The Great Old Radio Shows - Jack Benny's Neighbor, Ronald Colman

For the two and a half decades The Jack Benny Show was on radio, Benny and his writers came up with some of the most beloved gags of the era.

And they mined them like gold.

Just a few of the ongoing jokes were:

Benny's vault
Jack the miser
Jack's old Maxwell automobile
Now boarding on Track 9 for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga
Mel Blanc's famous Si. Sy. So. Sue.
Phil Harris' love affair with the bottle
And of course there were many more.

One of Jack's favorite bits, and I dare say mine, was the ongoing relationship between Jack and his "next door neighbors," Ronald Colman and Benita Hume (the real life Mrs. Colman).

The Colmans first guest starred on the show in 1945. They played Jack's neighbors, a prop that had been mentioned on prior shows but never actually dramatized. The episode was so popular (you can hear it on my blog) that the Colmans were called back several times that season and for the next several seasons after that.

The gag, of course, was that Ronald and Benita Colman were a proper British couple: Very refined and very reserved in their manners and social graces.

Benny was - well, Benny. He constantly borrowed items from his neighbors and Mr. Colman quietly seethed at the audacity of Benny's miserly ways.

Looking out the front window, Colman regularly observed not only the spectacle next door, but also Jack's antics in the neighborhood. He was constantly bewildered by the way Benny was followed around by his group of "dimwitted" friends, especially "that Phil Harris fellow."

Mr. Colman, much too much the proper English gentleman, could never actually be rude and tell Benny what he thought. Instead, he dumped all his frustrations on his his poor, long suffering wife Benita - who constantly got an ear full.

And as the third person in the room, so did we.

Jack, of course, was completely oblivious to Colman's attitude. Benny considered himself equal to, or superior, to the Colman's on every level: as an actor, as a star, in his social life... well, you get the picture.

The results were hilarious.

One of the funniest great old radio shows, hands down, was The Jack Benny Show. And of all the episodes in my collection, the shows featuring Ronald Colman and Benita Hume as Jack's neighbors are my absolute favorites. They are still laugh out loud funny!

Article written by Robert Bro