Gracie Allen - 1000x funnier than Lucy

Gracie died in '64...Lucy in '89. It's this kind of relevancy that keeps me coming back to the ol' DL :)

I love Burns & Allen, OP.

Thanks, OP! Another fan of Burns & Allen here.

With every TV series that was even moderately successful having been released on DVD, I've never understood why there's so little of Burns & Allen available. I'd gladly buy the complete series.

When I was eleven I did a book report on “Gracie: A Love Story” by George Burns. I can only imagine what Mrs. Ponder, my fifth grade teacher, thought.

And sometimes Ronnie Burns would be on the show, and he was not ugly:

I like Gracie, but that clip isn't funny at all.

I’ve always loved this story about her marriage with George....

In later years Burns admitted that following an argument over a pricey silver table centerpiece Allen wanted, he had a very brief affair with a Las Vegas showgirl. Stricken by guilt, he phoned Jack Benny and told him about the indiscretion. However, Allen overheard the conversation and Burns quietly bought the expensive centerpiece. Nothing more was said. Years later he discovered that Allen had told one of her friends about the episode finishing with, "You know, I really wish George would cheat on me again. I could use a new centerpiece."

Gracie Allen famously ran for President in 1940 on the Surprise Party Ticket.

I can't remember how the jokes goes exactly, but George comes home and sees some flowers and asks Gracie where she got them.

She says, "You remember when you told me next time I go see my mother I should take her flowers?"

George answers, "Yes."

Gracie says, "When she left the room to get coffee, I did."

George does a Jack Benny take to the camera.

Neither Gracie or Lucy were funny on their own. Gracie was exception in that she is the standard for dumb.

You only have to look at other radio shows like "My Friend Irma," where Irma plays a similar Gracie character, but Irma is just stupid. She never is funny. For the most part other characters like Three's Company's Chrissie and Golden Girl's Rose also just come across stupid.

Only Eva Gabor's Lisa is close to matching Gracie. (They had some of the same writers on both shows).

When you listen to Gracie you actually believe she is believing what she says.

But unlike Lucy, Gracie Allen never had ambition. She wanted to quit her radio show, she hated the TV show as she had trouble remember her lines, since they never made sense in context. So she had to remember the whole thing and she hated TV. This as opposed to radio, where they read it through once, and performed it live twice (Once for each coast)

Every year George would beg Gracie to do another year of TV and finally she quit. She didn't like it. This was similar to her daughter who was on the Burns and Allen TV show a few times but hated acting and dropped out of the picture quickly. Unlike Ronnie Burns, their son who wanted to be an actor (both children were adopted).

Been watching reruns of this regularly for first time on Antenna TV and think it deserves to be a classic, definitely up there with "I Love Lucy". It experimented with meta before that was even a word, and the later seasons become even more surreal, with Burns seamlessly commenting on the action from within, sometimes magically controlling it. I Love Lucy was admittedly brilliant but the format relied on physical comedy, eventually got stale and predictable, and the final seasons crashed and burned. Burns and Allen on thr other hand grew more intelligent, experimental and playful towards the end, and the tone and rythm of the brilliant cast led by Allen is spot on. It was unique, clever, groundbreaking and sadly unrecognized as an innovative precursor to some of todays "modern" sitcoms.

The 1933 all-star comedy musical "International House" is stolen by, not Burns & Allen, but by Fields & Allen. His reactions to her dingbat character are priceless.

The 1939 MGM musical features a very funny Gracie doing Mae West in a "Come as your favorite movie star!" musical number.

I love Gracie, and George was really under-rated, especially by himself, as he had perfect timing and got a lot of laughs himself. The supporting cast is great, especially Bea Benaderet, who had one of the best laughs on tv, usually in response to something nutty that Gracie said. One of the best of the shows is a two-parter, where Gracie is somehow hypnotized into being the smartest woman in the world and is doing very well on a quiz show; everyone and especially George wishes she was feather-brained again. It's a hoot. Ronnie Burns was very cute. The shows still hold up very well, as the writing and the acting were fine and funny, and George breaking the 4th wall was ahead of its time, bringing a bit Luigi Pirandello and Brecht to your living room every week without you even realizing it.

I love Gracie - she was particularly wonderful in Damsel In Distress with George and starring Fred Astaire and Joan Fontaine.

She could sing, dance, and be funny - and she was pretty.

