Season:
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
unknown
Year:
1950
|
1951
|
1952
|
1953
|
1954
|
1955
|
1956
|
1957
|
1958
|
1959
|
1960
|
1961
|
1962
|
1963
|
1964
|
1965
|
2004
28 October 1950Benny's first program drives the studio audience wild - & straight into the streets when he unholsters his violin to mangle "Love in Bloom," his theme. Jack knows he's off to a bad start on TV when one of the show's cracked technicians (Mel Blanc) interrupts Jack's intro to wave to an aunt. Rochester sings "My Blue Heaven" while cleaning Jack's house, and Dinah Shore auditions "I'm Yours" for Jack. Jack joins her for "I Oughta Know More About You." The Sportsmen Quartet perform "There's No Business Like Show Business," a theme song from Jack's radio program. Jack's well-wishers who drop by include Ken Murray and Mr. Kitzel.
28 January 1951
1 April 1951
20 May 1951
4 November 1951While doing the opening monologue for his show, Jack finds himself constantly interrupted, first by guest Bob Crosby, who decides to start singing a song just as Jack is in the middle of telling a joke, and then by an overly talkative cab driver.
16 December 1951
Season 2, Episode 3: Gaslight
27 January 1952
Season 2, Episode 4: Gracie Bit
9 March 1952
20 April 1952
1 June 1952
5 October 1952
2 November 1952
30 November 1952Jack is pestered by a young autograph seeker, then Bob Crosby sings a medley of songs from "Peter Pan" to the child. After the show, Jack has trouble getting to sleep because of a leaky faucet and forces Rochester to rock his bed. Finally asleep, a pair of burglars try to ransack Jack's bedroom but are defeated by his booby traps.
Season 3, Episode 4: Cafe Skit
28 December 1952
25 January 1953
22 March 1953
19 April 1953
17 May 1953
13 September 1953
4 October 1953
25 October 1953Police Lt. Jack Benny questions notorious killer "Babyface" Bogart (guest star
Humphrey Bogart).
15 November 1953
6 December 1953
27 December 1953When the show's cast invites Jack to a big New Year's Eve party, he turns them down because he has a date with his new lady friend Gloria. A couple of hours later, however, Jack finds himself at a "party" with his new date--Rochester.
17 January 1954Jack visits the home of Liberace, but even he isn't ready for the outrageous extravagance he sees there.
7 February 1954Jack falls asleep and dreams that he and Mary have been married for the past 21 years. However, in Jack's world, Mary is the one who goes to work and earns the money, while Jack stays home, cooks, cleans and remains 39 years old.
28 February 1954
21 March 1954Jack starts recalling his old vaudeville days and the tours he made with his two partners--Bing Crosby and George Burns--in their act billed as "Goldie, Fields and Glide".
11 April 1954
2 May 1954
23 May 1954
3 October 1954
17 October 1954
31 October 1954A reporter asks Jack how he found Mary, and Jack remembers himself as a straw-hatted Hollywood boulevardier, twirling a cane, singing "Just a Gigolo " - lured into a May Co. store by a sale on $ 1.99 guaranteed shirts. 22 years later as he's being interviewed, Jack's still wearing the garish shirt. Underwhelmed by Jack's charms, saleswoman Mary Livingstone cracks wise with Jack, while her female co-workers both slice him up and encourage Mary. Episode also features Rochester singing and scat-dancing with The Sportsmen Quartet on "I Get So Lonely."
14 November 1954
28 November 1954
12 December 1954This is one of the very best episodes from this now seldom seen popular long-running series, which has a tremendous ongoing routine throughout with Jack and Mel Blanc, who is at his superlative best here. In addition, Frank Nelson makes his usual funny appearance along with some other very good character actors of that period. This is definitely one to look for.
26 December 1954
9 January 1955
23 January 1955
6 February 1955After being awakened at 4:00 a.m. by a phone call from "Hank, The All Night Radio DJ", Jack finds that he can't get back to sleep. Later that day, exhausted from lack of sleep, he and Mary go to a clothing store to buy him a new suit, but it turns into much more of an ordeal than he ever thought it would be.
