History Trivia / TheJackBennyProgram

* TheDanza: Most of the main cast, with the exception of Rochester (real name Eddie Anderson), Mary Livingstone (Sadie Marks, though she later had it legally changed to match her character) and Dennis Day (Gene [=McNulty=]). Creator/MelBlanc is a semi-example as "Professor [=LeBlanc=]".

** Also a generous person.

* {{Corpsing}}: There are many times when Jack tries and fails to not lose it during especially funny moments. More often than not he can thank Mel Blanc for making him lose it, particularly whenever they did the "Si Sy" routine. In addition to Jack, Don and Mary were also notorious for corpsing, especially when either of them flubbed their lines.

* TropeNamer: For ImThinkingItOver.

* TalkingToHimself: One episode featured Jack and Rochester taking a road trip to Palm Springs. A scene in a gas station featured Mel Blanc playing the gas station attendant, as well as providing voice overs for the Maxwell's motor and Polly, Jack's parrot.

** When Dick Van Dyke guest-starred on the show they did a skit involving a murder mystery. Jack was the inspector and Dick was everyone else.

* WeirdAlEffect: WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons' homage of Frank Nelson is far, far better-known among younger generations than the man himself is.
** And before that, at least one generation knew him more from WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes than from the original show.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Jack's TV show ended because one network executive decided that he was too old for television and told the network to cancel his show immediately.

* ThePeteBest: Several people from the early history of the show. Don Bestor, Johnny Green, Frank Parker. The best example is his writer Harry Conn. Harry Conn was Jack's writer until mid-1936, when he claimed that Jack had no talent of his own and all of his laughs came from his head. Coupled with his wife making a similar remark to Jack's wife Mary Livingstone (i.e., that Mary could only afford her fur stole through Conn's talent), Jack offered him a substantial raise, but Conn demanded equal pay. As a result, he was fired and left Jack without a script. Jack hired two writers named Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, who greatly refined the show's humor and the characters into what we recognize until the end of the show. Harry Conn barely wrote anything after leaving the show and wound up as a doorman.

** Before Phil Harris, many noted bandleaders of the day provided the music for the show, among them George Olsen, Ted Weems, Frank Black, Don Bestor, Johnny Green and Jimmie Grier. Harris was himself replaced by Bob Crosby (Bing's brother) when the show moved to CBS.
** Dennis Day, who had taken the place of Kenny Baker, Michael Bartlett, Frank Parker and James Melton, was replaced by Larry Stevens during his stint in the Navy, between November 1944 and March 1946.

* WeirdAlEffect: WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons' riff on Frank Nelson is far, far better-known among younger generations than the man himself is.

* MarathonRunning: On Dec 31 2011/Jan 1st 2012 Digital channel Creator/AntennaTV ran "Night of 2012 Laughs" a 20 hour marathon of ''Series/TheJackBennyProgram'' alternating with ''Series/TheBurnsAndAllenShow''.

** Dennis Day, who had taken the place of Kenny Baker, Michael Bartlett, Frank Parker and James Melton, was replaced by Larry Stevens during his stint in the Navy.

* TalkingToHimself: One episode featured Jack and Rochester taking a road trip to Palm Springs. A scene in a gas station featured Mel Blanc playing the gas station attendent, as well as providing voice overs for the Maxwell's motor and Polly, Jack's parrot.

** The channel hop also affected Phil Harris' show: For a time, Harris would try to "commute" between NBC and CBS (easy to do as the buildings were very close together) to do Benny's on the latter and his own show on the former. However, NBC got fed up, and demanded he choose -- his own show, or Benny's. When he chose his own show, the character of Frankie Remley (a real-life member of Benny's backing orchestra, but played on Harris' show by Eliott Lewis) ended up getting a forced rename, as the character proper belonged to Benny's show -- the expedient solution being to turn Lewis into TheDanza and have the character go under the name "Eliott Lewis."
* TheDanza: Most of the main cast, with the exception of Rochester (real name Eddie Anderson) and Mary Livingston (Sadie Marks, though she later had it legally changed to match her character). Creator/MelBlanc is a semi-example as "Professor [=LeBlanc=]".

* TheOtherDarrin: Before Phil Harris, many noted bandleaders of the day provided the music for the show, among them George Olsen, Ted Weems, Frank Black, Don Bestor, Johnny Green and Jimmie Grier. Harris was himself replaced by Bob Crosby (Bing's brother) when the show moved to CBS.

* ThePeteBest: Several people from the early history of the show. Don Bestor, Johnny Green, Frank Parker. The best example is his writer Harry Conn. Harry Conn was Jack's writer until mid-1936, when he claimed that Jack had no talent of his own and all of his laughs came from his head. Coupled with his wife making a similar remark to Jack's wife Mary Livingstone (i.e., that Mary could only afford her fur stole through Conn's talent), he was fired and left Jack without a script. Jack hired two writers named Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, who greatly refined the show's humor and the characters into what we recognize until the end of the show. Harry Conn barely wrote anything after leaving the show and wound up as a doorman.

--> '''Jack''' Polly! You sounded just like Professor Le Blanc!

--> '''Jack''' Come to think of it, you look just like Professor Le Blanc, too...

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Jack Benny WAS this trope. His radio persona was a vainglorious petty miser, who wasn't above taking advantage of his close friends and cast if he could get away with it. Jack Benny, in RealLife, Jack was universally known as a kind and very generous man.
** In fact, DickCavett paid Benny a posthumous tribute by remarking that after most celebrities died, stories would come out of the woodwork about the deceased's peccadilloes, meanness or other faults. Benny was so universally loved in Hollywood that no one had a nasty thing to say about him after he died.

* TheDanza: Most of the main cast, with the exception of Rochester (real name Eddie Anderson) and Mary Livingston (Sadie Marks, though she later had it legally changed to match her character). MelBlanc is a semi-example as "Professor [=LeBlanc=]".