Benny Keeps Punching

Jack Benny’s television series wasn’t on every week at the beginning, and the comedian seemed to vacillate over how many appearances in a season were best for him.

In 1953, he had moved from once a month to once every three weeks. He didn’t appear once a week until the 1960-61 season. Yet back in ’53, he mulled over whether that would have been better for him. (We’ve posted other interviews here where he thought once a week was overkill).

Here are a couple of stories from New York-based reporter Jack Gaver. The first is from September 20, 1953, the second was published September 4th. The first was part of a column of miscellaneous items; I suspect he held onto it from his original story to get some extra inches from his interview.

Benny’s weekly appearances ended in 1965 when his show was killed off in the ratings by Gomer Pyle. He followed the Bob Hope format afterwards—occasional specials under his NBC contract—and did that until he died. He still popped up as a guest elsewhere, meaning these was still lots of Benny on TV for his fans.

Benny Favors Weekly Show, Citing Continuity of Gags
By JACK GAVER
United Press Staff Correspondent
Despite what would seem to be a lot of extra work, Jack Benny feels it would be easier to do a television show every week instead of once every three weeks, as he is doing this season. Last year he was on once a month.
"The reason is simple," the comedian explained on a recent quick trip to New York. "With a show once a week you can have some continuity of gags or situations working for you. We've done that in radio for years.
"But when you come on only once every three or four weeks, you're starting from scratch each time. The listener can't be expected to carry around for that length of time some thought you might have expressed on your previous show."

Waukegan Virtuoso Starts Another Season
By JACK GAVER
NEW YORK (UP) — The old—39, that is—virtuoso from Waukegan was in prime shape to start another radio-television season last Sunday and he attributes this happy state of affairs to the attitude of himself and staff toward their work.
"We work always with the idea of doing the best we can,” Jack Benny explained, “but we don’t fret about it. If we happen to hit a low spot one week — and everyone does now and then—we don’t get into a panic and tell ourselves the next show has to be extra good to make up for it. We just try to make the next one good.
Do Not Press
"Also, if we happen to have an unusually good program, we don’t begin to press with the idea that the next one has to top it or we’ll look bad.” The comedian and his usual radio family will be operating at the old CBS stand every Sunday night. This will be Benny's fourth season on TV and his most active. This time he will do a Sunday TV show every three weeks instead of one a month as last season.
Taped in Advance

"The radio shows will be taped in advance, as we have been doing for some time,” Benny said. "Most of the television shows will be ’live,’ but we nave put four of these half-hour programs on film already and we will spot them when circumstances make it difficult for me to do a ‘live’ show.
“Funny thing, doing a half hour TV show of my type is tougher than if I did an hour show. In an hour show you can make clean breaks for the commercials. With the half-hour type you have to integrate the commercials so you don’t lose any more time than necessary.
“Everything in a half hour show has to be dovetailed and pointed to getting in the most in that space of time. I have to keep punching every minute. With an hour show, I could wander in and out from time to time, using a long sketch it I wanted to, and other performers would get more of a chance.
Public Reaction
"Now, last season we did a long Jeykll-Hyde sketch on one program. Writers and directors who saw it said it was the best thing we'd done. But the public’s reaction wasn’t nearly so good. You know why? The sketch used up nearly all of the 30 minutes and there wasn’t time for the usual fooling around that the audience has come to expect from me when I’m out there just as Jack Benny.”

UPA at 10

Film critics of the 1930s were ga-ga over Walt Disney’s “realistic” animation. Critics of the 1940s were hip to the irreverence of Bugs Bunny. But critics of the 1950s were tired of both. They wanted something more sophisticated, kind of like how they praise art-house feature films over populist ones even today.

Enter UPA.

Gerald McBoing-Boing was the first to catch their attention. Mr. Magoo was next. Why? Because they weren’t animals trying to be sedate and cute, or running around and lippy. They were humans who were reminiscent of something you’d find in panel cartoons in magazines like the Saturday Evening Post. In other words, they weren’t children’s fare, therefore they were far superior.

But like Bambi and Bugs Bunny, the heaps of praise on the UPA characters abated after an initial burst of enthusiasm. Perhaps it was because any interest in new cartoons was drying up, including by the studios themselves. Less money was being spent on them, except at MGM where no money was being spent on them after mid-1957. Meanwhile, kids ate up Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons whenever they appeared on television.

Here’s a feature story from the praise days of UPA. It comes from Richard Dyer MacCann’s “Hollywood Letter” column in the Christian Science Monitor of November 17, 1953. Technically, I suppose it’s correct about the studio being 10 years old, but it really never released anything for mass consumption until 1948.

