Topic: The Abbott and Costello Show - Season 1, Ep. 3 - Jail

[metaldams]

I think this is the episode.  A lot of the videos online have the wrong episode even though they’re labeled episode 3.  This episode is not 52 minutes, I think the second half is just extraneous stuff.  If anybody can find the right episode in a cleaner manner, post it here.  The episode ends at 26:13 in this video.
   

      Episode number three, JAIL is upon us.  This time, the opening stage banter between Bud and Lou is much briefer than the previous two episodes.  We get a short and sweet a greenhouse is also a white house wordplay followed by setting up the plot to the episode.  One thing I want to say is I notice how Seinfeld was really influenced by THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW.  One way is the opening.  Bud and Lou always start on stage, as does Jerry Seinfeld with his stand up routines.  In my opinion, much stronger openings with Bud and Lou, as the stand up routines in SEINFELD are the weakest part of an otherwise funny show.  But nonetheless, one way I can see Bud and Lou’s influence.

      After the brief stage banter, we get back to back confrontations involving Lou and various townspeople.  First we get a nice pastry bit with the immortal Mr. Bacciagalupe then ends with a lemon pie being thrown in Lou’s face - except it misses Lou and hits Mike the Cop.  Then right away, we get a woman on the street who accuses Lou of being too personal when he offers a greeting only to offer all her vital information during her rant.  This is directly followed by a woman mistakes Lou for her husband talking to another woman.  All of these confrontations are fast paced, one after the other and feel like water boiling with the lid falling off by the end.  Wonderful comedy.

      After all this, we get Lou with Hillary.  Hillary is wearing a sun suit and wants Lou to put oil on her back and shoulders.  To quote Frank Zappa, “Great Googly Moogly.”  As Lou is living the dream, it’s a chance for him to be awkward and jittery around Hillary, another funny aspect of his character.  He then accidentally sprays Hillary with water and Hillary gets mad at Lou.  This leads to her getting a watery revenge, which then also spreads to Lou’s neighbor and once again - Mike the Cop.  Poor Mike, always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

     After some funny business with Lou and gardening, him and Bud get into a confrontation with their neighbor over the property rights over oranges and a ruined pail.  All Lou has to do is pay 79 cents to settle, but prideful Bud refuses for him and this gets exaggerated into a court case.

     After Sid Fields plays a sleazy lawyer who is anything but in Lou’s side, we get some nice court action.  Sid and Bud continue to be stubborn about Lou settling and we get a nice familiar routine.  Curly and Buster weren’t the only ones to take the stand or take off their hat according to a judge’s command.  A nice play on the gag here as when the judge asks the defendant to take off his hat, Lou asks whoever is in the audience to take off their hat.  He’s too stupid to know he’s the defendant!  We also get the sanity clause/santy claus pun from NIGHT AT THE OPERA from The Marx Brothers.

      Lou of course winds up in jail, because the title doesn’t lie.  Again, all because Bud refuses for him to pay the 79 cents!  Sid Fields gets a dual role and we get Niagara Falls!  This gag was also done in LOST IN A HAREM.  Having just watched the Stooge version recently, I notice this version is much more drawn out.  Nice bit where Lou asks Sid about the kid he’s describing and Lou determines he must be the son.  When Curly gets hit, there’s very much a Stooge like rhythm involved, like all their slapstick.  In this case, that rhythm is gone and Sid just mauls Lou, giving Lou a chance to do his great screams.  Both versions compliment their respective comedians well.

      Another fun episode that catalogs a lot of great gags without the excess of the features.  Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is Lou’s only version of the take the stand/take off your hat gag - or am I forgetting something?

[Freddie Sanborn]

Responding to your question about release order, Jack Theakston’s blog posts when he was prepping the Blu-ray release of the 35mm masters of this show, touch on this.

They were shot in bunches of six simultaneously. In other words, all of the scenes in the apartment set for the first six episodes were shot, then they would shoot all of street scenes with Besser. Then repeat with the next batch of six.

Since the show was syndicated, stations could buy the series package whenever and show them in whichever order they wanted.

