For a show that had a relatively short life on radio and television, The Bickersons has maintained a dominating presence in American pop culture.  We use the term “Ozzie & Harriet” to describe a wholesome, too-good-to-be-true husband-and-wife coupling; and, a constantly quarreling twosome receives the designation “Bickersons.”  The famed husband-and-wife battlers, who made their radio […]

This Saturday, August 31, will mark the 72nd anniversary of one of radio’s most popular and successful sitcoms, The Great Gildersleeve—a program that any old time radio fan worth their salt will tell you was spun-off from Fibber McGee & Molly, allowing show regular Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve to put down stakes in a town far […]

Whether you know him as Teddy Bergman (his birth name) or Alan Reed—an identity he adopted to separate his comedic roles from the dramatic ones (as well as downplay his Jewish heritage)—you certainly know his voice as the head of television’s first prime-time animated sitcom: Fred Flintstone of The Flintstones.  The career of this remarkable […]

The town of Vincennes, Indiana welcomed Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton into their midst one hundred years ago on this date…and got the best of the bargain, because their favorite son spent most of his show business career dedicated to making audiences laugh in radio, movies, television and on stage.  Not only was Red Skelton able […]

The media company known emphatically as Shout! Factory pre-released one of the most highly anticipated DVD sets for old-time radio fans on June 18th of this year—a three-disc collection entitled The Jack Benny Program: The Lost Episodes.  Eighteen telecasts (restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive) from the comedian’s celebrated TV series (culled between […]

The man who let audiences know what he liked about the South would have celebrated his 109th birthday today.  When wife Alice Faye would jokingly refer to him as “Wonga” on their popular radio comedy program, she was, in fact, addressing him by his given birth name: Wonga Phil Harris.   Phil Harris was a […]

Veteran actor Gerald Mohr was born 99 years ago on this date.  Before his premature death in 1968, at the age of 54, Mohr left behind an amazing legacy of work in movies, TV…and old-time radio.  He had one of the most distinctive voices on radio—and, audiences today can still listen to him emote as […]

In the 1949 Looney Tunes short Curtain Razor, cartoon star Porky Pig channels his inner Major Bowes by auditioning acts at a talent agency.  One client, a turtle, brags that he is “the man of a thousand voices”—and goes through his repertoire (including Lionel Barrymore and Bugs Bunny) for the porcine agent.  The only problem […]