Hit or fail.
Can it be the breeze that fills the
trays with rare and magic perfume? Oh
no, it isn't the breeze. It's Jackson
time.
Stay tuned
right after this episode
for our discussion.
Bit late, you know, almost a little bit
when you introduced me. Well, I say that
bird act is just great, is it?
Yeah. And the reason I was late, you
know, the fellow who owns the birds, he
said to you that a bird will bite you
whenever he feels like it. So I held a
bird and the bird felt like doing
something else.
So you're a wild and I I'm here.
How are you? It's good to see you again.
I'm fine.
Fellow my age.
Yes. The day before or yesterday, wasn't
it?
My birthday.
February the 14th was your birthday.
My birthday. That's right.
Can I tell them how old you were?
Well, the only reason I don't like to
tell
I know you don't. Is because I always
kid about being 39. Well, if I kid about
39 and then I turn around and tell them
my right age, 77, it's ridiculous.
Don't you think so? I mean, I should
really laugh.
I had her I had the funniest telegram.
This, you know, that this is the first
time that I can remember telling my age
and I don't mind it sometimes, you know,
but I had the funniest telegram from Mel
Blank on my birthday. You know Mel
Blank? And all the wire said was, "If
I've told you once, I've told you 77
times. Happy birthday."
See, I want to ask you, Tom.
Yeah. Johnny, I want to ask you
something. I've been on your show, I
don't know, would you say 15 times?
Sound like Sure.
And every time you introduce me,
you never know what to say. You know,
I've heard you introduce jugglers,
acrobats, but me bird acts, but me, you
always say, "What can I say about this
man?"
Here he is. Is it because
you're in such awe of me? Well, you love
me so much. I think that's what it is.
Now, remember, there must be something.
Now, I've been in this business for
years and years. There must be something
be something you can say.
Well, I think I get embarrassed now.
Remember two years ago your 75th
birthday party that I am at the uh one
of the hotels here in town?
No, but what I mean I gave you such a
lavish introduction.
No, you didn't. You
did. You always say what can I say about
this till it's it's ridiculous. You I
mean you don't have to say the world's
greatest comedian, right?
You know, even if it were true
or America's greatest comedian, I don't
expect that. You could say one of five
grave commdities
or one of three
or maybe one of two
and you're conceited enough to know who
the other one
that listen once
I got to tell you something. Not long
ago, there was a big dinner given to me
by the television
Freddy, your producer. No, television
academy, wasn't it? That's right.
In fact, your producer ran right this
show. This is the producer who used to
be my director whom you stole from me.
That's right. You steal everything from
me. My wall. Your wall.
Although I stole my wall from Loretta
Young. So that
So that doesn't that doesn't make any
difference. But let me tell you ladies
and gentlemen what this man did.
It was a big dinner given in my honor by
the television academy.
And it being
that I was the honored guest, naturally
I was the last speaker, right? And again
he got up and he said, "Ladies and
gentlemen,
what can I say
about this man? All I can say is Jack
and so I got up nice reception and I
talked for about 15 20 minutes
and I must say Johnny for something very
special.
I got a lot of big laughs. We've got a
trailer for
And when I finished, I sat down. Wow.
Nice.
Do you like trailers?
What do you think?
Do I?
I'm not making what he said right
afterwards.
With tears in his eyes, he cuz all the
time I was talking, he was looking at me
like this.
And he said after I sat down, he said,
"Ladies and gentlemen, wasn't he
wonderful?" Will everybody appall? What
can you do? You have to appall, right?
If you say, "Wasn't he wonderful." Then
he said, "You know what I was thinking?
There were actually tears in his eyes. I
was thinking when Jack Billy, this great
man,
when he passes away, who's going to take
his place?"
You said, Bobby,
he and he he wouldn't stop. He kept
going and the audience was crying. I
didn't know what he said. We all must go
somewhere.
He says, "When this fine comedian leaves
us,
who
will take his place?"
