Smackout
| Other names | Smackout – The Crossroads of the Air |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 15 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | WMAQ |
| Syndicates | Blue Network |
| Starring |
Jim Jordan Marian Jordan |
| Created by | Don Quinn |
| Written by | Don Quinn Jim Jordan Marian Jordan |
| Recording studio | Studio C (Chicago, Illinois) |
| Air dates | March 2, 1931 to August 30, 1935 |
Smackout (originally premiered as Smackout – The Crossroads of the Air) was an American old-time radio series and was arguably the first and earliest example of the situation comedy (sitcom) genre and format. The series revolves around a general store in Chicago and the store's proprietor Luke Gray, played by Jim Jordan. Whenever a customer came into the general store to ask Uncle Luke, as Gray was affectionately known, for something, the typical response from Luke would be "we're smack out of that" (hence the title of the show). But that never stopped Luke from telling one of his signature tall tales to the customer. Jordan also played a regular customer named Jim and Marian Jordan portrayed the main roles as Teeny, a little girl and regular customer, and Marian, Jim's girlfriend.
Smackout was broadcast from Chicago's NBC radio affiliate WMAQ before becoming nationally syndicated through the NBC Blue Network beginning in April 1933. New episodes of Smackout were broadcast six days a week from March 2, 1931, to August 30, 1935. The series, after capturing the eye of the wife of an executive at Johnson Wax, was the basis to Jim and Marian Jordan's more successful and memorable radio series Fibber McGee and Molly.
The radio show Smackout revolves around a general store in Chicago and its customers. Outside of its customers, Smackout mainly stars Jim Jordan's character of Luke Gray who is known affectionately as Uncle Luke. Luke is the grizzled old proprietor of the general store located in the small community of Smackout Corners. In their exhaustive biography of Jim and Marian Jordan, historians Tom Price and Charles Stumpf describe the character of Luke; "His favorite pastimes were whittling and pitching horseshoes, which he would rather do than tend to the store. Frequently, Luke would deny that the store was open, and almost always told customers he was 'smack out' of whatever it was they were asking for ..... However, he was always well-stocked with a goodly supply of tall tales, such as the one about the time he taught some woodpeckers to tap out messages into Morse code, and another one about the time he grew square tomatoes to use in bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches."
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