I love Lucy, too, but Gracie is right up there! I just can't watch the show much now because I hate Bea Benederet as Grace Morton, the neighbor. Bea is completely irritating and superfluous - two things she also was as Cousin Pearl in The Beverly Hillbillies.

I have always loved "I Love Lucy" but some of the "entertainment" episodes are insufferable - can't watch them - the ones where Lucy schemes to get on stage, yada, yada, yada - pretty boring. Burns and Allen though - I never get tired of. Gracie is a classic.

Love her. For years I could only find the same few episodes in various releases. No matter what crazy stuff Gracie did he didn’t lose his shit and yell at her like Ricky did to Lucy.

Frank Gorshin was very touching in the Broadway play "Say Goodnight Gracie" where Didi Conn provided the off-stage voice of Gracie. It did very well and returned several years after Off Broadway.

The irony of the I Love Lucy title is that she could often be a selfish, conniving, childish, self absorbed bitch, always funny to watch but not always loveable.

Gracie was truly lovable, the kindest, sweetest most generous and loving person, someone you'd wish you had as a best friend, mother or neighbor.

I think Bea Benaderet was a terrific sidekick, so much so that Lucy famously wanted her for the part of Ethel instead of Vivian Vance. The final incarnation of Harry Morton, which reimagined him as an uptight penny pincher, was a big upgrade from the prior ones and provided her with more of a foil.

My siblings and I loved watching Burns & Allen on tv - it was rerun pretty consistently in the 70's. My maternal Brooklyn grandparents were dead ringers for B & A - both physically and personality wise - that's how we would refer to them in family conversation. Miss them both very much.

"Burns and Allen" is one of the few comedies from the 1950s that is watchable today. What else? "I Love Lucy" and maybe "The Honeymooners."

I like Eve Arden, but "Miss Brooks" is terrible. I like Ann Sothern, but "Private Secretary" is terrible.

R21 "I Married Joan" has its moments. It doesn't have the magic of "Lucy", but Joan Davis is endearing and Jim Backus is hysterical. "Our Miss Brooks" is contrived but there are a few very funny episodes on line.

[quote]I love Gracie - she was particularly wonderful in Damsel In Distress with George and starring Fred Astaire and Joan Fontaine.

Never saw it.

George: "Gracie, these socks don't match."

Gracie: "That's funny, there's another pair just like them in the drawer "

Lucy was a genius at slapstick and facial expressions while Gracie was better with lines, kind of playing the straight man. Both were good but Lucy was definitely funnier.

The one and only...…..

A classic.

George never put Gracie over his knee and spanked her, but Ricky did this to Lucy in an episode.

It's not really fair to compare them because they are different. Lucy was physical comedy and Gracie was "jokes/punchline" comedy. Two different types of comedy.

Oh, I don't think George Burns would say that Gracie was the straight man -- she got the funny lines. He started off as the funny one, changed roles and headed all the way to playing the Palace, the top of vaudeville and greater fame in radio, movies and tv. Of course, George was very funny too, but when doing their act, George said basically all he had to do was ask Gracie about her family, and she could just keep talking and it would be hilariously funny.

Agreed, I have no idea why anyone would say Gracie was playing the straight man, it was the exact opposite! George was the quintessential straight man in any scene with the two of them. As a matter of fact in almost any scene with anybody, the character other than Gracie was the straight man.

Also agree its hard to compare due to their different comedy styles. They were both great! But I think in comparing the actual shows, Burns and Allen improved with age, becoming more fluid, clever and unique, whereas I Love Lucy started super strong and went out with a whimper in later seasons in Connecticut and with the subpar Lucy Desi comedy hours. This has been at least partially attributed to the acrimony between Lucy and Desi who divorced, whereas George and Gracie adored each other and remained together til her death.

When George would go to the hospital at Cedar Sinai, he would always have a room overlooking the streets named after him and Gracie. He said this always made him feel closer to her. Real love doesn't die just because somebody has been dead for decades. When true love strikes, it stays until the last survivor joins the departed in heaven.

[quote]As much as he looked forward to reaching the age of 100, Burns also stated, about a year before he died, that he also looked forward to death, saying that on the day he would die, he would be with Gracie again in Heaven. Upon being interred with Gracie, the crypt's marker was changed from, "Grace Allen Burns-Beloved Wife And Mother (1902–1964)" to "Gracie Allen (1902–1964) & George Burns (1896–1996)-Together Again". George had said that he wanted Gracie to have top billing.

What was she like out of character? Ive never seen an interview with her, are there any?

