EMMYS 1959: The Jack Benny Program (season 9)

NETWORK: CBS
SPONSOR: Lucky Strike

The popular American comic entertainer Jack Benny was a staple of radio for decades before supplementing his radio program with a television version in the 1950s, bringing along his regular recurring cast and announcer Don Wilson. A sort of comedy/variety series, it was finally awarded Best Comedy Series for its ninth season, as well as a win for writing for the episode with Ernie Kovacs.

The Jack Benny Program on television is a strange entity in that for years it was not a regular series. Jack had an infrequent schedule due to his many other commitments, and in the early days there were only a few shows produced. By the late 1950s, the series was aired every other week, alternating time slots with *Bachelor Father* or some other series. Thus, there were only 15 episodes this season in an era where most half-hour series regularly ran twice that. It must have been strange to only get to see the show every other week. But I suppose for regular radio listeners, the change wouldn't be so bad, and there were only three television networks anyway.

Also like most television programs of the day, the show was sponsored by big tobacco, this time Lucky Strike. So there were of course commercials and jingles for the sponsor. Jack often refers to it as "The Lucky Strike Program" on air. There was an episode where Jack was trying to shmooze his sponsors because it was time to renew the contract and he feared they would drop him. The episode ends with Benny signed for another year, though in reality sponsorship would change the following year to Lux soap.

Unfortunately, as with some previous series in this project, it was very difficult to easily procure episodes and I could not obtain a full season to watch. This is one of those series where select episodes circulate or segments or sketches are excerpted, but finding full episodes is difficult, and from a specific year even trickier. Ultimately, I was only able to view 6 of the 15 episodes to review here.

Due to the minimal sampling, it was difficult to get a handle on what exactly the format of the show was. It follows some of the variety show template, but sometimes has sitcom elements thrown in. Of the episodes I saw, it wasn't always clear that there was a consistent format at all. To sum it up, I'd say the show was Jack Benny, and sought to entertain you however he wanted that week. There was often (but not always) the general set-up of a monologue in front of a curtain, a celebrity guest star, some comedy sketches and possibly a musical performance. Sometimes the whole show was live, but sometimes sketches were filmed segments. For one show, Benny and his cast put on a parody of the movie Gaslight (called "Autolight"). But then at other times episodes would play out as kind of meta-narratives taking a sitcom-style approach to the backstage world of Jack Benny before or after the show. One such episode is all framed as the rehearsal day before broadcast. Jack is worked up over interactions he's had with a strange person, and Oscar Levant advises he sees someone about it. The person in question is played by character actor Frank Nelson, who you might immediately recognize if you heard him say, "Yeeees?" This is one of those voices and personas that if you've seen enough comedy from this era, or comedy that references it, is immediately recognizable. And it's still funny.

I was bummed that I was unable to find the episode where Phil Harris guested. Harris was Benny's former band leader in the early radio days, but to many modern audiences he is more familiar is a voice in many Disney films of the 1960s and '70s, notably Baloo in The Jungle Book.

It's a shame I was unable to see more of this season and really get more of a feel for Benny's comedy, but I liked the smattering that I saw, and it was interesting to see the award get back to a more variety show styled comedy series after being dominated by the sitcom. CBS has been sweeping the category year after year! Will it continue? The Jack Benny Program would win a second Emmy in its 11th season, but before that we come to the 1960 Emmys when things were weird.

FAVORITE EPISODE: Jack Goes to the Doctor
UP NEXT: The Art Carney Special (that is, if I can find it)