Well, I didn't know what to say. My wife
was sitting next to me. I wanted to kiss
her goodbye
and I wanted to say, "Mary, please
forgive me for all my sins
and I wanted to tell her how much I'd
loved her for the 44 years that would we
were married." All he kept saying was,
"Who could take his I play?" Finally, I
hollered at him.
Johnny, I said, "I'm not going yet. I'm
going to play golf tomorrow. Let me play
golf tomorrow." You know, and he said he
was carried away. I got carried away.
But all right. So he you didn't have to
carry me over.
And he kept this up and kept who's going
to take my place?
Well, I got news for you. Don't ever
worry. No. Because
Flip Wilson can take my place and your
place and Bob Hope and Buddy Hackett's
place. and Jan Murray's place and Milton
Burl's place and George Bers.
We got to all go. So you and God get
together and save Flip Wilson.
All right.
You take everybody You take everybody
first.
That's right.
You don't have to worry about uh I said
worry who's going to take my
I'm going on for a long time yet. I
knew. Go on. I did a mort.
I did a morta. I got to What do you I've
got to sell something here.
All right. Well, you want me to take
your place?
For some people, a cough can be a
shattering experience.
Yeah, a cough. Now I'm scared.
We're back. Now, don't you have a show?
Uh, is it with Bob coming up? Uh, when?
Tomorrow or tomorrow? Well, at this
show, but
you say something about
being born or a walkan.
Not being born. I'm going there for my
first trip on the 7th of March.
What are you going to do? Walk?
I'm going to entertain a group of people
for company out there. Johnson Motors.
Oh, yeah. Main headquarters, I think, is
there.
Yeah. I'll be there. Where should I go?
Any good spots you can tell me about?
Well, I don't know. It's been so long,
you know. I was born walk and yet years
and years.
I thought I might drop by the high
school, you know, junior high. Yeah.
Take a picture. Do you get how long ago
I was born?
A rabbi was an Indian.
Yeah. Go see my school. I will. There's
a beautiful school walking named after
me, the Jack Benny Junior High School.
And it's really beautiful. And the other
two junior high schools are the Thomas
Jefferson and the Daniel Webster.
They're like, Daniel Webster,
Jefferson, and Jack Benny.
Good half better than Clayton Jackson
and Dandy,
I say. So, I mean, it's more important.
I don't know you, King. We're starting
to talk about the uh is it the special
tomorrow at the place when? Wednesday
night.
The special. Oh, no. Oh, before I
forget, yeah, I must mention this. Now,
this show is on tomorrow night. That's
right.
Which means that we're really on now,
Wednesday night,
right?
Well,
I got some tickets.
No, I'll tell you what happened. Bob
Hope and I
are running a great big benefit in Santa
Monica. See? And I wanted to make sure
because even though it'll be a packed
house, there are a few empty seats. Now,
this benefit is
No, no. This is the Los Angeles Music
and Art School, and they're for kids,
you see, who are studying music,
singing. And Bob is also interested in
that. He called me up and he wanted uh
me to run this benefit with him. I see.
And the tickets go up to $100.
Nice.
Now
there are
I got six tickets.
Six. Six.
And if you like to
tape now, they're
the tickets are nearly sold out. Really,
you know, it's a big there are a few
empties. That's why I'm plugging it. I
want everybody to be there. But the uh
these tickets, the big tickets are $100
a piece. And I got I don't know, I got
six or four. Four, I think. And if you
would like to take two tickets,
that's still more money than I'm getting
here for work, you know, as usual. But
these are $100 a ticket. You can give
them back to me. You can give me the
money later if you want to. Okay. One
for you straight.
You want a ticket, Freddy?
Of course.
All right. Here. Floor.
$100. Thank you, Jack.
You're welcome. 100 bucks. 100 bucks a
seat. Now, if you want it, if you want
to go and fine, if you
Well, in that case,
Yes, sure.