Great thread. Gracie and I share a birthday, and we both share with Vivian Vance and Mick Jagger...!

Wouldnt it be weird if Lucy had scooped up Bea Benaderet as she wanted for the part of Ethel, and Vivian Vance would up playing Blanche Morton, and shared a birthday with Gracie Allen?

R36 Who knows, maybe the Vivian Vance troll would’ve been the Bea Benaderet troll if that had happened.

Who?

Bea as Ethel and Gale Gordon as Fred would have been a completely different show - and certainly not the classic that the chemistry between Ball & Arnaz and Vance & Frawley created.

But yes the Bea troll will disagree.....and not to put too fine a point on it.....Vivian was pretty....Bea.....not so much.

Really? I dont think Vivian Vance was better looking than Bea Benaderet. And that's an objective opinion from someone who loves both.

I think Vivian as Vivian was prettier than Bea - Vivan as Ethel less so.

Not a great beauty but not bad either

Also Gracie knew when to quit and went out on top, she never had a failure like the sad Life With Lucy, staining her legacy.

Ohhhh, what a marriage......

George Burns was a compulsive womanizer, hard as it it to believe. He tried to fuck anything that moved. Hoe Gracie and the children they adopted dealt wit it is anyone's guess.

R44, see R7

R45, it wasn't a one time deal, it was a HABIT.

Or anything that Mame-ed her legacy...!

R39 Lucy wanted Bea and Gale, because they are already basically played the roles on radio. I Love Lucy, was basically set up as her "My Favorite Husband" radio show just putting Desi in the Richard Denning role. And, as we know from her subsequent shows Lucy liked to keep familiar people around her. I love Bea, but I think she was better used on Burns and Allen than she would have been on Lucy. Blanche was given more to do on her own than Ethel was. I'm also glad that Bea managed to go from second banana on B&A, to show stealing guest star on The Beverly Hillbillies, and finally getting to be the star of her own classic sitcom, Petticoat Junction, before her death.

When it comes to women in the business, both Gracie's and Lucy's legacies live on through The Gracie Awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation and The Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards presented by the Women in Film organization. Both were wonderful trailblazers but very different, Gracie was more of a verbal comic, while Lucy excelled at physical comedy.

Cannot stand I Love Lucy, but loves me some Burns & Allen.

There is an episode where Gracie goes to renew her drivers license which is a hoot!

Gracie Allen reminded me a bit of Vinnie Day (played by the great Irene Dunne) in Life With Father. Neither women were "stupid" or "dumb" by a long shot, they just knew how to get around their husbands (or anyone else) without them knowing how.

As team Gracie Allen and Bea Benaderet had Lucy and Ethel beat by a mile.

Many only know Bea Benaderet from her later role as the matron on Petticoat Junction. But she had a long and pretty good career, including voice over work. Betty Rubble in the Flintstones for a start, then there was that annoying Bobby Soxer in Little Red Riding Rabbit

When Bea got cancer, she was written out of the show. When her TV daughter gave birth on Petticoat Junction, a stand-in stood with her back to the camera, but it was Bea's voice saying the dialogue.

Anyone know why they kept replacing all the Harry Mortons on Burns and Allen?

R50 I'm not sure why Hal March left, but John Brown was blacklisted shortly after leaving, so that might have had something to do with it. He was followed by Fred Clark and according to the episode where he was replaced by Larry Keating, Clark left for a part on Broadway. That also happened to be the best change of actor transition I have ever seen.

From Wikipedia: " George walks on-stage and freezes the scene just before Harry's entrance and explains that Clark has left the show to perform on Broadway. He introduces Larry Keating, who enters, and then calls over Bea Benaderet to introduce the two saying, "This is Larry Keating and he is going to be your husband now". The pair greet and chat briefly, complimenting each other on their previous work. George remarks that if they are going to be so nice to each other, no one will believe they are married. Burns then gives a cue, Blanche resumes her position, and the scene continues where it stopped as if nothing had happened. The new Harry enters and Blanche hits him in the head with a catalog for spending $200 to buy an iron deer."

I've often had the idea that if someone would take some of the old radio shows like Burns & Allen or Jack Benny and animate them, they would probably have a hit show. They could start with an animated Christmas special, as a pilot. They could even take "My Favorite Husband" and animate it with something like the "I Love Lucy" stick figures and give Lucy one last good show, to wipe away "Life With Lucy" as her final and failed show.

Lucy and her I Love Lucy legendary comedy show will always be remembered while Gracie Allen is largely forgotten. Even George Burns is fading more and more into the mists of time.