20 February 1955
6 March 1955
20 March 1955
3 April 1955
17 April 1955Jack is preparing for a show in New York City. Audience members want Jack's picture; Jack turns off the electricity and gas for his sublets; the Pasadena brings going away gifts.
1 May 1955
25 September 1955
9 October 1955
23 October 1955Jack introduces Peggy King, the regular vocalist on "The George Gobel Show" who arouses Jack's ire when she tells him that George Gobel is "the best". In the second half of the show, Art Linkletter reprises his role as a children's interviewer from his show "House Party" and asks four youngsters about their romances. He then interviews Don Wilson, Peggy King, Rochester Van Jones and Jack Benny who pretend to be nine-year-olds. Throughout the program, Jack is harassed by an audience member who insists that he be entertained or provided with a new refrigerator.
6 November 1955Jack figures out that he's not a great violinist; Rochester and Mary plot to fool him into believing he is a great violinist with the help of Issac Stern.
20 November 1955"Jack Gives Johnny Carson Advice" about maintaining a long show business career through versatility, but Johnny turns the tables on him by displaying his many talents including singing, dancing and drumming.
4 December 1955Jack hears there's uranium for the finding in Death Valley, so he's off to buy gear for an expedition. At the camping store he duels his nemesis, the sarcastic sales clerk Frank Nelson. In the desert Jack's party confronts other prospectors, and some Mexican stereotypes a la Treasure of Sierra Madre.
1 January 1956
15 January 1956
29 January 1956
12 February 1956
26 February 1956
11 March 1956
25 March 1956
8 April 1956Jack has a violin duel with guest star Gisele McKenzie. To primp for the show, Jack visits a swank Hollywood barber shop where the skinflint throws around nickels like manhole covers. Will he need Novocaine for his manicure this time ?
23 September 1956
7 October 1956In this parody of the Broadway musical "Damn Yankees," Jack Benny dreams he sells his soul to the Devil (George Burns) for a chance to play at Carnegie Hall. Jack gets his wish, but the conductor of his symphony orchestra turns out to be Spike Jones - who sabotages Jack's performance at every turn.
21 October 1956
4 November 1956
18 November 1956Jack panics when Rochester informs him that his Maxwell automobile has been stolen from his garage and they immediately race to the opulent Beverly Hills police station where the dispatcher plays Elvis Presley and Lawrence Welk records between making police calls. The police discover the crooks have returned the car and apprehend one of the perpetrators who broke his toe kicking the car's tire.
2 December 1956Jack and Mary vacation in London, where Jack is accidentally locked in the Tower of London during a tour.
Season 7, Episode 7: The Mikado
16 December 1956
30 December 1956
13 January 1957Jack ought to be suspicious when his porter in the Rome airport speaks in a Scottish burr and looks like a Greek god. In Jack's hotel suite he hears a magnificent male opera singer in another room, so the Svengali signs the puzzled amateur up to conquer America.
27 January 1957
10 February 1957
24 February 1957
10 March 1957Jack and Rochester are putting together a scrapbook of Jack's European vacation. Jack tells Rochester about his visit to Venice.
24 March 1957Jack makes sure Parisians remember him: he boasts to anyone he can corner that he drives a garbage truck. That's how an under-tipped hotel employee translates "star of stage, screen and television" for Jack. A garbageman compatriot is delighted to give Jack & Mary a free ride in his truck, while Maurice Chevalier takes them nightclubbing.
7 April 1957Jack fondly recalls himself as a handsome, high-spending dandy who had to gallantly fight off constant female attention, when he's asked how he met long-time girlfriend Mary Livingstone. But Jack resists attending a reunion with Mary's former co-workers at a May Company department store in L.A., where she met Jack in 1932, as they remember it very differently - especially the crucial purchase of an engagement ring. Rochester caters Mary's reunion, and can't help rolling his eyes at Jack's unbelievable recollection.