UPA Cartoons 10 Years Old
Hollywood
It was just 10 years ago that Stephen Bosustow embarked on an independent course as an artist and founded the company which has for so long been referred to as “that new cartoon studio where ‘Gerald McBoing-Boing’ was made.”
Mr. Bosustow feels pretty sure that UPA is now becoming a quality trade-mark for American movie-goers—even if some of them don’t realize that the initials stand for United Productions of America.
UPA is now known also as the studio that makes the “Mr. Magoo” series, and lately there has been interest in an experimental subject based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

“Christopher Crumpet,” in which a youngster turns into a chicken whenever he doesn’t get his own way, is another recent release. Furthermore, Mr. Bosustow has at last achieved the beginning of his ambition to put James Thurber’s drawings on film: “The Unicorn in the Garden” is a brief transcription of a Thurber fable.
* * *
Things are moving right along at UPA, what with precedent-breaking plans for three cartoons produced especially for television, a third story about the cacophonous Gerald McBoing-Boing, and (as usual) something just a little different, called “Fudget’s Budget.”
That last item is a simple tale about two people who live very carefully within “a vine-covered budget,” but gets overconfident when the boss grants a raise in pay. Robert Cannon, the director of this sadly ironic piece, has planned a constant, unobtrusive background of column-ruled paper and scrawly arithmetic for everything that goes on.
Mr. Cannon’s second sequel to the Academy Award-winning “Gerald” consists of an attempt to get the precocious little fellow (who can’t talk, you know, but goes “Boing! Boing!” instead) to learn, after all, to talk.
His parents take Gerald to Professor Joyce to see what can be done about his voice, but even shock treatment can’t get the woeful child to say “How now, brown cow?” Suddenly the professor remembered that the telephone company has a wonderful scrambling and unscrambling device for overseas calls. They try a phone call to Gerald—via Paris. What a surprise to hear the elaborate electronic equipment come forth with Gerald’s solemnly intelligible address to the aforesaid cow!
* * *
Perhaps the biggest new at UPA is the company’s imminent TV debut. It will take place on the Ford Foundation’s Sunday program, “Omnibus,” some time in December. First of a series of three films optioned by “Omnibus”—all of them to be made available to theaters later—it is a story by Heywood Broun called “The 51st Dragon.”
In this symbolic adventure, Gawaine Le Coeur-Hardy is a cowardly young lad who is taking courses at knight school “He was tall and sturdy, but lacked spirit. He would hide in the woods when the jousting class was called. Even when they told him the lances were padded, the horses just ponies, and the field unusually soft, he wasn’t enthusiastic.”
Nevertheless, Gawaine is persuaded to undertake training as a slayer of dragons. Fortified with the knowledge that he has a “magic word” to protect him, he wields his enormous ax with abandon. As to what happens when he confronts his fifty-first victim, that is for you to find out.
* * *

Mr. Bosustow is very much wrapped up in his TV dragon project, and takes keen delight in explaining how the ax is a key element in the design, how the wallpaper pattern sets the mood for each episode, and how the set pieces that stand for the mountains are not unlike the scenic technique of Oriental theatricals. Sterling Sturtevant is the designer of this one; Herbert Klynn is the associate producer and Art Heinemann the director.
“Mr. Magoo Goes Skiing” is the straightforward title of that near-sighted old gentleman’s newest escapade, and it need hardly be said that he and his nephew and a large bear all manage to get onto his pair of skis at once as he goes over a cliff.
Another item now being pencilled in on the story board is a promising cartoon called “Cine-magoo” in which Mr. Magoo mistakes an airline marquee for a movie entrance. When he leaves his first seat to get a better view of the show somewhere else, he manages to pop out the door of the airplane and discovers how really tremendous the new wide screens can be.

Super Autograph

“Is it a comet? Is it a meteor?” asks the narrator.



No! It’s Mighty Mouse! And he’s come to...sign autographs?!?



The really bad audio edit should tell that “Mighty” was added later. If that doesn’t clue you in, Mighty Mouse’s autograph should.



This was back before the character’s name had to be changed. The cartoon’s title was Super Mouse Rides Again when it was released in 1943.

Here’s a hammy pre-takeoff pose for good measure.



As a side note, this may be the only Mighty Mouse cartoon which has a lake but does not include the Terry Splash™ on the soundtrack.

Lovelorn Fish

The cartoon may be called Jolly Fish, but an amorous fish makes an appearance at the start of this 1932 Van Beuren short. He cozies up to Jerry, who shakes his head and shoves the fish away. I love the plus signs in the eyes; old comic strips used to do that sort thing.



