Burns and Allen

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Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen.

Burns wrote most of the material, and played the straight man. Allen played a silly, addleheaded woman, a role often attributed to the "Dumb Dora" stereotype common in early 20th Century vaudeville comedy. Both attributed their success to the other, to the ends of their lives. Early on, the team had played the opposite roles until they noticed that the audience was laughing at Gracie's straight lines, so they made the change.

Burns and Allen developed their popular routine over more than three decades of stage, radio, film, and television. Historians of popular culture have often stated that Allen was a brilliant comedian, whose entire career consisted of engaging in dialogues of "illogical logic" that left her verbal opponents dazed and confused, and her audiences in stitches. During a typical 23-minute episode of the Burns and Allen show, the vast majority of the dialogue and speaking parts were written for Allen, who was credited with having the genius to deliver her lengthy diatribes in a fashion that made it look as though she was making her arguments up on the spot. One running gag on the TV show was the existence of a closet full of hats belonging to various visitors to the Burns household, where the guests would slip out the door unnoticed, leaving their hats behind, rather than face another round with Gracie. Another running gag showed George watching all the action (standing outside the proscenium arch in early live episodes; watching the show on TV in his study at the end of the series) and breaking the fourth wall by commenting upon it to the viewers.

Burns and Allen had several regulars on radio, including Toby Reed, Gale Gordon, Bea Benaderet, Mary 'Bubbles' Kelly, Ray Noble, singer Jimmy Cash, Tony Martin, Elliot Louis, musician Meredith Willson, and Artie Shaw. Bill Goodwin announced the program for several years, and also went with George and Gracie to the Burns And Allen TV program. Goodwin left to star in his own program and Harry Von Zell continued in the role. Von Zell often filled in for Goodwin on Burns and Allen's radio show as well. Their son Ronny also turned up on the show from time to time. The couple's daughter Sandy, was somewhat shy and not too fond of show business, declined any attempt to get her on the show as a regular cast member, though she appeared in a few episodes as a classmate of Ronnie.

Burns would always end the show with "Say goodnight, Gracie" to which Allen simply replied "Good night." She never said "Good night, Gracie" as legend has it.<ref>Burns 18</ref> (this "false memory" may be caused by the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ending, "Say good night, Dick;" "Good night, Dick!"). Burns was once asked this question and said it would've been a funny line. Asked why he didn't do it, Burns replied, "incredibly enough no one ever thought of it."