George had one of the best comebacks in show business history -- after a long career, playing clubs and bits on TV until, at the age of nearly 80, he was cast (after Jack Benny died) in the film version of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys -- Burns' first movie in over 30 years -- and wins an Oscar for his performance!

And then he stayed at the top of his career for the next 20 years until passing at the age of 100.

Burns and Allen is hilarious put it is rarly found in syndication. Part of the issue is that, at least in the early seasons, the commercials are part of the show.

The character for Rose Nyland is basically a rip off on Gracie Allen- not just the stupidity but also talking about her large and crazy family.

They're on Antenna TV every morning at 6 AM for an hour and also weekend mornings as well.

Nicer, absolutely. More talented? Gracie was the very definition of “one-trick pony.” Her shtick didn’t wear all that well. It was fine in movies, where it might be once or twice a year, if that. But on a weekly basis? Excruciating.

Lucy had a lot more colors and variety to her own one-trick.

I disagree. The Burns and Allen show is widely considered to have gotten better and stronger as it went along-- its last two seasons (7 and 8) are considered it's best. Over 300 episodes were produced, and CBS begged her to continue the show, but she wanted to retire, and did so at the top of her game.

Lucy petered out after the first fivish seasons because people as her repeated schtick (which I agree at its best and freshest was brilliant as was she) got tired. Those Connecticut episodes and the Lucy Desi comedy hour--talk about excruciating! Then the long slow decline with the forgettable Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and the dreadful Life With Lucy.

That was incredibly touching R33. Thanks for that. I loved Gracie and I also disagree with R57. In fact, I feel quite the opposite - it was the same styled routine but she always seemed so genuine and sincere it always seemed fresh to me. It took me longer to warm up to and appreciate Burns, he actually had the harder job but his timing and delivery was great.

R57 doesn't get the brilliance of what Gracie could do. Luckily George did, as once he realized that she was the funny one, not him, they switched roles (pardon if this has been mentioned above). George always thought he was the funny one. But no one, not Lucy nor anyone else, could top Gracie for getting an audience to laugh, sometimes just with a puzzled look.

She was the best comedienne of the twentieth century. Bar none.

Lucille Ball admitted in interviews in her later years that she wasn't naturally funny. She was great at physical comedy and could deliver on the scripts written for her. Gracie had a great, natural comedic ability. I get a couple of laughs from an I Love Lucy episode but I get way more from a Burns and Allen show. My understanding is that she stopped doing the show in 1958 because she was already in the early stages of heart failure. The rest of the cast did one season of the George Burns show without bombed without Gracie. She died of a heart attack a few years later.

Gracie's tomb in Forest Lawn shows a birth date of 1902. She was born in San Francisco and the records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. But when the 1900 federal census became available, it revealed that Gracie had actually been born in 1895 - she was a year older than George.

Gracie’s comedy was so believable because she was very ‘method’ in her acting. She actually performed the ‘business’ she had during her scenes and it reads in her dialogue delivery. She also didn’t break character when off camera. She gave interviews as her character because she thought the the fans were fans of the ditsy Gracie they saw on the screen and not the real Gracie Allen.

What made Gracie's character much more interesting than Lucy's for me is that she wasn't a "madcapped wife" - she was CRAZY. In the TV program (not the radio one), George doesn't berate her or try to reason with her because he knows she's absolutely out of her mind. That's what make the show for me.

This was done as a joke, but considering what we're dealing with these days ...

[quote]But on a weekly basis? Excruciating.

Obviously, most people alive at the time would have disagreed. They had a weekly hit radio show from 1932-1950, followed by a tv show until 1958. So America spent 26 years with Gracie Allen as a weekly fixture.

Fred Clark was a hoot in DL fave film "Auntie Mame" as Mr. Babcock.

George Burns and Gracie Allen, later just GB kept vaudeville alive far longer than many would have believed.

Was Harry Von Zell GAY ?

I dunno, but never understood why he was considered some sort of hunk, or even remotely handsome. Maybe standards were lower in that part of 1950's California. *LOL*

Speaking of old-time radio stars ... TCM is showing TWO "Great Gildersleeve" movies today.

So Gracie was actually almost 70 when she died, instead of 61-62.

[quote]Lucy petered out after the first fivish seasons because people as her repeated schtickgot tired. Those Connecticut episodes and the Lucy Desi comedy hour--talk about excruciating!

Naw. She hardly "petered out" when the show was still a huge hit when she and Desi pulled the plug after six seasons (going to the "Comedy Hour" format). And some of the Connecticut episodes are gold, especially the tango/eggs episode, the visit to Broadway, and the one with the wax flowers. Plus the Tallulah episode of the Comedy Hour.

Could watch this all day!

Always loved how GB always broke the Fourth Wall.

When Bea Benaderet laughs you can just close your eyes and see Betty Rubble.

Ronnie Burns & Robert Vaughn, they almost could be twins.

One thing I like best about Blanche and Harry Morton, is the way they were always running George down, criticizing him, mocking him… And then having to eat crow by the end

Love listening to stuff like this on sirius radio classics.

I have SiriusXM do they have a set schedule for these?

r78 See the link. SiriusXM channel 148.

I wish I could’ve lived in that era, and worn trousers up to my tits. Said no one on this board ever.

Thanks r79

Does anyone know if there are any good interviews with Gracie Allen available anywhere? I have never seen how she acts outside of her Gracie character.

Oh no R80! I bet if you scootched down you could get a nice nipple rub from your belt.

George Burns' thing was that he was a no-talent and bad singer, like below, and how he'd be nowhere without Gracie. After he made a solid comeback in the 1970s, when Burns sang, people, especially younger people, didn't know what to make of it. Audiences applauded politely. Gracie was never mentioned in his act. I thought he was a total bore. His only purpose was to set up Gracie on the Burns and Allen show. I'm appalled that Gracie Allen is now referred to as "George Burns' wife." I heard Letterman say that once.

Gracie & Ellie....

Gracie and George and Fred Astaire. Gracie had a pleasant singing voice and could dance (as could George). They learned a lot while touring in vaudeville. Here's some of the famous funhouse sequence from "Damsel in Distress". There's another number in the film where George and Gracie really keep up with Fred in the dancing department, too.

The other number is the dance to “Put Me to the Test,” r85. The lyric is never sung. The dance is quite cute.

Gracie, made up like Mae West, with a chorus of “Marx Brothers” & an audience of film star doppelgängers

It'd kill ya to link it, r86?

>>After he made a solid comeback in the 1970s, when Burns sang, people, especially younger people, didn't know what to make of it. Audiences applauded politely.

R83, you can't have it both ways -- comebacks don't happen (or last) if audiences only "applaud politely."

He was on top, arguably at the very peak of his popularity (and this in a career that lasted over 70 years) , from 1974 to his death in 1996.

Gracie had one blue eye and one green.

Just like Perry Mason, Burns and Allen did one color episode, the first episode of their fifth season.

George and Gracie in 1929

The routine with the whisk brooms at r88 was created by George and Gracie as their audition for Fred Astaire. Astaire was so enchanted by them and their routine, that he asked them to teach him, and he put it in the movie.

r87 Was that Robert Young as the conductor?

Theres a Burns and Allen marathon on Antenna TV right now

Can't we love them both OP? Why is everything a competition and binary in the USA?

USA! USA! USA!

Neither could hold a candle to America’s Queen of Comedy, Joan Davis!

I'm watching it now, R95.

OP- The magician in your video is TUBBY and wears his pants OVER HIS HEAD just like FRED MERTZ.

Nice r99 me too. I love the episodes with Mrs. Sohmers

Yes, R101, Doris Packer always plays those rich ladies so great! She hilarious.

Both shows seem pretty dated and contrived now. Both recycled stuff from radio and gags that probably went back to vaudeville. As noted up thread, Gracie was a nicer person. She also only needed George to be funny and sometimes not even him, whereas Lucy would have been unlikable without Ethel and the situations couldn’t exist without Ricky or Ethel.

Both shows hold up beautifully for exactly what they are, classic groundbreaking sitcoms from TVs first Golden Age featuring two of the 20th centurys funniest most talented female comedy stars.

Love Gracie, she is a comedic genius. I found this interesting clip where B&A appear on The Jack Benny Show as Jack fills in for Gracie, in drag no less. Gracie shows up at the end, sees Jack in drag thinking George is cheating on her.

Another interesting clip where Lucille Ball does Gracie's act with George Burns. Coincidently, Jack Benny does some of the same jokes that Lucy does. So, who did it better?

Here is Madeline Khan doing Gracie's jokes. Sorry. I love Madeline, but she's no Gracie.

R69 , I've thought that myself . Nice looking , but not gorgeous. I believe he was never married. He makes my loins quiver .