Now the fish is angry. He develops feet and hands. He walks on water, chasing after Tom and Jerry’s boat, which contracts.



Both Tom and Jerry bash the fish unconscious with their oars.



In true lackadaisical Van Beuren style, the action lines remain on the screen for a couple of seconds when there is no action.



John Foster and George Stallings get the “by” credit.

Gene Rodemich believed in setting moods with music, not necessarily scoring to the action. The song that plays during most of the cartoon is “By a Rippling Stream.” Thanks to Milt Knight for the ID. You can hear a nice version below.

Ga-Ga For Gomez

John Astin walked away from the failure of the sitcom I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster without any damage. After a year off, he was given the role of Gomez in The Addams Family in 1964.

The show was derived from the single-panel cartoons of Charles Addams that portrayed a group of people who revelled in ghoulishness in an irreverent sort of way. Trying to translate that kind of humour into a half-hour TV sitcom was impossible. So, instead, the series shot off in other directions while still keeping an air of being off-beat.

The Addams Family lasted only two seasons in prime time on ABC but had the same good fortune that a number of used comedies had back in that day—it went into endless daytime reruns and its popularity grew and grew.

Astin enjoyed the role, as we can gather from newspaper interviews of the time. We’ll reprint two below. The first appeared in papers on June 22, 1964, the second on November 2, 1964. Both compare the show with The Munsters. In interviews years later, Astin insisted the shows weren’t the same at all. Both dealt with the macabre in a comic way, but the Munster family couldn’t understand why they were considered different while the Addamses just didn’t care. They went on living their lives.

The Addams Family' May Slay TV Viewers
By HAL HUMPHREY
HOLLYWOOD — Editors of the New Yorker magazine may get a little upset to learn that David Levy, who is producing a new TV series based on the Charles Addams cartoons, believes the Addams wit and audiences not irreconcilable.
"If Addams was not under contract to the New Yorker," says producer Levy, "TV Guide or some other mass circulation magazine would snap him up.
"You should have seen what happened when we showed the pilot film of 'The Addams Family' at the National Association of Broadcasters convention last spring. "And when ABC had the film pre-tested before an audience, the network executives couldn't believe the results. They thought there must have been some mistake," continues Levy, warming to his subject.
• • •
"We showed it to three of Addams' attorneys, who sat as if they were on the Supreme Court, but they began to fall down within three minutes after the film began to unroll."

Addams was in the room, too, at that time. According to Levy, the only sounds he heard emanating from Addams were "strange ones."
"They were really sounds of approval, though," Levy adds, hastily. "And one of the attorneys, a woman, said afterward to Addams, 'He is much more Addams-like than you are.'
"She was referring to John Astin, who plays Gomez. He really moved them. Addams did say later he liked the music, and of Carolyn Jones — she plays Morticia — he said, 'Enchanting!'"
Despite all of this praise, Levy is playing it cautious with the TV critics and refuses to show the pilot to them prior to airtime next September.
HE CAN hardly be blamed for playing it cool. It has been more than two years since Levy phoned Addams to open negotiations.
"We had cocktails at the Plaza in New York and discovered we both had roots there. I knew Addams had turned down other TV offers, but I believe he warmed up when I told him I did not read the New Yorker stories, only the cartoons.
"It took a year from that day just for the attorneys to do the paperwork involved, and it was largely Addams and hit attorneys' paper."
Addams also had to approve the cast which Levy came up to fit the characters most prominent in Addams' murky and macabre world. Besides Carolyn Jones and John Astin, there is a six-toot-nine giant named Ted Cassidy who will do his first acting as "Lurch." Six other characters will be used more or less frequently.
Levy made a deal with the Filmways company, the same studio which turns out "Beverly Hillbillies," "Petticoat Junction" and "Mr. Ed." If Addams is acquainted with any of those series, he might be experiencing some apprehension at this point over how his brain-children will thrive in such a climate.
• • •
LEVY DOES grant that any writer assigned to "The Addams Family" TV series will need "far more imaginative gifts than those turning out ordinary situation comedy."
"We will be telling the TV audience, too, that these are not the neighbors next door," says Levy.
Meanwhile, over at CBS, a Thursday night time spot is being cleared for what the network is heralding as a completely new idea in situation comedy — The Munsters — which dealt with a 'normal' American family whose physical characteristics are reminiscent of such famous movie monsters at Frankenstein's creation, Dracula and a lady vampire."
The Addams attorneys may discover their TV work is not finished yet.

