Burns and Allen - Kleebob Card Game (1950)

★★★★★ · Variety acts were common on B&A · LeGrande · 2009-07-16

There are several B&A shows, not all from the first season, where acts were in between scenes at the house. Sometimes it would be a tap dancing act, sometimes a solo singer, sometimes a group. On another note, when you see George's monologue before the first act, you can see where Seinfeld got its roots from. You can also see that while George had a wonderful revival of his comedy and acting career starting when he was 79, he was most comfortable as a straight man for Gracie. His collective output of movies and shows on radio and TV are treasures to cherish.

★★★★★ · Debut Of Burns and Allen · ercjncpr · 2009-07-16

A couple of things to note on this premiere episode--#1 is the appearance of a singing group half way through the show. This was common practice in radio, to break up the acts of each episode with music. Except for The Jack Benny Show or Ricky Ricardo's and Danny Thomas' frequent singing appearances on I Love Lucy and Make Room For Daddy (which were much closely integrated into the plotline), this device was dropped within a few weeks on B&A because it slowed down the action on TV. And it was rarely used in any other televised sitcom of that time. The second thing to watch for is announcer…

★★★★★ · I Uploaded This · Seto-Kaiba_Is_Stupid · 2009-07-16

I know, I should stop reviewing my own items. This is a quite entertaining, certainly interesting example of early TV. It's interesting to note just how much of the shows long-running production and script techniques were already in place this early on (even considering it had already been on radio for some time). George Burns is funny, Gracie Allen is funny, as are the rest of the cast.

★★★★★ · love it · dystonia_gene · 2010-01-29

This is an excellent episode on so many levels. Burns and Allen were hilarious in radio, but watching them make the sometimes awkward transition from sound to television is a thrill. There is a song break, which is cute. There is a Harry Morton who does not continue with the show for some reason & Bill Goodwin is still the announcer. His manner is markedly 'party life' and not theatrical. The card game is hilarious. There are two notable bloopers: One with Goodwin's exit, Two with the orchestra playing short over the credits. Perhaps there were more. At any rate, what a pleasure to watch!

★★★★ · Carnations, Commercialism & the Defilement of Art · applejelly · 2012-09-04

I enjoy Burns & Allen, in fact it's become one of my my favorite shows. However I find it appalling the way Carnation made Burns & Allen integrate the advertising into their show. I don't blame Burns/Allen, I understand that they needed sponsorship in order to cast the show, but the Carnation spiels really undermine the quality & cheapened the artistic integrity of the show. You could often tell that George Burns would get visibly disgusted with the carnations adds being cut into the story line. It wasn't even done tastefully either. You could catch the vibe that they just wanted to get the…