They'll still know what I said.
Tell you there's no ticket. There's
white rice on the ticket.
You know what I just said? You know,
it's such a shocker is and today with
what you see in movies and right, it
isn't shocking anymore. Even love story.
Nothing. Nothing is shocking. You see
noob people that I don't know. It's It
doesn't mean anything. But you can bleep
it out tomorrow if you want to. I'll
know what I said. You
well, even love story.
I'll know what I am
now in the morning and I have felt
quakes before
and uh
naturally if anybody tells you he's not
nervous, he's lying as you know. And I
was just lying there in bed
and I didn't know what to think. I
thought all I could think of is this it?
Is this going to be the big one? You
see, because then when it was over, it
lasted a minute, I think. Yeah. Then
Mary ran into my bedroom, you know, to
see if I was all right. We have Mary and
I have separate bedrooms now. It's
Anyway, she ran in to my bedroom to see
if I was all right and then we put on
robes and we went downstairs and then
all the help came in. We have foreign
help and the six of us just sat
downstairs
and we just talked about it. Then we had
tea and cookies
like a party.
Then when I went back to bed, I I told
the uh the help that I would see him at
the next earthquake. I don't know.
People get together, bamboo together for
the next earthquake at 6:00 in the
morning. I But I want to tell you that
is a shocking thing. Do you know
I could get even
with George Burns
for everything he has ever done and said
about me
now that you mentioned the earthquake.
And I'll tell you what it is.
First place
I want to pay him a compliment.
And then I'm going to tell you what he
did. No, I'll tell you why. I want to
pay George Burns a great compliment. I
saw him on your show. When was it? About
three nights ago.
Was it about three nights ago?
That was a repeat.
And he's always deprecating himself.
He's belittling himself. And he
shouldn't. And I'll tell you why. He
always tells you that if it weren't for
Gracie Allen, he would have been
nothing. it have been nobody. Now, this
is not true. I know George Burns longer
and better than anybody in our business
because even though, and I'll admit,
Gracie Allen was one of the great
comedians of all time with the greatest
timing I've ever heard. But don't
forget,
George Burns ran the show. He was the
producer. He was a writer. He was a
director. He was an editor. He was a
great straight man, a great comedian.
Had to put all this material together,
right?
In order to make Gracie
as funny as she could possibly be.
Therefore,
as much as I love Gracie and as much as
I did appreciate her great artistry, I
still have to say that George Burns
would have still been a big star, would
have still found someone to work with,
would have still been one of our great
great entertainers in show business. And
I mean that sincerely about George. No
doubt her.
Now, I'll tell you now.
Now I'll tell you the silliest thing.
Now I'll go back to how ridiculous he
is. How silly.
The other day, now this is only a week
ago. There were about six of us having
dinner at a restaurant and Freddy Darter
was with us
and we were having a serious
conversation. Now I want to show you
what can be in a man's mind. how
ridiculous, how silly George Burns can
be. And no wonder you have to laugh at.
We were discussing
people who have worked for us. You see,
and he mentioned a man that used to work
for him for years by the name of Charlie
Reed, and he's a fellow that worked for
George Burns. And it was a serious
conversation. Nobody was trying to get
laughs. And all of a sudden, I made the
mistake of asking a normal question,
which you don't dare do in front of
George Burns. All I said was because I
haven't heard of from Charlie Reed in a
long, long time. And I said, "George,
didn't Charlie Reed die?"
And he looked at me for about four
seconds and he said, "No, no. Do you
want him to?"
And I said, "No." He says, "If you want
him to, I can call him. He's not doing
anything."
He said, "I can call him." And he don't
shut the Wait a minute. I want to finish
this. So, just take a second. He said,
"I can call him. And right now, if you
want him to die, he's not doing
anything. Maybe he'll do it for scale.
And the next day, he had Charlie Reed
call me
to tell me that George told him I wanted
to talk to him about that.
