It had the makings of a triumphant return.
Jack Benny, grabbed by Bill Paley in 1949 to appear on CBS after starting at NBC in 1932, was coming back to his old home.
That made a great story. So Jack was paraded around the NBC-TV affiliates confab in 1964 and plugged the switch to reporters while glad-handing with management of various peacock stations.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well.
Some of it was out of Benny’s control. For one thing, CBS scheduled two Benny series for late afternoons in the 1964-65 season—one to run Monday through Friday and another on Sunday. This saturation of Benny was despite the fact CBS TV president Jim Aubrey didn’t want him, which is why Jack headed back to NBC in the first place.
That wasn’t known when Jack talked about the coming TV season with the Pittsburgh Press. This feature story was published June 2, 1964.
‘Old 39’ Likes Cinch Of TV Schedule
Benny Rides Bonanza On 70 Trail
By VINCE LEONARD, Press TV-Radio Writer
HOLLYWOOD, June 2—"I was 70 years old on my last birthday and I don't look it," Jack Benny said into a microphone in a roof-top restaurant at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Benny, whose show returns to NBC In the fall at 9:30 on Fridays on Channels 6, 7, and 11 In Pittsburgh, was holding court for a battery of writers attending the NBC affiliates' convention.
He was telling the truth. He didn't look his age at all.
Tanned and wearing a smart, tweedy-ish sport coat and horned-rim glasses, Benny mixed quips with news of his fall show.
"Actually, the only difference next year will be that the show will be on NBC rather than CBS," he said.
"Oh, I'll have a new character to go along with Rochester," he said. "Her name is Jane Dulo and she'll be my cook."
Any change in format?
"I can't change my format," he said, "because I really have no format to change."
The perennial "39 year-old" reported he had six shows already done, calling it "cinch work." “Sometimes,” he said, “I don't have to show up until Wednesday and finish in time to have the week end off."
Nice work if you can get it, the writers agreed to a man.
Connie Francis, Andy Williams and Bob Hope and the wives of Steve McQueen, David Janssen and Andy Williams are the guest stars of the first six segments.
Then Benny, who began his broadcasting career on NBC in 1932, began hitting to all fields.
"We spend more time on editing our scripts than anything else," Benny said. "You know the old saying, plays are never written, they are re-written."
He said sometimes a writer comes up with an idea that doesn't meet with his approval.
"And sometimes I have to apologize. Of course, I'll apologize 28 weeks if the show comes off well," he said.
The Jack Benny Show was nominated for an Emmy 12 of the last 13 years. The season that It missed was the past one. And Jack was nimble with his comment.
"Look at the other shows that weren't nominated," he said, and then ticked off names like Hope, Andy Griffith, Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball and Red Skelton.
"I'd rather be in their class, great people that were not nominated."
Someone brought up the category squabble concerning the Emmys, and Jack cracked:
"Once I was in the same category with 'The Defenders' and they hardly get any laughs."
On ratings, Benny had this to say:
"I was on top in radio once, but couldn't say much for ratings then. The only time I can say I believe in ratings is when I drop. Otherwise they'd holler ‘sour grapes.’”
The demise of the Richard Boone Show was brought up and after commenting on the show's worth, Benny said, "You know, if I were going to be thrown off the air, I'd rather be thrown off with a good show. At least I'd save face for my concerts."
Then the most famous violinist since Heifetz launched into a symphony on "Bonanza," one of his cousins at NBC, a show which was a rival of his last season when Jack was with CBS.
The Benny show last year came on during the second half of Bonanza.
"I turned on Bonanza once just to see what it was like," he said. "Then it came time to switch over to my show I just couldn't. I got so interested I had to wait for that big ending.
"Then it dawned on me. If I couldn't switch, what about all the other viewers?"
The Joey Bishop Show will battle Bonanza next season.
Said Jack:
"Bishop's a fine comic but he's going to have problems."
The columnist was a bit confused. Jack was opposite the second half of Bonanza on Sundays in the 1961-62 season. He was moved to Tuesdays the following year.
You’d have to be a real Benny diehard to remember Jane Dulo as the cook. She was only on three shows. Dulo loved her time with Jack. She was quoted in the Sacramento Union of May 23, 1965.
“[W]orking with Jack Benny is an incredible experience. Think of anything great to say about somebody and it will apply to him.
“I’ll never forget our first rehearsal. I was terribly nervous and gave what I thought was a mediocre performance.
“Jack said to me, ‘Kid, if your reading is an indication of your performance, we’re home free.’ I loved him for that.”
The irony of the Benny interview is while Jack talked about ratings for Joey Bishop, poor ratings would take his show off NBC at the end of one season. Aubrey counter-programmed by putting an Andy Griffith Show spin-off opposite Benny: Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.. Rick DuBrow of UPI proclaimed it “the real new smash popular show of the year” and Gomer’s Jim Nabors “the biggest new star.”
The Valley Times pointed out on Jan. 2, 1965 that Benny’s show hadn’t even cracked the top 50. On the 19th, the Anaheim Bulletin’s Ann Saunders sadly wished Jack “many, many thanks for the many hours of pleasure you have given us.” The Benny show was being cancelled.
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