DrCrowTStarwars said:
Warbler said:
DrCrowTStarwars said:
Audio tape and Mp3s do exist. I had a bunch of tapes of the old radio shows when I was a kid. I think it's a shame radio drama and comedy pretty much died in this country. The Jack Benny Program was and still is one of my favorite comedies of all time.
My father has tapes and Lps of his program and other old radio shows. Nothing like that stuff today. Imagine great comendy where every other joke isn't dirty. Great stuff.
Yeah and when it was dirty the joke was that they were being clever about it to get it past the censors and make sure it would go over the kid's heads. Groucho Marx and Bob Hope were kind of the masters of that. Telling a joke that as a kid you think is just silly and then when you are an adult you figure out the double meaning.
Hmm, I have to relisten/rewatch Jack Benny/Marx/Hope cause I don't remember hearing any jokes that had dirty double meaning.
The Benny/Allen feud is one of the funniest running gags in history if you ask me and they didn't get dirty in that they just picked out each other with clever retorts and sending deadly poplar bears through the mail. Oh and who can forget Mel Blanc being driven to suicide on a Christmas episode!
ah yes. classic : )
it wasn't just comedy,Dragnet managed to be what I think is still the most hard hitting and realistic cop show ever made without having to cross the line. I mean they did a show about child rape where they didn't shy away from showing how bad it was and yet they somehow did it without having to make you listen to it happening,now that is good writing.
I don't know that I'd completely agree with you on Dragnet, but it was a great show. The Christmas episode is my favorite.
Oh and what amazes me is that Burns and Allen managed to do the dumb blond bit for decades and it never once came off as sexist,just as a good comedy bit. I think that could be down to the fact that they were both very smart and George Burns really did love Gracie Allen a lot.
Burns was also great at playing God. ; )
Say what you will about vaudeville but it produced some great talent that managed to stand the test of time.
yes. I think the lack of vaudeville really hurts comedy today. I think vaudeville was perfect training for sitcom comedy and movie comedy. Now comedians go from stand up to sitcom and movies and it shows.
Reading George Burns and Groucho Marx's books about their lives show that it was a rough and very interesting time and anyone who made their way through it tended to know what they were doing and how comedy worked and that it was based on wit and not just being dirty.
exactly.
I am so glad my mom had two cases of old radio shows and my PBS station played so many reruns of the TV versions when I was a kid because I think people who didn't grow up on this stuff are really missing out on some great stuff.
they are most definitely missing out.