John Astin 'Arrives' In Series
By CHARLES WITBECK
HOLLYWOOD — It must be nice to be independently wealthy, madly in love with your wife and serene enough to enjoy your children and relatives talking and playing together in the living room.
This happy home time occurs every Friday night at ABC's reverse joke series, "The Addams Family," where the sweet things in lite are pet spiders, poison ivy and a hangman's noose.
The head of the house, nonconformist Gomez Addams — addicted to cigars, double-breasted chalk striped suits and blowing up toy trains — walks about with feet wide apart, full of good cheer. He is a happy man and so far has never been seen in a downcast mood. Life is very good to Gomez.
Actor John Astin, formerly seen as a carpenter in "The I'm Dickens . . . He's Fenster" series, was the first person cast in the series, derived from Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons, and he has given a good deal of serious thought to Gomez.
"We did a number of tests without makeup," says John. "And some felt I was too straight. There was a suggestion to do odd things with the eyes, but we stopped that."
Astin, a talented, serious New York actor, leaning towards the works of Samuel Beckett, and who once produced Christopher Fry's "A Sleep of Prisoners," written to be performed in a church, plays Gomez in an expansive mood.

"You can tell about Gomez from the way he walks," he says. "The legs shoot out. And when he stands the feet are far apart, like a cigar smoking New York businessman, only Gomez is a successful nonconformist. This can't simply be a reverse joke show. We have to affirm our position."
So far the series does rely on the reverse joke and the kids don't seem to mind at all. The cartoon characters on TV are sweet and a big hit among the young viewers whose after school television chatter revolves mostly around "The Addams Family" and "The Munsters."
Both series could be written by the same people in that both emphasize a close family life, sight gags galore and reverse jokes. Their viewpoints are remarkably similar.
'Attack Objects'
Pushing the nonconformist line, Astin says, "We attack objects, not people. We know we're different and we feel others are not as fortunate as we are. And when we take out our aggressions, no guilt is involved."
"The Addams Family" and "The Munsters" take great care to stress a happy home life. "These are good people" is implied in every line. Now this wasn't the case in all Addams cartoons "Many suggested violence," admits Astin. "and it wasn't necessary for Addams to follow up. Cartoons don't have to answer any question, but we do in 26 minutes."
Astin was an Addams fan before he joined the cast and enjoyed the marvelous poetic expressions on the characters while performing some weird deed. "I remember one cartoon where the butler poured hot oil over Christmas trees and he positively beams," says Astin, "but we can't do things like that."
With the role of Gomez, Astin has quickly erased his former image of the carpenter who played straight man on the "I'm Dickens-Fenster" series. There were times when Astin toyed with the idea of changing his name to Harry Dickens, after being stopped by fans who ask whether John is Fickens or Denster. "I'm John Astin," he would say politely. "Oh, yes, you're Dick Fenster," would be the reply.
'More Opportunity'
"People don't know I've done serious things," says Astin with downcast eyes. "In New York I was known as very strong for art for art's sake plays." Now that Astin is a TV figure living in Southern California, some of his theater associates accuse him of selling out.
"I've had more opportunity here," says Astin, whose Fry play ran one performance in New York's Phoenix Theater. "I say art is where you make it. I intend to do my little art film and it won't matter where I am."
He rolled his eyes, twisted his mouth, threw back his head and there was Gomez, a happy man.

Astin went on to an ill-advised appearance on Batman before creating the wonderfully semi-hinged Buddy Ryan on Night Court in the ‘80s. But, I suspect, for many, he’ll always be Gomez Addams.

Wise Quacking Smears

Lots of smears in Bob Clampett’s The Wise Quacking Duck (released in 1943).



This scene has some great, wide-open-mouthed Daffy Duck drawings as he yells and shouts.

Phil Monroe received the rotating animation credit on this one.

Subduing Sammy

Screwy Squirrel wants to let us in on a secret about how he tricked Meathead all though the cartoon. A second Screwy jumps into the frame. “We was twins all the time,” he tells us.



Tex Avery used the “multiples to outsmart” gag to end cartoons before this, going back to Tortoise Beats Hare (1941) at Warner Bros. But, despite the dialogue and what sounds like cartoon-ending fanfare, Avery surprises us. The short’s not done.

A second Meathead appears and says “So was we.”



But it’s not over yet. Avery and gagman Heck Allen take us back to the beginning of the cartoon when Sammy Squirrel skipped along looking as Disney-esque as possible. “My cartoon would have been cuter,” he joyously declares.



“Oh, brother, not that!” Exclaim the Screwys and Meatheads, who pounce on saccharine Sammy to end the cartoon.



Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams animated Screwball Squirrel, Screwy’s 1944 debut.