Now, that's the scariest city I've ever
rather than
Oh, that water. I'll tell you the other
one.
That's wonderful. Well, hello again.
This is Buck Benny speaking. I I have uh
my friend John Henderson with me. Hey,
John from This Day in Jack Benny. And uh
temporarily the number one uh podcast
out there because mine's off the air for
now. But you're probably listening to
this later and going, "Why don't Buck's
podcast off the air?" But you know, it's
just one of those things. I'll figure
out a way to get it back on. And we have
Terry Phillips with us. Hey, Terry.
Well, it's great to see you, Terry, and
um and uh we're here to talk about uh
Jack Benny, of course, and uh Johnny
Carson from the Tonight's Show. So, uh
this one is from February 17th, 1971.
Um and I don't know whether you're going
to see the audio of it or we're just
doing the present. I mean, we might just
do audio, we might do the video. I'm not
sure what we're doing. So any which way,
I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And uh let's
let's go around and uh figure out what
people liked about it and things. John,
what stood out of this one for you?
Oh, this was a great interview with Jack
Benny, and the stories were, you know,
you Jack Benny's done a lot of live
performances and things like that, but
he kind of has some go-to bits. So, if
you've seen one, you've kind of seen
them all. But when he appears on Johnny
Carson, it seems like it's always
something new and it's always
interesting. And he's got almost like a
different style when he's on that
program. It's a lot slower. Maybe
because he's getting older, but he
doesn't seem like he's trying to like
really be like stage entertainment. It
seems more like he's trying to have a
conversation even though he is telling a
lot of these stories that end in jokes
and it works really well in these ones.
I I I liked his story. Even little
things. It seems like things are just
coming to his mind like when he got a
telegram from Mel Blank, you know, the
birthday telegram. And uh I I can
imagine Mel Blank doing that. And
they're obviously true stories. So
that's one of the things that makes it
so interesting. I mean, the joke itself
that Mel Blank, you know, said about his
age or whatever was not that funny, but
it was so delightful to see, you know,
how Jack perceived it and how delighted
Jack by.
Yeah.
Well, that's the thing I I find over and
over again. folks do things to Jack and
for Jack that that
seem kind of minor or or don't seem that
great, but the way he presents them and
how much he enjoyed
just people and people doing things for
him and and things uh it would make you
want to do things for him. one and two,
it would he just he was just so
delightful with his presentation of it
that it was would would make whatever
they did even that much better or more
memorable and
and I think with the wrong host it might
not work because there were a couple
places where it was a bit slow like when
Jack Benny is talking about his benefit
and it's taking him a bit of time to get
out there and so it's a bit slow you
know he's building to something you know
he's going to do a joke at the end I
think a lot of hosts would either cut
them off because it's not moving fast
enough or try to add things in there.
But Johnny is patient. He's interested
to see where it's going to go. But he
also does a couple things like mugging
to the camera which make it, you know,
it re-engages you and it makes it
interesting again. And yeah, it makes
the whole thing work really well.
Excellent. Excellent. Well, Terry, what
did you think? What stood out to you?
John, I I agree with you about the
timing. I mean, that's we all know that
that was Jack Benny's uh strong suit
and but Johnny picked that up, too. And
and he did um engage Jack.
Jack was known for his timing. Is that
That's what I've heard. That's what I've
heard.
Oh, okay. There's See, there's new stuff
I learn all the time about Jack.
That's why we're here.
Um the uh the the today's comedy
requires a punchline, you know, bang
bang bang bang bang. And it was one of
the delightful things about watching
this episode was how we we got to to
take our time and and enjoy this really
deliberate conversation. Um I I had to
look it up because I was curious to know
who the other guests were. And also on
that episode were David Steinberg and
Lily Tomlin.
So that would have been interesting to
see the rest of that I guess. Um the
other thing that happened the the other
historical reference in this episode was
the uh the Los Angeles um earthquake
that had happened just a few days before
it was uh February 9th. It was 6.5 on
the RTOR scale.
