The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show..

[topcat]

HI-LARIOUS!! Anybody here fans of this one too, great comedic writing.
Good health to all from Rexall!!

 

[undertaker]

I love Phil Harris on his show and the Jack Benny program. If I'm not mistaken he is from Nashville, Tn. Maybe that's why I like him so well.

Regards,
J.S.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The writing on this show was what really made it work -- the format was created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who were working for Amos 'n' Andy at the same time, and there are some interesting paralells between both of those series: Phil = Andy, Remley = The Kingfish, and Alice = Amos (!). But the best writing team for Phil and Alice was Ray Singer and Dick Chevillait -- who took the characterizations laid out by Connelly and Mosher and made them even more exaggerated: Remley was not only a bum in their scripts, he was **the biggest bum who ever lived.** If postwar radio comedy was all about characterization to the extreme, the Harris-Faye show was the ultimate example.

This same kind of deadpanned exaggeration shows up years later in Chevillait's work for "Green Acres" on TV -- so if you enjoy both those programs, there's the common link.

 

[davew]

Howdy all! My first post!

Phil had one of the all time great Xmas shows as well,where Jack Benny comes over to play Santa Claus : Little boy--"Whats under that white wig?"
Jack Benny--"A brown one".

 

[Sunny]

My favorite comedy ever! :eusa_clap

My admiration for Elliott Lewis (Frankie Remley) just about tripled when I found out what else he did. Besides producing/directing ("Broadway Is My Beat" comes to mind), he was stellar as Captain Phil Carney in "The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen." I can't imagine two more different parts, but he's just perfect for both. And now I can recognize his voice in other shows, even when he's not credited. I've been listening to "Suspense" lately, and he's been showing up in various part. I even recognized him in "The Dunwich Horror" episode, in which he plays a moronic half-human, half- Well, something!

It makes an all the more piquant contrast when compared to the fantastic Frankie Remley.

 

[52Styleline]

The writing on this show was what really made it work -- the format was created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who were working for Amos 'n' Andy at the same time, and there are some interesting paralells between both of those series: Phil = Andy, Remley = The Kingfish, and Alice = Amos (!). But the best writing team for Phil and Alice was Ray Singer and Dick Chevillait -- who took the characterizations laid out by Connelly and Mosher and made them even more exaggerated: Remley was not only a bum in their scripts, he was **the biggest bum who ever lived.** If postwar radio comedy was all about characterization to the extreme, the Harris-Faye show was the ultimate example.

This same kind of deadpanned exaggeration shows up years later in Chevillait's work for "Green Acres" on TV -- so if you enjoy both those programs, there's the common link.

Wow! I was unaware of all of those connections. It almost makes me no longer feel ashamed of enjoying Green Acreslol. Now if you will excuse me, I will go and have a helping of Hots Cakes.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Anyone have any of the Phil Harris CD's that have been released? I am not talking about the radio show but his big band cuts.

Phil is my favorite part of the Benny show!

 

[Bill Taylor]

We used to frequent a San Francisco restaurant and bar out toward Hunter's Point that was sort of the "in" unknown place everyone went to. Phil Harris and Alice Faye always went to that establishment when they were in San Francisco, smoking about 10 cigarettes a minute and the same number of martinis. The owners were close friends of theirs'. Anyway, once, about 1987 or 1988 when we were there, someone mentioned that it was my birthday. Phil Harris got up, went over to bar and shortly returned with a bottle of Cab as a birthday present and Phil Harris and Alice Faye wrote the date, happy birthday, Bill and each signed it on the label.

I still have the bottle of wine, unopened. Just don't have the balls to open it and probably never will. It's more of a treasure than a bottle of wine. I alway liked Alice Faye's movies and her singing was terrific. Those low notes would just reverberate. Love "Hello, Frisco, Hello" and even the Shirley Temple movies she was in. Her records were good, too. I can't remember the label she recorded for. Probably Decca, they had the good stuff.

Bill

 

[topcat]

How about that? What a class act Phil and Alice were onscreen and off.
I have some o' Phil's cds, like 'em,like'em.
"Necessity"'s an interestin number.

Any fav episode of the radio show,anyone have?
The tv audition with Phil and Remley trying to be tv detectives is hilarious.
N'other good one with Phil having trouble at the dmv.
The way Harris panics in despair over giving blood,Remley and Julius
sing"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"...as Phil makes his way to the appointment.

I personally love every episode I've heard of this show.