What was the A & C about? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

KEVIN1782 · 10-13-2006, 12:13 PM

Hey Abbott & Costello fans,
I see that the two season release of the TV series was very well reviewed and I am interested in purchasing both seasons.
I have never seen the TV series, but I am familiar with their movies. Can somebody please explain the premise of the TV series. Was it a sitcom or a variety show? What other TV show was it comparable with? The Jack Benny Show?
Thanks, Kevin.

TJL · 10-13-2006, 01:28 PM

"The Abbott And Costello Show" was a mixture of a Sticom with a bit of a George Burns/Gracie Allen show thrown in. At the start of eash episode, Bud And Lou would walk out on a "Stage" adressing an invisble audience, where they would do a little banter and introduce the premise of this week's show.

Then they would fade into the actual show, in which Bud and Lou played well, Bud and Lou who were two unemployed guys living in a big rooming house/apartment. Their interactions with thier neighbors and attempts at gaining regular employment (and an occasional get rich quick scheme) made up the premise of just about every episode.

The show relied alot on using Bud and Lou's old bits from the movies that made them famous, like "Who's On First" routine.

TV Knowledge Fan · 04-10-2010, 03:24 AM

....was similar to "THE GEORGE BURNS AND GRACIE ALLEN SHOW", in that Bud & Lou (like George Burns) would start the show in front of a curtain, and segue into the evening's plot, reappear in front of the curtain halfway through the episode, "dive" back into the story, and return at the end to deliver a brief "coda" in front of the curtain before saying "good night" to the audience. However, this "framework" was abandoned in the second season [just as George had done away with the "proscenium arch" and curtain in his series' fourth season {second on film}, in the fall of 1953] in favor of straight "situation comedy"- or, to be more precise, the "two-reeler" format of theatrical comedies like "The Three Stooges" and "Laurel & Hardy". In fact, some of the second season scripts were written by Clyde Bruckman, who was one of Buster Keaton's screen writers in the 1920's, and most of his scripts borrowed several of Buster's routines and stories {i.e. the "Honeymoon House" episode was a reworking of Keaton's 1920 short "One Week", involving a pre-fabricated house and a jealous ex-boyfriend of Lou's potential fiancee, who changes the numbers on the crates the portions of the house are packed in so that Lou will put together the house in a "cockeyed" fashion and ultimately destroy his relationship with the girl and her parents}. And, at least one 1932 Charley Chase two-reeler, "The Nickel Nurser", was rewritten for Bud & Lou as "Efficiency Experts".

Lou originally wanted the series to be a "depository" for virtually all the stage, radio, movie and early TV routines he and Bud performed (that way, he'd own them on film, as his company also produced the show). So he, Sid Fields and Eddie Forman created a loose format where Bud & Lou were usually unemployed and owing about six months back rent to their bombastic landlord, "Mr. Fields". That way, any of their "classic" routines could be "inserted" into the episode- Bud and Lou are suddenly drafted? Okay, we'll work the "dice game" and "drill routine" from "Buck Privates" into the script. Bud's trying to find Lou a job? Let's use "Loafing", "Fluegel Street" and "Get Out of the Office" for that one. Lou has trouble falling asleep at night? The "falling asleep" sequence from "Abbott & Costello In Hollywood" and that venerable "Crazy House" burlesque routine will do just fine! Lou's a vacuum cleaner salesman? How about using the routine that was deleted from "Little Giant", where Lou tries to sell a vacuum to a woman in a farmhouse, dirting up her floor and promising to eat the dirt if it doesn't work, before she tells him there's no electricity! Bud and Lou in a haunted house? The "moving candle" bit from "Hold That Ghost" would be perfect! We'll work "Who's On First" into some episode because that's what the audience is expecting...

In the second season, however, Lou decided to stop using the team's "classic material" in favor of "two-reeler" stories, and dropping Hillary Brooke, Joe Kirk {"Bacchigalupe"}, Joe Besser {"Stinky"}, and eventually, "Bingo the Chimp" {you don't bite Lou Costello inbetween takes and expect to get away with it!} from the cast. For the final episode, "Barber Lou" though, he did include some footage that had been left on the cutting room floor from "Vacation", adding the routine where Lou "auditions" for Bud on stage, only to misinterpret Bud's directions for moving the curtain for HIS (from "The Naughty Nineties") and a sequence where Lou gives Bud a rubdown [performed during their first appearance on "THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR" in 1951].

The first season episodes are definitely better than the second.