And when Jack mentions uh confronting
his mortality because it was if you were
there at the time and I was not
in LA that day. Um but it was really
frightening and in fact 64 people died
in that earthquake
and a whole bunch of other people were
were badly hurt. But it, you know, these
these historical moments that we get to
revisit because of programs like this
are interesting to me.
Yeah.
Well, also Terry, were you a
correspondent at that point or
No, no. The I was I had not quite
graduated from high school in 1971.
Oh, okay. So, when what time frame were
you kind of your you were news
correspondent for a while? I I was a
foreign correspondent in the late 80s
and and through the 90s. I started
reporting in 76.
Okay.
Locally.
Yeah. Well, neat. Okay. What a great
care. I mean, we could spend a whole
podcast just talking about you and and
your experiences, Terry. It's so Yeah.
It's your life is so
I can make stuff up, too, if you like.
Yeah,
that's all good.
But no, it's it's just charming to spend
time with Jack and Johnny as always and
and and the time frame they're in is
such an interesting one. In the in the
the 70s, you you've all, like we've said
before, you have the the the moon
launches that are going on at this time.
And then on the other hand, you got
Vietnam happening and so many things and
and very soon you also have Nixon's
presidency going off the rails and uh
just a lot of stuff that was happening
in the early 70s. For sure.
I I thought it was interesting when he
was talking about the earthquake because
he mentions Mary and how she ran out of
her room and he ran out of his room and
things like that. And I I just thought
it you forget when you're such big fans
and you're watching the show that
they're actual real people who have real
lives. Yes. So when they mention a
personal story, which they do, you know,
rarely, you're like, "Oh, yeah. You they
they live together. They were people."
Yeah.
And John, it was wasn't it cool to hear
Jack say, you know, we have two separate
bedrooms. Of course, we didn't always
have two separate bedrooms. He had he
had to make it clear that they did sleep
together.
Yeah. Yeah. It's I That's one of the
things I love about these Tonight Show
uh interviews with Jack is that you get
a lot of times you a big piece of it is
plugging something that's coming up. I
mean, that's why they have people on and
that's why they decide when to have
people and so forth. Sometimes there's
not. Sometimes they it's just Johnny
wants Jack on for whatever reason and
that's great. But uh but besides that,
you get some of his personal life, some
of where he's either talking about his
grandkids or he's talking about uh Mary
or whatever. And it's just neat to get a
little bit of a little bit of the
curtain gets pulled back on Jack and and
we're just so used to seeing Jack only
as a performer and not as uh you know
what Jack is is. And and it's
interesting too. I
If this was today,
I would think maybe you'd get Jack
coming on the show and instead of being
right on the couch with Johnny from the
beginning, he'd maybe do a little
standup, a little, you know, and then
come over sort of thing. And I don't
think he ever did that. I think it was
always just him showing up as a guest on
the couch and not doing any of his I
mean he was beyond he didn't need to do
a bit anymore but it would have been fun
to if there was an episode that existed
where you got a little Jack Bunny
monologue thing and then he comes over
and talks but yeah
yeah well also he mentioned George
Burns. seems like he's often mentioning
George Burns because he was his best
friend. But I thought it was interesting
to hear his his sort of professional
take of George Burns saying that oh you
know Gracie was sort of the star early
on and George says he wouldn't have been
famous without Gracie. But I don't agree
with that uh because he was such a great
producer and he always made her look
good. So I thought that was an
interesting
insight opinion and also just like his
you know it tells how much he admired
George Burns.
Yeah.
