You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-11

You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-11

Originally Broadcast: Thursday, December 14, 1950 at 8 PM ET on NBC

Plot: A greeting card writer and a gadget seller, a housewife and a hosiery designer and two high school students try for the cash prize.

Analysis: Well, besides the introduction of the word duck, this is a fun one to watch just to see how fast the contestants derail the show. The gadget seller can’t keep a straight face to save his life and I would think the television censors nearly had a fit with the hosiery designer, especially when Groucho invites him to measure the housewife’s legs and the camera keeps cutting back and forth between Groucho and the woman’s legs. The high school kids are fun to watch as well, especially with the interplay with Grouch and with each other.

Bottom Line: You can see the show slowly coming together and the main reason to tune in, Groucho going back and forth with the players, is striking a great rhythm. Funny and great fun to test your own knowledge of trivia. Unfortunately, the original commercials are not included with this episode, but the episode itself does just fine by itself.

The episode is included with 17 other episodes on Groucho Marx – You Bet Your Life: The Best Episodes (http://www.amazon.com/You-Bet-Your-Life-Episodes/dp/B0002AHW3G/ref=sr_1_7?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285792619&sr=1-7). It’s a little hard to find since Shout! Factory recently stopped production, but can be found at Amazon Sellers and eBay.com without too much difficulty and for reasonable prices.

Next time, one of the first (if not the first) Christmas television specials.

You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-06

You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-06

Originally Broadcast: Thursday, November 9, 1950 at 8 PM ET on NBC

Plot: Two newlyweds, a florist and a housewife and a recent Army draftee and a Spanish-American War vet play for $1,500.

Analysis: Boy, Groucho got some gems from society for this one. The housewife is an absolute ham, almost a Southern caricature. Get the feeling Groucho felt like someone had just dropped a present in his lap for this one. Speaking for myself, I love the vet and the draftee the most. First off, it’s amazing the contrast: a 72-year-old vet from the war with Spain and a newly minted soldier most likely headed for Korea, since war had just broken out five months before. Plus, the draftee is African-American, the first time going over these DVDs we’ve seen ANYONE African-American on television. Keep in mind that the U.S. Army had only officially ended segregation by executive order two years previously, but would refuse to put African-Americans on the front lines until casualties started mounting up in the white units and the Army would officially end the policy of segregation in 1951. Basically, you have in microcosm how much the world is changing right in front of you. To say nothing of the fact that the draftee is a riot, throwing off one of the best one-liners I’ve heard in a while when Groucho asks about his rank.

Bottom Line: The show itself still looks pretty rough with a curtain over the wall, but the contestants bring out Groucho’s A-game. Honestly, well worth checking out both for the history and the laughs. Once again, the DeSoto-Plymouth commercials are included as extras, but not with the episode itself.

You can find the episode on Groucho Marx – You Bet Your Life: The Lost Episodes (http://www.amazon.com/You-Bet-Your-Life-Episodes/dp/B0000ALFZ0/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285464137&sr=1-2), along with 18 other episodes of the show.

More You Bet Your Life next time.

Westinghouse Studio One: Wuthering Heights

Westinghouse Studio One: Wuthering Heights

Originally Broadcast: Monday, October 30, 1950 at 10 PM ET on CBS

Plot: Based off the classic Emily Brontë novel, the story of an orphaned boy and the rich girl who loved him and how the love would eventually change both their lives.

Analysis: First off, I have to apologize for the plot summary, but saying more would spoil the story, which I really don’t want to do. It’s too good to just give away in a summary.

You may notice a title change due to the arrival of Studio One’s new sponsor, Westinghouse Electric. The term “Now, this word from Westinghouse…” and spokeswoman Betty Furness would be a staple for Studio One and all Westinghouse sponsored shows from this point all the way out into 1960. Lucky for us, the commercial tags are all mostly intact going forward, so you’ll get a good idea both of how electric technology was evolving in the post-World War II era and, I suppose in a sense, a woman’s role in the home was being defined, especially in the 1950s.

