October 12, 1950…Burns And Allen Debuts On CBS Television
October 12, 1950…Burns And Allen Debuts On CBS Television
Their radio show started in 1936 but by 1950, it was time to move to television. When ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’ began on CBS Television October 12, 1950, it was an immediate success. The show was originally staged live before a studio audience and during its first three months, it originated from the Mansfield Theater in New York, then relocated to CBS’ Columbia Square facilities in Los Angeles.
Ever the businessman, Burns realized it would be more efficient to do the series on film and that started that process in the fall of 1952. The half-hour episodes could then be syndicated. From that point on, the show was shot without a live audience present, however, each installment would be 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.
After the live/kinescope series ended, the shows were filmed at General Service Studios. The sets were designed to look like their real-life residence, often using an establishing shot of the actual house at 312 Maple Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
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 in the filmed episodes), and breaking the fourth wall by commenting to the viewers.
During the course of the eight-year run, the TV show had remarkable consistency in its cast and crew. The episodes were produced and directed by Ralph Levy (1950–53), Fred de Cordova, who would go on to produce NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” (1953-56), and Rod Amateau (1956–58).
In addition to cast members Harry Von Zell (replacing original announcer Bill Goodwin in September 1951), Bea Benaderet (who made the transition from the radio show), and Larry Keating, the original writing staff consisted of Sid Dorfman, Harvey Helm, Paul Henning, and William Burns (George’s brother). -Bobby Ellerbee
Egg
The early live episodes “broke the 4th wall” in all sorts of ways. Nobody tried to disguise the fact that the “house” was a set on a stage. In one early episode, Bill Goodwin exited the living room out the front door. George sees his hat still sitting on a coffee table. He calls, “Hey, Bill, you forgot your hat!”, walks to the edge of the set, and throws the hat to him. Stuff like that was happening all the time. In most episodes they commented on the progression of the build-out of the coaxial cable line across the country.
Note the small eye-light directly left of the CBS logo on the camera.
“Say Good Night, Gracie.” “Good Night, Gracie.”
Although CBS resisted color in the mid-late fifties, their stars weren’t that happy about it. To placate them, CBS would do a color episode. I’ve seen the Burns/Allen one. I believe there was a color Jack Benny and a color Red Skelton. I’ve not seen either, but they wouldn’t be that startling because they were most likely filmed in a relatively cheap color film process. (At least that’s what the Burns/Allen one looks like). I know there were rumors for years that they shot a color I Love Lucy, but that appears to be myth. I remember the big deal made in the fall of ’65 when we ‘finally’ got to see Lucy’s hair in color. Her co-stars, William Frawley and Vivian Vance were seen in color on CBS on ‘Shower of Stars’ in 1955. I don’t know if Lucy was ever seen in color pre-1965.
The live shows were great but it lost something when they started filming it. The same is true with Jack Benny’s show. Gracie Allen was wonderful regardless.
Love those two!
Thanks for this post. Ralph Levy was one of my instructors at Cal State Northridge. He taught Televsion writing and directing. He was very encouraging to me and many of the other students there who went on to have successful careers in the industry.
Love the show. Didn’t realize that was their actual house in longshots.
Still very funny today. Gracie was a treasure.