Well, and I think it's it's always so
interesting with his relationship with
George Burns and where his one of his
final acts was to drop out of Sunshine
Boys, but uh really pushed to have
George Burns take his his place and
George does and it launches George's
second part of his career, third,
whatever this re
that re-energizes George Burns's career
yet another time. And and that LA and
that resurgence that happens from
Sunshine Boys pretty much lasts
at least a decade if not more with films
and things, but really up until the end
of his life. It just makes him where
he's just so well known. And as he keeps
outlasting everybody and outliving
everyone, I think it it's like, okay,
there's not too many people from that
time frame left. And so I think he
becomes more and more uh it's no more
notoriety as he goes because he's living
for so long. And certainly the at the
very end of George's life, how they kept
on saying, well, at 100 he was going to
perform somewhere or whatever. But
unfortunately, I think at 98 or 99ish,
he his health started to go downhill
where he wasn't going to be able to pull
that off cuz he did live to be 100.
Correct.
I don't think so.
Well, maybe he died at 99. So, I know it
was close. It was like right in there.
Yeah.
I'm sure we're going to look it up and
tell you momentarily.
Our research team.
Well,
he died in his hundth year. Yeah, he
did. He was 100. I take it.
I thought so. I thought he made it to a
100 by a couple months or something.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was interesting
that Jack Benny talked about his own
mortality. Uh but you know, he wasn't
going to die anytime soon. And of
course, we now know that less than four
years later, he was gone.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just glad he
kept so busy in that four years. I mean,
we're going to spend basically our whole
summer spending time with Jack in his
final years. And he does appears on so
many different shows and things. I mean,
you know, and some of them are huge
shows that he's on. I mean, Ingleberg
Humperdink,
that was quite the quite the show to be
on, I think.
And that's coming up soon. So, I hope
you guys will enjoy our Engle Humpdink
presentation. Anyway,
but there's so many things that that
happened. Um, oh, and and uh right
around this time. Oh, I think we already
presented it. I think I think you
already got uh Rochester Eddie Anderson
on Love on the first episode, the pilot
episode of uh Love American Style. And
that's kind of cool that that Eddie
Anderson was out there doing things,
too. So, yeah. And and Don kept busy,
too. Don had his own show from Florida
for a number of years that um he was on
a Florida morning show or something. So,
good for him. Yeah. Anyway, anything
else to point out on this one?
Well, we can't we can't uh stop without
making reference to something that Jack
Benny did that
he I don't think ever ever ever did
other than on this show, which was to
say something that caused the network
sensor to censor him, to believe him.
Yeah.
And it was hilarious.
And they would never let Jack back on
the Tonight Show. Oh, no. I think it
ended his career.
Yeah, it did.
He was a risk taker that guy. Yeah. Yes.
He got he definitely got bleeped out or
whatever. And that's uh you didn't you
don't expect that from Jack Benny.
I think you get to a certain age and you
just kind of let it go and it happens
and Yeah. Yeah. But I I thought I
thought it was wonderful and it was fun
to to see that happen to Jack and and uh
um and Johnny's reactions are always
great for anything like that. So fun
stuff. Um John, anything else you want
to point out about this one?
Yeah. Oh, I mean I just enjoyed the
whole thing. You know, I could mention a
couple of funny jokes like uh you know,
um you know, he talks about the great
being called the greatest comedian,
which is kind of a setup that he does a
number of times and then he always
changes the punchline to something
different and this time he's like, "Oh,
you could say the top five comedians or
top two comedians and you're just
conceited enough to know who that other
comedian would be or whatever." Right.
I like that one, too. I thought that was
was well done. and and I notice the
exact same thing you've noticed because
we've cuz we're presenting these things
chronologically. So you start to see
that things sort of crop up and and he's
going, "Oh, no one will remember that I
mentioned that on Ingler Humperdink's
show and I talked about it over here on
on Jimmy with Jimmy Duranty. I'll I'll
go ahead and say it on the Tonight
Show." And no, and of course at the time
it was months in between these things.
They're shown once and they're gone. I
don't think people would connect it all
together. It's just we unnaturally see
them back to back to back weeks, you
know, as we're presenting each week. And
so I'm sure our audience too is going,
"Hey, Jack just said that a week ago."