As for the show itself, well, it’s Wuthering Heights by Brontë; you know it’s going to be a dramatic romance. But, I’ll tell you what makes this a true gem and that’s Charleton Heston as Heathcliff. This, quite literally, is a star-making role. First off, Heston looks huge compared to everyone (understandable, given Heston was 6’3), but he uses his height was part of the performance. He just looks like a mountain compared to everyone else, especially toward the back half of the hour. He combines the presence he already has with a really commanding performance, playing Heathcliff as almost a force of nature that every other character in the show just breaks themselves against. It’s absolutely amazing to watch as it seems at times every other actor in the performance is just feeding off of Heston, which contributes to the image of Heathcliff as the center of the story that everyone else is just whirling around.

Oh, that bit about the star-making? Turns out producer Hal Wallis caught Wuthering Heights and was so impressed by Heston, he offered him a contract. Heston thought why not, if just to see what one movie was like, and the rest, as they say, was movie history.

Bottom Line: In case you haven’t picked up on it, I love this episode of Studio One, mostly for Heston. He is that good in this, people, so for the first time, I’m really going to urge readers to try and run down a copy. I don’t think you’ll regret it and hopefully, you’ll be as impressed as I was.

Wuthering Heights is included in the Studio One Anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Studio-One-Anthology-Jack-Lemmon/dp/B001E1HCQY/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1283969669&sr=1-1) and, I’ll say it once more, is really worth checking out if you have the money on hand.

Next time, more Groucho.

You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-01

You Bet Your Life: Ep. 50-01

Originally Broadcast: Thursday, October 5, 1950 at 8 PM ET on NBC

Plot: OK, so the term “plot” doesn’t really fit here, but here it is anyway – both the history of the show and the history of its host go hand and hand. Groucho Marx had been a mainstay in comedy for nearly half a century by the time the show went on the air, starting out with his brothers (Chico, Harpo and Zeppo initially) first on the vaudeville stage developing a comedy act that would play across the country until the jump to the movies in 1929. The movies are where the Marx Brothers would attain their greatest level of fame in movies ranging from Monkey Business to Animal Crackers to A Night at the Opera. But, by the late 1940s, after performing together for decades, the Marx Brothers as a team really had felt they run their course and were ready for a change.

Groucho had tried his hand at radio periodically during the 1940s, but, for whatever reason, had never really caught on as he had in vaudeville or in the movies. His luck took a turn during a radio guest spot with Bob Hope where, instead of sticking to the script, he and Hope ad-libbed their way through the entire appearance. The eventual producer of You Bet Your Life, John Guedel, saw an opportunity and encouraged Groucho to try his hand at hosting the game show, still in an embryonic stage at this point. Groucho was not interested, to say the least, feeling that this would be such a huge step down from where he was with the Marx Brothers that the public would, at best, reject it and, at worst, kill any career potential he had left. After much prodding, he agreed to record an audition show, the tape was played to the ABC network and it was accepting, going on the air starting in October of 1947.

The show was not an immediate success on radio, realizing that while Groucho was a great ad-libber, going live could still have moments of awkward silence and sometimes moments of brilliance could be lost. So, the producers decided to go to taped broadcasts, boiling the shows down to the best bits while still keeping the heart of the show, the ad-libs and the actual game portion of the show intact. That did the trick as You Bet Your Life caught fire on radio and, by 1950 it was an easy jump, much like with Gene Autry and Studio One before, to television. Keep in mind, it was all about increased exposure still, an “in addition to” radio as opposed to an “instead of”. For the time being, You Bet Your Life would continue its run on radio as well as television, actually airing different episodes on radio the day before the television show.

Analysis: So, now, to this particular episode: first off, as a rule, and I’ll keep this for sporting events in the future, I’m not going to give away the results. You’ll have to see the show for yourself for that, but I will share what really makes the show click: Groucho and his give and take with the contestants. Firstly, the show does look a bit crude in this format, featuring a very neutral background. As for the rules of the game itself, it’s pretty simple: three pairs of people will have a chance to win $1,000 depending on how they do in their individual pairings, starting with $20 and trying to earn more money by answering trivia questions with the couple having the most money left over at the end getting the shot at $1,000. And of course, if you say the secret word during the conversation with Groucho, you and your partner divide an extra $100 that does not count toward the earnings toward the shot at $1,000.

