Topic: Abbott and Costello Show - Season 1 Ep. 10 The Charity Bazzar (1953)

[metaldams]

      No plot, all fun, that’s pretty much what The Charity Bazzar is.  A simple excuse for Bud and Lou to do familiar routines at a carnival for charity.  The only bit outside in the apartment is Lou telling Hillary some sob stories from his childhood.  Hilariously, by the time Lou tells Hillary that his older brother bathed him with his face down in the water, she calls Lou a jackass and calls him out on his tall tales.  It really works because usually Hillary is a character who would go along with it all.

      The carnival routines are really the simple reason to watch this episode.  The king bee/queen bee routine, just like IN THE NAVY, I swear Bud and Lou are having genuine fun doing this routine.  If not, they’re doing a great job of selling it like they are with the laughter and smiles between spits.  It’s always been this aspect that sold this routine for me.

      Lou kissing the girl for charity is the PG version of the world’s oldest profession.  Sadly can’t imagine a comedian doing this one today, but Lou’s reactions and taking the money out of the purse of her earnings to steal another kiss are all fun takes on a typical Bud and Lou money grabbing routine.

      Joe Besser.  Mr. Stinky himself.  That oversized sheriff’s badge had me in stitches.  Always a pleasure to to see Joe as Stinky, doing an oversimplified cops and robbers routine as if he’s hyped up on jolt cola and amphetamines.  Again, one of the few people on the planet who makes a straight man out of Lou Costello.

      Oh, but the highlight of this episode is the old army game.  May be done better here by Bud and Lou than ever before.  I mean, not only does Bud gyp Lou of his money, but Lou is so gaslighted he gyps himself out of his own money! Lou’s honesty when Mr. Fields guesses the right number and he again loses his own money is also a great touch.  But Bud doing his con man routine and getting Lou angry is really milked out wonderfully here, just a pure masterclass of two comedians gelling together.  Watching this routine, I can’t help but think of W.C. Fields and how it’s a shame he didn’t live long enough to be on television.  I really bet he would have succeeded. 

     Just a simple and hysterical episode here, always has been one of my favorites.

[Umbrella Sam]

Another fun episode overall, even though the beginning is a bit slow. Joe Besser is of course fun as Stinky in his small role and the Buzzing the Bee routine, as usual, is fun mostly due to Bud and Lou clearly having trouble holding in their own laughter. The lemon game routine is done well here and Sid Fields is a perfect choice for the other customer. But this is another example where I think THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR version is superior; they’re both similar in structure, with the COLGATE version even including the “number between 1 and 10” routine. As with most COLGATE versions, Bud and Lou have a ton of energy that’s really hard to match in other versions, most likely due to the fact that it was done in front of a live audience, which can be a huge guiding factor in how a routine is done. This one follows what they did that night closely and, again, is still good, but the energy pales in comparison, probably because they were trying to replicate it without a live audience to guide how strong their performances were. Regardless, this is still a fun episode that, as with other episodes, makes these classic routines easily available in a half hour format.

[metaldams]

…really gotta explore that Colgate Comedy Hour stuff more.

[NoahYoung]

Only made it up to this episode?  I last visited the site about a year and a half ago.
I never rewatched all the episodes again myself, either -- just a select few. Too many other things to watch that I've never seen before.
I do remember this being one of the better episodes, though.

[NoahYoung]

I can’t help but think of W.C. Fields and how it’s a shame he didn’t live long enough to be on television.  I really bet he would have succeeded. 

Well, he actually did live long enough, but I know what you mean. Without looking up the details, i know from "A Plumbing We Will Go" that people had TV sets as early as 1940, the year after Fields made "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man." I'm not sure how many comedy/variety shows existed before the 50s, though.

I believe the first televised baseball game was in 1939.

Sorta like how the Internet existed long before the masses (The Hoi Polloi!) actually knew about it, and before it was actually commonly called the Internet. I was using email in the mid-80s.
 

How many people owned a VCR before the 80s, although I believe you could buy one as early as 1976 (Sony Betamax), and perhaps before that?

[Tony Bensley]

Well, he actually did live long enough, but I know what you mean. Without looking up the details, i know from "A Plumbing We Will Go" that people had TV sets as early as 1939, the year Fields made "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man." I'm not sure how many comedy/variety shows existed before the 50s, though.

I believe the first televised baseball game was in 1937.

Sorta like how the Internet existed long before the masses (The Hoi Polloi!) actually knew about it, and before it was actually commonly called the Internet. I was using email in the mid-80s.
 

How many people owned a VCR before the 80s, although I believe you could buy one as early as 1976 (Sony Betamax), and perhaps before that?

Around the mid 1960s is the earliest instance of anyone outside the entertainment industry owning some form of home TV video recorder I can recall reading about. I'm sure it was quite rare and ultra expensive!

This Wikipedia page confirms the above:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocassette_recorder

CHEERS! 

[NoahYoung]

Around the mid 1960s is the earliest instance of anyone outside the entertainment industry owning some form of home TV video recorder I can recall reading about. I'm sure it was quite rare and ultra expensive!

This Wikipedia page confirms the above:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videocassette_recorder

CHEERS! 

Cool!

I'm hanging on to my last working VCR -- I threw a few out a few years ago. Thing is, if you eject in the middle of a tape, the tape sometimes get caught on something and you have to manually reel it up again. Not sure why.

On the other hand, I find that anything I recorded on tape years ago can usually be easily watched on streaming services I already have, or for free somewhere on the web. Oh yea, and in better quality, lol.

Anyway, Fields probably could have appeared on TV, but he stuck with film and radio. He missed the years when TV became household mainstays -- like the VCR in the 80s.