But I I do like the fact he changes a
little bit each time. So that's kind of
cool. Yeah.
And so you can see how this joke sort of
morphs over time.
Sometimes you go, "Okay, that second
time that was when he he came up with
the best one and the third one wasn't as
good." But, you know, I I get what he's
doing. He's like, "I presented it. I'll
I'll do it again. I'll do a slightly
different." I do like this one with with
the whole Johnny Carson being conceited
piece. That's a funny little piece to
add in there. And Johnny's reaction is
great, too. Johnny,
he's so he's such a good audience.
People always say how Jack is like the
best audience ever. Well, yeah, but I
think I think Johnny's no slouch
himself. And I think if you're being
funny, he's going to work and try and
help you out any way he can to help you
uh be funnier and and his re with his
reactions and things. He's got the guy
has great timing himself and great
reactions and he always has. So,
but it's also nice because that's also
kind of a not a back-handed compliment,
the opposite, a uh a frontanded
insult where it the insult is that he's
conceited, but the implication is that
Johnny is the number one comedian.
Right. So,
yes, agreed. And which was very kind of
him to to say and at this point in time
probably I would think pretty accurate.
I mean, I at least as far as popularity
goes and and people experiencing him
more than anybody else because they were
tuning in nightly at that point. And the
Tonight Show at this point in time is
the closest thing to appointment viewing
or whatever that you're going to get
where people it was the water cooler
show that you were talking about. Did
you see Johnny last night? What
happened? Whatever. And uh and at this
point he was an hour and a half long.
So, I mean, you got a lot more Johnny uh
and he was appearing every night versus
on Fridays not being on or whatever like
what happened for the last, you know,
decade he was on or more.
Well, my friend Terry, when these were
originally on and you were watching, you
know, did you did you watch the Tonight
Show a lot and things and
Oh, yeah. I was I mean
as as often as I could, not not every
night, but
very very often. And I don't remember if
I've mentioned it to you all before, but
I got to watch the Tonight Show being
recorded and I sat up in the control
room. a friend of mine worked at NBC
Burbank and uh
I I I met Ed McMahon and and got to chat
with him before and I saw Johnny Carson
walk down the hall and I almost stopped
him to talk to him and I realized that
would be a stupid thing to do.
Yeah.
So I so I never actually met the man.
But yeah, I watched the show as often as
I could. It it had a big influence on my
appreciation of entertainment and
comedy. Um,
how old were you when you watched the
show?
Well, I was born in 1953, so uh, this
show I was a senior in high school.
Okay.
Um, you know, obviously I didn't didn't
But I mean, the episode you saw live,
what what year was that?
The one I saw live
was probably in
the 80s, late 70s, early
80s. Okay. So, so quite a bit later than
than these.
Oh, yeah. 70 or anything. Okay. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, interesting time
and neat to see it when Johnny was still
doing it and still in the 80s. He's
still pretty much in his prime at that
point and things. So,
yeah.
So, good for you.
Yeah. And that's that's why I kept the
set.
Yeah.
He stole it while he wasn't looking. So,
that's right. That's right.
I did not I was not the one who broke
his cigarette case, though. I was
No. No.
I believe that was Don Rickles.
Don Rickles. That's right.
famously wrecked the cigarette case
because the whole thing it just fell
apart, didn't it? I mean, it was just
I love it. And then uh and then there's
that famous bit because John Rickles was
filming a show at the time like right
next door or something and so they
Yeah. Yeah. and pester him on that set
which is great. It's a great piece of of
history. But anyway, we'll let people
enjoy this episode and uh we'll see you
for more uh Jack Benny appearances on
various shows as we go on. And we're
going to have a lot more of the
Tonight's Show as we go. I think from
here on out, most of them will be actual
the whole the video and everything for
the show. So, all right. Thanks, guys.
Have a great week, everybody.