As for this episode, Groucho plays off very well against a soon-to-be married couple, the owner of a self-service Laundromat, and a woodcarver with a new economic plan for the United States. I can’t make this stuff up, folks, it has to be seen to be believed, to say nothing of Groucho’s give and take with them.

Bottom Line: Well, as you might well guess, the secret of the show’s success is not in the game portion but in the “Meet Groucho Marx” portion and the give and take. It’s hard to say what’s funnier: Groucho or the people he’s dealing with. Either way, it’s very entertaining. It’s also worth noting that the original DeSoto-Plymouth commercials are with the episodes, but can only be watched independently of the episodes themselves.

The episode is included in Groucho Marx – You Bet Your Life: The Lost Episodes (http://www.amazon.com/You-Bet-Your-Life-....85464137&sr=1-2), along with 18 other episodes of the show.

Next time, back to Studio One, with a new sponsor and an absolutely amazing acting performance.

Gene Autry Show: The Posse

The Gene Autry Show: The Posse

Originally Broadcast: Sunday, September 17, 1950 at 7 PM ET on CBS

Plot: While trying to hunt down a gang of bank robbers, Gene and Pat help an old friend impress his daughter visiting from the East.

Analysis: First off, for whatever reason, Image skipped the September 10, 1950 episode Doublecross Valley in the order of episodes. The episode does still exist, thanks to Flying A Entertainment keeping all the episodes, so the reason why it was skipped are a mystery to me.

As for this episode, this is the first Autry that I can think of that tended to be more humorous than dramatic. It is a nice change of pace for the series, even if the “big misunderstanding” episodes would become par for the course, especially among sitcoms in the future.

Bottom Line: We must have circuses with our bread, as the saying goes, and this isn’t a bad break from routine at all.  Humorous and entertaining with a little mix of the action that Autry is starting to establish as a staple of the show, it’s a nice addition to the series.

The Last Word: Last word on the DVD first. The episodes do tend to have a bit of grain on them, but that’s understandable after fifty plus years. It’s still watchable and a nice piece of entertainment from television’s early days and not at all a bad way to start if you want an idea of what TV Westerns were like in the beginning. The only parts of the episodes that seem really worn, understandably, are the original Wrigley commercials. Given they haven’t been seen since the show originally aired, it’s reasonable to assume they’re not going to be kept in as good shape as the episodes themselves. As for extras, Image just duplicated the extras from Gene Autry Show – Gold Dust Charlie for this DVD, so nothing revolutionary on that score. If you are interested in picking up the DVD, Image did discontinue it, but Gene Autry Show – The Double Switch (http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Autry-Show-Double-Switch/dp/B00005B6KF/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285101803&sr=1-1) can still be found either at Amazon Sellers or eBay.

The Gene Autry Show enjoyed a good run on television, lasting until 1955 for a total of 91 episodes. In fact, the last season actually had its episodes filmed in color, something that was attempted for a few first season episodes, but didn’t last. It can be surmised that expense may have been part of it, plus color televisions wouldn’t really start to be prevalent in American homes until the late 1960s when affordable models finally debuted. We’ll discuss that part of television history as we go along.

As stated earlier, Gene Autry’s own production company, Flying A Productions, kept all the episodes, which is why they were able to survive when other shows have since been lost. Starting in 1999, a joint effort between Flying A Productions and the Encore Westerns channel was made to restore the episodes, which resulted in the two DVDs we’ve been looking at from Image as well as a run of the restored episodes on Encore Westerns from 2000 all the way until February of 2010, when Gene Autry finally was taken off the air, a run almost double the length of the original run of the show. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Image never finished releasing Gene Autry on DVD, meaning 83 episodes remain unseen on DVD. Given the episodes were restored and are, as seen by this, in reasonably good shape and with the commercials apparently still existing, it may be a project worth revisiting someday for those Autry fans still out there.