21 April 1957
22 September 1957
6 October 1957
20 October 1957Jack's opening monologue is interrupted by the president and secretary of his fan club. For their Lucky Strike commercial, Don and Harlow Wilson perform a soft-shoe dance and sing "Me and My Shadow". Jack recently appeared on "The 64, 000 Question" quiz program and the host of that show, Hal March, attempts to earn more money than Jack did, on Benny's version of the game.
3 November 1957Only Jack could reunite Fred & Ginger with his program's generous salaries & lavish production values. Ginger's more concerned that Jack will destroy her dinner party by scaring off her guests with his violin. Fred can't make rehearsals, but so what ? The suave, lithe Jack is the perfect understudy.
17 November 1957
1 December 195720th Century Fox is planning to make a movie based on Jack's life story.
15 December 1957Jack is determined to finish his Christmas shopping in one visit and tortures a wallet salesman with constant changes to his order. Meanwhile, Dennis is having difficulty finding the right present for his mother.
29 December 1957
12 January 1958
26 January 1958
9 February 1958
23 February 1958
9 March 1958
23 March 1958
6 April 1958
20 April 1958
21 September 1958
5 October 1958
19 October 1958
2 November 1958
16 November 1958
30 November 1958
14 December 1958
28 December 1958
Season 9, Episode 9: Autolight
11 January 1959
25 January 1959Ernie shares his mustache collection with Jack; Don becomes a Beatnik to sing about Lucky Strikes; we see what prisons will be like in 1970.
8 February 1959His sponsor walks out on Jack's show, when his sponsor's in town for contract renewal, so Jack's afraid to take him to a nightclub featuring a comic competitor. A puppet show seems a safe (and cheap) alternative, but filling in for the sore-throated puppeteer is golden throated Danny Thomas, whose charity and charm entrance the sponsor, but paralyze Jack.
22 February 1959
8 March 1959
22 March 1959
5 April 1959
4 October 1959
18 October 1959
1 November 1959
15 November 1959Jimmy & Gloria Stewart finally run out of excuses and the day they've dreaded for so long arrives: having to double date with Jack to an opera. To embarrass the classy Stewarts to the max, Jack's date is the way-over-the-top blonde banshee Mildred Meyerhouser.
29 November 1959
13 December 1959
27 December 1959
10 January 1960
24 January 1960
7 February 1960
21 February 1960Jack keeps all of Beverly Hills awake with his violin playing and is arrested for disturbing the peace.
6 March 1960
3 April 1960
Season 10, Episode 14: Easter Show
17 April 1960
1 May 1960
16 October 1960
23 October 1960
30 October 1960
6 November 1960Jack can't stop bragging about his new suit, which he bought from a Hong Kong tailor and cost him only $12. However, during a furious violin competition with Gisele MacKenzie, it starts to become painfully obvious just how cheap the suit really is.
20 November 1960
27 November 1960
4 December 1960
11 December 1960Jack insists on taking Mildred to a violin concert even though his girlfriend would prefer to attend the boxing arena. Jack spies Jimmy Stewart and his wife in the crowd and tries to attract their attention by pelting him with peanuts, which only results in driving them from the theater. Bored, Mildred tries to get the radio station carrying fights on her transistor radio, which drives the remaining audience members out.
18 December 1956It's the week before Christmas and Jack drops by Edgar Bergen's house to go over the upcoming show's script with his guest star. When Edgar is detained rehearsing his radio show, his wife Frances entertains Jack. Jack is amazed when Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd walk into the room and are introduced. Jack always assumed they were merely ventriloquist's dummies. Edgar finally returns and is ready to present his ideas for a sketch to Jack, but insists on Jack sitting on his knee to hear them.
25 December 1960
1 January 1961Auditioning actors for a 1 hour show recounting his thrilling life provokes many emotions in Jack: lust for a young actress, vanity when an elderly woman from his hometown shows up, and especially greed. A young actor is perfect for Jack as a child, which the actor's 10 year old agent takes every advantage of.
8 January 1961
15 January 1961On the anniversary of Don Wilson's 27 years of service with Jack, he and Jack recall the first day they met, when Don showed up for an audition and Jack put him through dance and elocution classes to "whip him into shape".
