The Jack Benny Program
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| Other names |
The Jack Benny Show The Canada Dry Program The Chevrolet Program The General Tire Revue The Jell-O Program The Grape Nuts Flakes Program The Lucky Strike Program |
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| Genre | Comedy |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station |
NBC (Blue) (05/02/32-10/26/32) CBS (10/30/32-1/26/33) NBC (Red) (03/03/33-09/28/34) NBC (Blue) (10/14/34-06/21/36) NBC (Red) (10/04/36-12/26/48) CBS (01/02/49-05/22/55) |
| TV adaptations | The Jack Benny Program (1950-1965) |
| Starring |
Jack Benny Mary Livingstone Eddie Anderson Phil Harris Dennis Day Kenny Baker Mel Blanc |
| Announcer | Don Wilson |
| Written by | Harry Conn, Al Boasberg, William Morrow, Edmund Beloin, Hugh Wedlock Jr., Howard Snyder, George Balzer, Sam Perrin, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry, Al Gordon, Hal Goldman |
| Produced by | Hilliard Marks (1946-'55) |
| Air dates | May 2, 1932 to May 22, 1955 |
| No. of episodes | 931 |
| Opening theme | Love in Bloom/The Yankee Doodle Boy |
| Ending theme | Hooray for Hollywood |
| The Jack Benny Program | |
|---|---|
Jack Benny as Robinson Crusoe with Dennis Day as an island native, 1963.
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| Starring | Jack Benny |
| Composer(s) | Mahlon Merrick |
| No. of seasons | 15 |
| No. of episodes | 260 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24-25 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
CBS Television (1950-1955) J&M Productions, Inc. (1955-1965) |
| Distributor | MCA Television (1954-1965 filmed episodes) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBS (1950-1964) NBC (1964-1965) |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | October 28, 1950 – April 16, 1965 |
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.
Other cast members include:
Jack Benny first appeared on radio as a guest of Ed Sullivan in 1932. He was then given his own show later that year, with Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor —The Canada Dry Ginger Ale Program, beginning May 2, 1932, on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933.
Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1, 1934 with Frank Black leading the band. He continued with The General Tire Revue for the rest of that season, and in the fall of 1934, for General Foods as The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny (1934–42) and, when sales of Jell-O were affected by sugar rationing during World War II, The Grape Nuts Flakes Program Starring Jack Benny (Later the Grape Nuts and Grape Nuts Flakes Program) (1942–44). On October 1, 1944, the show became The Lucky Strike Program Starring Jack Benny, when American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes took over as his radio sponsor, through the mid-1950s. By that time, the practice of using the sponsor's name as the title began to fade.
The show returned to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's notorious "raid" of NBC talent in 1948-49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeats of previous 1953-55 radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny for State Farm Insurance, who later sponsored his television program from 1960 through 1965.
Jack Benny made his TV debut in 1949 with a local appearance on Los Angeles station KTTV, then a CBS affiliate. In October 1950, he made his full network debut over CBS Television. Benny's television shows were occasional broadcasts in his early seasons on TV, as he was still firmly dedicated to radio. The regular and continuing Jack Benny Program was telecast on CBS from October 28, 1950, to September 15, 1964 (finally becoming a weekly show in the 1960-1961 season), and on NBC from September 25, 1964, to September 10, 1965. 343 episodes were produced. His TV sponsors included American Tobacco's Lucky Strike (1950–59), Lever Brothers' Lux (1959–60), State Farm Insurance (1960–65), Lipton Tea (1960–62), General Foods' Jell-O (1962–64), and Miles Laboratories (1964–65).
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