As for Gene himself, after the cancellation of The Gene Autry Show, he would be a part of the single season run of Champion, The Wonder Horse and make periodic television appearances until finally retiring in 1964 after a career for some 30 years in show business. By then, he was involved in two other projects: his Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, California (now the Museum of the American West) and as owner of the Major League Baseball team, the California Angels, later the Anaheim Angels. Autry would remain involved in both areas until his death in 1998.

Pat Buttram still had a television career ahead of him beyond the Gene Autry Show, most notably on Green Acres and as a voice over actor. We’ll be discussing those parts of Buttram’s career as they come up, of course.

And that wraps up The Gene Autry Show, but we still have some more material from 1950 to look at. Next time, the secret word is…

Gene Autry Show: Blackwater Valley Feud

The Gene Autry Show: Blackwater Valley Feud

Originally Broadcast: Sunday, September 3, 1950 at 7 PM ET on CBS

Plot: Gene and Pat become involved in a feud between neighboring ranches over a change in ownership. The feud intensifies when one of the ranch owners is killed and the opposing ranch owner is accused of the murder.

Analysis: It is interesting that, even in 1950, we were getting episodes about urbanization. In any case, pretty good little episode, even if I do think they give away the killer too soon, but then again, only have a half hour to play with.

Of note: the DVD box cover says the episode aired on September 10, 1950, but two sites (imdb.com and tv.com) cite the September 3, 1950 date. Don’t know if there is any way to know for sure who is right and who is wrong, but I’ll go with the websites for now, pending evidence one way or the other.

Bottom Line: Good plot, if settled a bit easily for my tastes, but like I said, a half hour Western in 1950 isn’t going to be Gunsmoke, so I shouldn’t be asking for that. We’ll get there eventually.

Blackwater Valley Feud is one of four episodes included on Gene Autry Show – The Double Switch (http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Autry-Show-Double-Switch/dp/B00005B6KF/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285101803&sr=1-1). Copies are hard to come by since Image discontinued the DVD, but can be located either on eBay.com or on Amazon Sellers.

Tomorrow, our last Gene Autry Show episode. Promise.

Gene Autry Show: The Double Switch

The Gene Autry Show: The Double Switch

Originally Broadcast: Sunday, August 27, 195 at 7 PM ET on CBS

Plot: Autry is a rancher working with the townspeople to donate money to the state government for road improvement and then has to hunt down thieves when the money is stolen.

Analysis: This is probably one of the more complicated plots on Gene Autry to date and I’m not sure my summary does an adequate job. That alone makes this episode well worth watching just as an intellectual exercise.

It occurs to me that while I’ve spent a lot of time discussing Gene Autry in these episodes, I’ve neglected Pat Buttram, the constant sidekick/comic relief for the show. Buttram, like so many other actors of his era, got his start on local radio before moving west to try his luck in the movies. He started off in the sidekick roll to Roy Rogers, the “other” big cowboy of the era along with Autry, but since Rogers already had some established sidekicks, Buttram didn’t last. So, in 1948, he switched over to sidekick with Autry, a role he would keep through Autry’s movies, serials all the way into the television series. Believe me, I can tell you in advance we’ll be seeing more of Buttram beyond Autry, so if this seems short, that’s why.

Oh, and we have our regular “bad guy” appearance by Alan Hale, Jr. in this episode as well.

Bottom Line: As I said at the top, this is one of the tightest plots of all the Autry episodes we’ve seen so far. Parts are a touch predictable, but it’s pretty solid and tremendously fun to watch and try and puzzle out as you are going along.

The Double Switch in included on Gene Autry Show – The Double Switch (http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Autry-Show-Double-Switch/dp/B00005B6KF/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285101803&sr=1-1). It’s difficult to find a copy since Image has discontinued the DVD, but try Amazon Sellers or eBay if you want to check it out.