discuss new fall programming.
"Comedy is very serious business," said Perrin, who along with Benny's other three writers have been nominated six times for Emmy Awards. "The mere fact that people laugh at what I write does not make it a less inspired work." Writing comedy material is not a lot of horseplay, as you might suspect. Comedy writers don't just sit around cracking jokes and guffawing over their own lines. Comedy material comes as the result of tireless effort, conferences with Benny, discussions, discussions and more discussions. Sometimes, Perrin said, the four writers assigned to the show turn out a complete script at a single sitting. "More often," he said, "a script emerges after only a full, five-day work week."
"We are not inspired by anything in particular. Writing comedy material comes from necessity," said Perrin.
Perrin is the oldest member of Benny's writing team. "I've been with Jack for 21 years," he said. "George Balzer joined him shortly after I went with him. Al Gordon and Hal Goodman have been writing for Benny for 15 years. Jack calls them his 'junior writers'."
Perrin said the script writing begins with a conference with Jack in which the writers discuss with Jack the ideas they have for situations and lines. After the ideas are established we turn out the script. Sometimes he changes a line or two and even sometimes throws out an entire sequence. "Sometimes, we have to overrule him," Perrin said, smiling.
PERRIN said something that is known pretty generally that Benny is not actually stingy as he is portrayed in the tight-wad character he created originally in his vaudeville days.
"Jack is a very warm-hearted and generous man," said Perrin, who helped create some of the Benny character gimmicks.
"I helped create the old Maxwell, the ancient automobile that Benny refers to. I helped create his age (39)," he said.
Perrin tells a funny story about the age gimmick.
"We decided to begin the age gag, making him 36 to begin with," said Perrin. "Then each year, on his birthday we aged him one year until he reached 39. Then when he was to turn 40 we decided to give the gag a lot of production, to write a show around him becoming 40 years old. We created a spectacular. Benny turned 40 amid all the hoopla. But the public didn't like that at all. Realizing that we had made a mistake, we turned back the clock and made Benny 39 all over again. He's been 39 ever since."
PERRIN says that although Benny is regarded as one of the funniest comedians alive he seldom says anything funny.
"The only time he says anything funny is when he does a monologue," said Perrin. "Benny gets laughs letting the comedy lines bounce off his character."
But Benny can get more laughs simply by shrugging his shoulders, turning his head, sighing or saying something as simple as "Oh, shucks, Rochester."
It is said that Benny has never used an off-color line in all his career. With his immense talent for comedy he never had to resort to such things.
Like Perrin says, "Benny is one of the Jack Benny most gifted comedians in the world."
Sam Just Writes Them
Perrin Leaves Jokes to Benny
By JACK E ANDERSON
Herald Radio-TV Editor
IT WOULD seem to make sense that Sam Perrin, veteran writer of funny lines for Jack Benny, ought to be a very funny guy himself.
That’s the assumption a group of us TV editors had when we joined Perrin in his Deauville Hotel room the other day for an interview.
We expected Perrin ought to be a facsimile of — say, a Phil Silvers or a Joey Bishop — and that we ought to be pelted with gags fresh from the top of his head.
We found instead a short balding man with a barely audible voice and a face that falls into dour folds and if he had any gags with him they had been left in the hotel safe.
Perrin, it turns out, is one of those creative people who create for somebody else. He and his fellow trio of writers, George Balzer and Al Goldman, are the cooks in the Benny kitchen. They prepare but don’t partake of the fare.
As such, he seemed almost ill at ease among the extroverted performers who made up a troupe of nine CBS personalities who came here to stimulate public interest in the network’s new and returning fall shows.
21 Years With Benny
Somebody asked him if he were the head man in the humor-writing quartet. “Whoever has the best idea," he smiled, “momentarily becomes the head man.”
Perrin and Balzer are at least chiefs in terms of service. They have both worked for Benny 21 years. Gordon and Goldman have been with him for 16.
“We’ve gotten accustomed to each other,” Perrin went on, “we feel like each other’s crutch.”
And Benny has worked so closely and satisfactorily with them, he said, he seems like one of the hired hands.
“We have no problems with Jack,” he said. “We’ve all been together for so long that we know what lines and situations fit his style of comedy and he leaves it all entirely to us.”
Not that they and the boss don’t have a difference [of] opinion now and then, but it’s never anything serious.
"I’ve seen us guys argue some point of a script for three days and finally come to an agreement,” he said. “Then Jack will walk in and say, ‘Fellows I think it ought to be the other way’.”
Secretary a Gem, He Says
HE and his cohorts do their work, Perrin said, in a windowless office of Benny’s suite of private offices in Beverly Hills. They average five days on each script although it can take longer on occasions.
They treasure Jeanette Barnes, who has been their secretary for 16 years. Miss Barnes is always on hand to transcribe every idea and line the quartet comes up with.
“Jennie has a fine car for the right gag,” he said. “One of us will develop a line then turn to her and say: ‘Jennie did you get that?’ and she’ll say: ‘No I didn’t think it was funny.’ And she’ll be right every time.”
Miss Barnes is frequently the arbiter of their differences. More so even than the boss.
“Jack will come in when we’re through, sometimes take a look at a script and decide he doesn’t like it,” Perrin said. “Then all of us will say: “Jack why don’t you go out and play golf for a while.’ He’ll go and when he gets back he’ll decide he likes the script after all.
Had Problems Only Once
PERRIN said he and his associates seldom have trouble writing a Benny script after all these years. But he can recall one hitch. This was the script that had Benny playing Tarzan to Carol Burnett’s Jane.
“Seems odd, doesn’t it, with a funny star like Carol to work with?” he mused. “But that was the trouble. The people and the situation were too good. We had the damnedest problem getting rolling with it.”
Perrin was a writer of vaudeville acts before he broke into broadcasting. His first assignment was with the old Phil Baker Show in tandem with writer Arthur Phillips. From there he went into his long association with Benny.
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