22 January 1961
29 January 1961
5 February 1961
12 February 1961
Season 11, Episode 18: Musicale
19 February 1961
26 February 1961
5 March 1961
12 March 1961
19 March 1961
26 March 1961
2 April 1961
9 April 1961Jack refuses to leave a homeless shelter until they give him back an ancient jacket Rochester donated, which had $200 sewed in the lining. Jack's just returned from a desert hike with the Beverly Hills Beavers, so due to his dirty clothes & 3 day beard, everyone at the shelter believes he's an extraordinarily picky homeless person, not the most generous man in show business.
16 April 1961
15 October 1961
22 October 1961
5 November 1961Jack goes on trial for murder, defended by superstar lawyer Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). The women in the courtroom swoon over Perry, but his defense of Jack is feeble. When Jack asks how Perry always wins on his own show, Perry Mason sneers "because my writers are better than yours !"
12 November 1961
19 November 1961
Season 12, Episode 6: Golf Show
26 November 1961
3 December 1961
10 December 1961Jack tries to wow guest songstress Jane Morgan by taking her to - a cafeteria? That's bad enough, but for Jack it's a war zone, with hostile attendants & personalized land mines at each counter awaiting their pickiest, least favorite diner. Will the hashlingers go easier on finicky Jack because he's with beautiful, blonde Jane ?
17 December 1961
24 December 1961
31 December 1961
7 January 1962
14 January 1962
21 January 1962
28 January 1962
4 February 1962
11 February 1962Jack and Gisele are returning from a show in Phoenix and get lost. They stumble into a café in what appears to be a Western ghost town and ask directions. While they sup on peanut butter sandwiches, the owner spins a story from the town's history, where a black-hearted villain called Tombstone Harry tries to force a beautiful saloon girl to marry him, or he'll foreclose on her mortgage. A black-garbed hero, the Cactus Kid, attempts to stop the villain.
18 February 1962
4 March 1962Jack is upstaged by a 12-year-old violinist and has Julie London as his guest star.
11 March 1962
18 March 1962
25 March 1962
1 April 1962
8 April 1962
15 April 1962
22 April 1962
25 September 1962
2 October 1962
9 October 1962
16 October 1962Raymond Burr wants to be a comedian, so Jack allows him to host the show.
23 October 1962Jack praises Mr. Welk but insists anyone (in particular himself) can lead an orchestra-the results of his attempt to do so are classic.Later,he browbeats Lawrence into orchestrating his song "When you appologize I'll come back to you" A.K.A. "When the swallows return to Capistrano" which ends up as a polka!
30 October 1962
13 November 1962
20 November 1962
27 November 1962
4 December 1962
11 December 1962
18 December 1962Jack's attempt to fly to New York City is frustrated by a cabdriver who can't bear to say goodbye to his passengers, surreal airport announcements, and a sarcastic ticket agent
25 December 1962
1 January 1963
8 January 1963Jack's guest is British comedian/singer Max Bygraves. After Jack claims to have discovered Max and introduced him to U.S. audiences, there's a flashback to Jack first seeing Max perform in London. Jack loves Max's performance, but is aghast with Max's dead-on impersonation of Jack.
15 January 1963
22 January 1963Jack is thrilled to introduce his guest, actor Peter Lorre, who seems very modest and timid - until Jack congratulates him on his ability to personify evil, spurring Lorre to pull a knife from his jacket pocket. Jack has a nightmare involving Lorre, in which Jack visits a new doctor, because the doctor takes coupons and validates parking. Also waiting for the doctor is Lorre, hiding behind a newspaper blaring the headline "Crazed Murderer Escapes from Prison !!!"
5 February 1963
12 February 1963
19 February 1963
26 February 1963
5 March 1963Jack attends Frankie Avalon's record session, but constantly interrupts the takes. Eventually, he's given a role in the recording.
12 March 1963
19 March 1963
9 April 1963
24 September 1963
1 October 1963Jack sups at a chichi nightclub where heartthrob crooner Robert Goulet is performing. Will Goulet pilfer Jack's drop-dead gorgeous date or will the sex symbol comic pull women away from Goulet ?
