George Burns And Gracie Allen Show w/ Special Guest Jack Benny

(The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show).
Season 2, episode 16.
Original air date: 24 April 1952.
Jack steals a joke from George when they`re playing a benefit in San Francisco and as a result they feud.
Cast: George Burns (George Burns), Gracie Allen (Gracie Allen), Harry Von Zell (Harry Von Zell/ Announcer), Bea Benadaret (Blanche Morton), Fred Clark (Harry Morton), Theodore Von Eitz (Mr. Ackerman), Bob Johnson (The Waiter), Jack Benny (Jack Benny) and Mary Livingstone (Herself). This episode originally aired live on April 24, 1952, at the time George and Gracie appeared every other Thursday (their weekly filmed series began that fall). As most everyone knows, George and Jack were VERY close friends in real life, often trading appearances on each other’s radio and TV shows {with and without Gracie}. So they knew a situation where each of them tries to top the other was “comedic gold” for both of them [and both were excellent monologists, thanks to their roots in vaudeville].

George also had an advantage in that he was one of the few people who could make Jack Benny laugh by doing “simple” things that no one else would find funny {and Jack was an easy “laugher”}- such as rolling down his car window and motioning Jack to pull over in the middle of busy Hollywood traffic, then driving off as if he had no intention of stopping to talk to him at all. As Jack later recalled, it took over a half-hour to compose himself before he could safely manuver his way into traffic again. So during the “dueling monologists” scene, watch closely at how Jack tries to keep from laughing out loud when George ad-libs a bit…