THE JACK BENNY SHOW Mixture of sketches and musical guests starring deadpan comedian Jack Benny. 1950-1965 CBS

Having spent almost two decades as a top radio personality, Jack Benny made the smooth transition to television in 1950, in a series of specials. These were the foundation for a regular -once a month- Sunday night-time slot from 1952 to a bi-weekly series the following year.

Benny's radio persona and therefore the format of the show was transferred to the small screen completely intact along with his legendary stinginess (he supposedly had a basement vault where he kept his money), his insistence on being no older than 39, his ancient automobile, Maxwell, and his ineptness at playing the violin. Added to that were Jack's famous pregnant pauses where he would weigh-up a given situation until resolving it with an exasperated "Well-". Jack added a few more touches for the visual medium including a prancing walk, a hand held to his cheek and a long numbed look of total disbelief whenever he was faced by one of life's little traumas.

Also transferring from the radio series were Jack Benny's family of players; Mary Livingstone (aka Mrs Jack Benny), Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Artie Auerbach, Frank Nelson and Mel Blanc -the master of a thousand Warner Brother cartoon voices. But perhaps the most celebrated of these supporting artistes was Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson who started out on the radio series as a Pullman porter (making only occasional appearances) until being 'promoted' to Jack's somewhat insolent valet and in the process becoming the highest-paid black actor on US TV at that time.

The format of the shows was part variety and part sitcom and boasted a veritable who's who of guest stars, including; Bob Hope, George Burns, Phil Silvers, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. 343 shows were made but of these only 104 were recorded on film and are therefore available today.