10-13-2006, 12:13 PM	#1
KEVIN1782 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jun 20, 2003 Location: Toronto, Ontario Posts: 38	What was the A & C about? Hey Abbott & Costello fans, I see that the two season release of the TV series was very well reviewed and I am interested in purchasing both seasons. I have never seen the TV series, but I am familiar with their movies. Can somebody please explain the premise of the TV series. Was it a sitcom or a variety show? What other TV show was it comparable with? The Jack Benny Show? Thanks, Kevin.

10-13-2006, 01:28 PM	#2
TJL Suburbanite Extrordinaire Forum Star Join Date: Dec 29, 2001 Location: New Jersey - the cradle of civilization Posts: 16,591	"The Abbott And Costello Show" was a mixture of a Sticom with a bit of a George Burns/Gracie Allen show thrown in. At the start of eash episode, Bud And Lou would walk out on a "Stage" adressing an invisble audience, where they would do a little banter and introduce the premise of this week's show. Then they would fade into the actual show, in which Bud and Lou played well, Bud and Lou who were two unemployed guys living in a big rooming house/apartment. Their interactions with thier neighbors and attempts at gaining regular employment (and an occasional get rich quick scheme) made up the premise of just about every episode. The show relied alot on using Bud and Lou's old bits from the movies that made them famous, like "Who's On First" routine.
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04-10-2010, 03:24 AM	#3
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	Actually, the first season... ....was similar to "THE GEORGE BURNS AND GRACIE ALLEN SHOW", in that Bud & Lou (like George Burns) would start the show in front of a curtain, and segue into the evening's plot, reappear in front of the curtain halfway through the episode, "dive" back into the story, and return at the end to deliver a brief "coda" in front of the curtain before saying "good night" to the audience. However, this "framework" was abandoned in the second season [just as George had done away with the "proscenium arch" and curtain in his series' fourth season {second on film}, in the fall of 1953] in favor of straight "situation comedy"- or, to be more precise, the "two-reeler" format of theatrical comedies like "The Three Stooges" and "Laurel & Hardy". In fact, some of the second season scripts were written by Clyde Bruckman, who was one of Buster Keaton's screen writers in the 1920's, and most of his scripts borrowed several of Buster's routines and stories {i.e. the "Honeymoon House" episode was a reworking of Keaton's 1920 short "One Week", involving a pre-fabricated house and a jealous ex-boyfriend of Lou's potential fiancee, who changes the numbers on the crates the portions of the house are packed in so that Lou will put together the house in a "cockeyed" fashion and ultimately destroy his relationship with the girl and her parents}. And, at least one 1932 Charley Chase two-reeler, "The Nickel Nurser", was rewritten for Bud & Lou as "Efficiency Experts". Lou originally wanted the series to be a "depository" for virtually all the stage, radio, movie and early TV routines he and Bud performed (that way, he'd own them on film, as his company also produced the show). So he, Sid Fields and Eddie Forman created a loose format where Bud & Lou were usually unemployed and owing about six months back rent to their bombastic landlord, "Mr. Fields". That way, any of their "classic" routines could be "inserted" into the episode- Bud and Lou are suddenly drafted? Okay, we'll work the "dice game" and "drill routine" from "Buck Privates" into the script. Bud's trying to find Lou a job? Let's use "Loafing", "Fluegel Street" and "Get Out of the Office" for that one. Lou has trouble falling asleep at night? The "falling asleep" sequence from "Abbott & Costello In Hollywood" and that venerable "Crazy House" burlesque routine will do just fine! Lou's a vacuum cleaner salesman? How about using the routine that was deleted from "Little Giant", where Lou tries to sell a vacuum to a woman in a farmhouse, dirting up her floor and promising to eat the dirt if it doesn't work, before she tells him there's no electricity! Bud and Lou in a haunted house? The "moving candle" bit from "Hold That Ghost" would be perfect! We'll work "Who's On First" into some episode because that's what the audience is expecting... In the second season, however, Lou decided to stop using the team's "classic material" in favor of "two-reeler" stories, and dropping Hillary Brooke, Joe Kirk {"Bacchigalupe"}, Joe Besser {"Stinky"}, and eventually, "Bingo the Chimp" {you don't bite Lou Costello inbetween takes and expect to get away with it!} from the cast. For the final episode, "Barber Lou" though, he did include some footage that had been left on the cutting room floor from "Vacation", adding the routine where Lou "auditions" for Bud on stage, only to misinterpret Bud's directions for moving the curtain for HIS (from "The Naughty Nineties") and a sequence where Lou gives Bud a rubdown [performed during their first appearance on "THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR" in 1951]. The first season episodes are definitely better than the second.