Thus there was no continuity and, true to the Seinfeld ethic, no learning-no growth.

[metaldams]

Responding to your question about release order, Jack Theakston’s blog posts when he was prepping the Blu-ray release of the 35mm masters of this show, touch on this.

They were shot in bunches of six simultaneously. In other words, all of the scenes in the apartment set for the first six episodes were shot, then they would shoot all of street scenes with Besser. Then repeat with the next batch of six.

Since the show was syndicated, stations could buy the series package whenever and show them in whichever order they wanted.

Thus there was no continuity and, true to the Seinfeld ethic, no learning-no growth.

I’m curious as to how long the six episode sessions were.  That’s interesting trivia, I’ll have to hunt down that blog.

[Freddie Sanborn]

I’ve been hunting too, and this thread from Nitrateville posted by co-restored Bob Furmanek tells the story. Batches of six or seven were filmed in ten days each. He attached some of the daily production reports in the thread. https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=31701

[HomokHarcos]

"How can a greenhouse be white?" That's the short of childish logic and question that Lou plays perfectly. Even though it's brief, that is my favorite stage routine so far. I think Jerry Seinfeld did mention being influenced by the Abbott and Costello Show.

The scene where Lou is offered pie but doesn't realize it is not free up to the women getting angry and hitting him, is all fast paced humor. He can't catch a break just walking the streets.

I like the whole story from when Lou attacks the women to when he ends up in jail. We get another example of Bud manipulating Lou into a worse scenario, all he has to do is pay the old lady 79 cents and she won't press charges, but instead Bud convinces him that he should argue his innocence (although he was clearly shooting at her). The courtroom stuff is great, because Lou makes a fool of himself when he's on the stand. I laughed when the judge invited him to the bar, and Costello responded that he doesn't drink. In jail we have a scene that was already done by Abbott and Costello, but they use the same phrase that The Three Stooges did, "Niagara Falls." The greedy lawyer who urged Lou to not take the settlement offer even gets his comeuppance!

These episodes are really short and fun.

[Umbrella Sam]

First of all, let me say I agree that the stage stuff on SEINFELD was always the weakest part of the episodes. While it did arguably give him a unique framing device compared to other sitcoms of that period, I rarely found myself invested in it.

This episode starts with a greenhouse routine, which is very funny. When they get to the actual plot, though, it does take a while to really get anywhere. The gag with Bacciagalupe is a bit too drawn out in my opinion and the gardening bits never really go anywhere either. It’s not until after Hillary leaves where the episode actually does start to get good. The whole “plot” revolves around Costello getting into an argument with Elvia Allman, who as usual is a great adversary. Sid Fields plays two roles: a corrupt lawyer who seems determined to lose the case to spite Lou, and a fellow prisoner. Yes, the “take the stand” gag is from DISORDER IN THE COURT and Lou does it pretty well. The “take off your hat” bit was good too, especially since Lou is unaware that he’s the problem. Probably my favorite part is when Costello is getting consistently more mad as Fields makes ridiculous statements and insanity pleas, and, yes, we do get to see his take the “Sanity Claus” bit. In my opinion, the “Niagara Falls” routine does feel a bit weaker compared to the LOST IN A HAREM and COLGATE COMEDY HOUR versions, but it’s still a good routine and it’s nice to see Fields take a shot at it.

In my opinion, the weakest episode so far, but there’s still enough to like about it to make up for the weaker moments.

[Umbrella Sam]

To quote Frank Zappa, “Great Googly Moogly.”

You learn something new every day. For years, I thought this line was made specifically for PHINEAS AND FERB.

[metaldams]

I’ve been hunting too, and this thread from Nitrateville posted by co-restored Bob Furmanek tells the story. Batches of six or seven were filmed in ten days each. He attached some of the daily production reports in the thread. https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=31701

One thing that struck me hitting that link - a lot of this footage was shot in May and June of 1951!  I think the first episode of this aired in what, late 1952?  There are similar situations with a few Stooge shorts as well.