About this episode
⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This podcast discusses a 1960 episode of The Jack Benny Program in which a character shoots himself offscreen. 🎄 Join us as we second-, third-, and fourth-guess ourselves back to 1960 to go Christmas shopping with Jack Benny, the last televised version of a longtime radio favorite. **** 🎙 Guest: Guy Hutchinson ( GuyHutchinson.com , Drunk On Disney Podcast , @GuyHutchinson ). **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: 1. The Television Academy Foundation’s page on Jack Benny’s Christmas Shopping show , including a video interview with show writer George Balzer. 2. The earliest Christmas Shopping variant I could find, from 1937 . 3. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, the progression of race relations , and his racehorse . 4. Finally I get to talk about Mel Blanc , the real star of this show. 5. Adjusting the $1.98 and $40 wallets for inflation. 6. A 2002 message board post on JackBenny.org answering whether Jack was a practicing Jew . 7. A tribute to Frank “Yeees?” Nelson . 8. Dennis Day and the dying practice of actors legally changing their names to their most popular characters’. 9. Stupid “the customer is always right” stories. **** 📼 Retro Commercial Break: Norelco Santa (circa 1961). **** 🎤 And Now, These Messages: Weird Christmas . “The Jack Benny Program” and “Jack Goes Christmas Shopping” ©1960 J&M Productions, Inc. Say hi on Twitter and Instagram . Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house . Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .