The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
| The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show |
|
|---|---|
Burns and Allen in 1955
|
|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Starring |
George Burns Gracie Allen Bea Benaderet Hal March (1950–51) John Brown (1951) Fred Clark (1951–53) Larry Keating (1953–58) Rolfe Sedan Bill Goodwin (1950–51) Harry Von Zell (1951–58) Ronnie Burns |
| Opening theme | "Love Nest" (1920) by Louis A. Hirsch and Otto Harbach |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 291 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24–25 minutes |
| Production company(s) | McCadden Productions |
| Distributor |
Columbia Pictures Television (1974-1984, 1988-1996) Colex Enterprises (1984-1988) Columbia Tristar Television Distribution (1996-2002) Sony Pictures Television (2002-Present) |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Original release | October 12, 1950 – September 15, 1958 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | The George Burns Show |
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, sometimes called The Burns and Allen Show, is a half-hour television series broadcast October 12, 1950 – September 15, 1958, on CBS. It stars George Burns and Gracie Allen, one of the most enduring acts in entertainment history. Burns and Allen were headliners in vaudeville in the 1920s, and radio stars in the 1930s and 1940s. Their situation comedy TV series was an immediate success and received Emmy Award nominations throughout its eight-year run.
A half-hour TV series broadcast October 12, 1950 – September 22, 1958, on CBS, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was initially staged live and broadcast every other Thursday at 8 pm ET. In fall 1952, it became a weekly series filmed on the West Coast. From March 1953 through September 1958, The Burns and Allen Show aired Mondays at 8 pm ET.
The show was an immediate success. Six episodes were produced live from the Mansfield Theatre in New York, with the stage set as the Burns's living room. The show relocated to the CBS Columbia Square facilities in Hollywood beginning with the seventh episode.
Ever the businessman, Burns realized it would be more efficient to do the series on film; the half-hour episodes could then be syndicated. From that point on, the show was filmed at General Service Studios without a live audience present; however, each installment was screened before an audience to provide live responses prior to the episodes being broadcast. With 291 episodes, the show had a long network run through 1958 and continued in syndicated reruns for years.
The sets were designed to look like the couple's real-life residence. An establishing shot of the actual house on Maple Drive in Beverly Hills, California, was often used. Although extensively remodeled, that house still exists today—including the study over the garage where George would "escape" from Gracie's illogical logic. Burns lived in the house until his death in 1996, at the age of 100.
One running gag of the TV show involved a closet full of hats belonging to various visitors to the Burns household, who would slip out the door unnoticed and leave their hats behind rather than face another round with Gracie. The format had George watching all the action (standing outside the proscenium arch in early live episodes; watching the show on TV in his study towards the end of the series) and breaking the fourth wall by commenting upon it to the viewers. Another running gag was George's weekly "firing" of announcer Harry Von Zell after he turned up aiding, abetting, or otherwise not stopping the mayhem prompted by Gracie's illogical logic.
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