Fibber Mcgee and Molly--4/22/47
Jim and Marion Jordan were a great comedy team. His character of Fibber was something of a blowhard, with his wife often playing "straight man," but tossing in her own one-liners from time to time as well.
Another strength of the show was the strong supporting cast, with talented comedic actors such as Gale Gordon and Arthur Q. Bryant (the voice of Elmer Fudd in the Warner Bros. cartoons). Harlow Wilcox was the spokesman for the sponsor (Johnson Wax) AND a character in the show, thus allowing the commercial to also work as a comedy skit.
This episode involved Fibber and Molly taking a trip to the carnival. Fibber is convinced all the games are rigged. So when Molly wins a prize at everything she plays, Fibber decides that she's being allowed to win because the carnival people have guessed he is on to them. It was a pretty simple plot, but it allowed the two comedians to trade quips, encounter other characters, and be funny. It was good comedy, still making you laugh after six decades.
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You didn't mention Fibber MC Gee & Molly was were we all first met The Great Gildersleeve.
ReplyDeleteThat's very true--Gildy (another of the great comedic characters from OTR) first appeared on this show before spinning off into his own series. I think this particular episode of Fibber Mcgee, though, was after Gildy had left for his own show.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous stole my thunder--I was going to mention that Gildy was a spinoff of Fibber McGee & Molly (and I usually see it noted it was the very first spinoff ever).
ReplyDeleteDidja know that Jim and Marion Jordan, Hal Peary and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy appeared in a couple movies together as their characters? LOOK WHO'S LAUGHING (1941) and HERE WE GO AGAIN (1942). Each were great fun. The Jordans also did a movie in 1944 called HEAVENLY DAYS that has eluded me (though I have managed to catch all four of Gildersleeve's solo films). They used to pop up on TCM in the wee small hours.
You make a good point, Tim, about the plots of some of the shows being simple. This was a real character-driven show, especially by 1947 when it had been a radio staple for a decade or so. What happened in the show was always secondary or incidental to the Jordans bantering and/or bickering and the always welcome and fun supporting cast (I always liked The Old Timer--"That ain't the way I heeerd it!").
Gary in Omaha