8 October 1963
15 October 1963Jack's guest is 6'6" Western star Clint Walker, who sings a song and banters with Jack. Jack is insulted when the gigantic Walker snubs Jack's suggestion that he play Clint's brother in a movie. But Jack auditions for the part anyway.
22 October 1963
29 October 1963
5 November 1963
19 November 1963
26 November 1963Hawaiians are thrilled to sing Aloha to stingy Jack Benny, who gets only 1 lei, while a fellow passenger is covered with them. The romantic atmosphere of the Pacific cruise back to L.A. overwhelms Jack, who envisions a zoftig blonde passenger as Jayne Mansfield. Jayne breathes "You're Just Too Marvelous," to love-struck Jack.
3 December 1963
10 December 1963
24 December 1963
31 December 1963
7 January 1964Jack and his long-time best friend George Burns play golf, but Jack quickly storms back to his office, crying foul to his secretary. George strolls in next, smoking a victory cigar, causing Jack to flee again. So, George makes himself at home at Jack's desk, and relates to Jack's secretary Ms. Gordon, how he met Jack 40 years before, in a cheap Chicago rooming house.
14 January 1964Jack Benny's guests, the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, illustrate how folk songs develop with a tune about Jack, whose lyrics include "A silver dollar was his teething ring." Jack insists that the group cancel their flight out of town to come to his house, to discuss an important matter, at length.
21 January 1964Jack intros guest
Nat 'King' Cole as the best friend a song ever had, in Nat's final TV performance before his death. Nat banters with Jack, plus croons "When I Fall in Love" and "Day In, Day Out." Nat reluctantly consents to sit in on piano for Jack on "Sweet Sue." At their rehearsal Jack's sax player injures his drummer's arm in a fight, so always-cool Nat calls in a 5 year old (James Bradley Jr., later played with Anita Baker and Chuck Mangione) on the skins.
28 January 1964Jack wants to play himself in an autobiographical movie, but the studio prefers younger star Bobby Darin for the role. Darin displays his many talents as he and Jack contend over the role.
4 February 1964
11 February 1964Dennis Day's lugging his own scenery on stage for his song, leads an irate Jack to relate how he picked Dennis to be his show's singer, passing over an agent's offers of Sinatra (too skinny) and Bing Crosby (too bu-bu-ba-boo). Jack tracks the unknown Irish tenor from a fish market and ice cream store (Dennis is fired from both), to a Chinese restaurant.
18 February 1964In desperation, a psychiatrist phones Jack for his help with a distraught patient. An amnesiac with a violin has been found on the street, and he's bitterly muttering Jack's name - over and over. Jack identifies him as his long-time, long-suffering violin teacher, Professor LeBlanc (Mel Blanc), who reveals he couldn't lose his hearing, so he lost his mind.
25 February 1964
3 March 1964
17 March 1964
24 March 1964While doing a PSA promoting safe driving, it's discovered that Jack's license expired, so the organization the PSA is for stalks out. Jack's attempt to renew his license at the Kafkaesque motor vehicle office is nightmarish.
31 March 1964Jack's guests, the pop singing group The Lettermen, provoke surprisingly strong reactions from Jack Benny and his regular singer Dennis Day. They bump Dennis from singing on the show at all, so he skulks behind the scenery as the Phantom of the Comedy. Jack, The Waukegan Wizard, claims he earned a high school letter as a cheerleader, but regrets he didn't attend college, so the World's Oldest Freshman enrolls with The Lettermen.
7 April 1964Jack demands a post-show meeting with cast and crew, furious over their mistakes. But they call him out for flubbing a line and scratching himself throughout the program. For his rash, Jack seeks treatment from a sarcastic allergy doctor with bizarre show business patients, but the doctor refers him to a highly alternative medical practitioner.
14 April 1964
21 April 1964Jack Benny enlists his long-time radio and TV cast members Charlie Cantor and Mel Blanc, to playfully demonstrate how radio programs created suspense and atmosphere. Includes a parody of "The Whistler" with Jack as the diabolical Fiddler, who spins the tale of oblivious husband Griffith Park (Dennis Day), targeted for murder by his wife and her lover.
25 September 1964 