TMC
04-26-2023, 12:13 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2023/04/19/the-best-of-benny-1951-52-lucky-strike-season-eight/
What’s more, while The Jack Benny Program’s sitcommery truly seemed above the genre’s baseline while on radio — due to its great character work — mid-’50s television just had too many other, and better examples of greatness in the genre. Next to shows like I Love Lucy, Burns & Allen, and even Mister Peepers, where regulars existed every week in narrative ideas they helped motivate/earn/enliven, Benny’s TV effort was less compelling as a definable situation comedy, and this side-by-side comparison only emphasized the ways in which it differed from them, retaining so much of its comedy-variety (non-sitcom) attributes that it was now almost impossible to view it as part of the same format — at least, not without an asterisk.
What’s more, while The Jack Benny Program’s sitcommery truly seemed above the genre’s baseline while on radio — due to its great character work — mid-’50s television just had too many other, and better examples of greatness in the genre. Next to shows like I Love Lucy, Burns & Allen, and even Mister Peepers, where regulars existed every week in narrative ideas they helped motivate/earn/enliven, Benny’s TV effort was less compelling as a definable situation comedy, and this side-by-side comparison only emphasized the ways in which it differed from them, retaining so much of its comedy-variety (non-sitcom) attributes that it was now almost impossible to view it as part of the same format — at least, not without an asterisk.