So You Want to Be on the Radio

This episode of the Warner Bros. series "(Behind the 8-Ball with) Joe McDoakes" will be recognizable to most viewers as strongly resembling an "I Love Lucy" TV script (featuring guest Frank Nelson). "Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio", "The Quiz Show" and "Females Are Fabulous" should ring a bell. Like a lot of early television workers, Lucy's writers borrowed vociferously from her older radio show, and other sources. While this short doesn't feature Lucille Ball, it's still pretty funny - especially the scenes with George O'Hanlon (as George O'Hanlon) and those fast-talking radio quiz-masters.

******** So You Want to Be on the Radio (11/6/48) Richard Bare ~ George O'Hanlon, Phyllis Coates, Clifton Young

So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar nominated short with Joe McDoakes as he plays a husband who wishes he could get on a radio game show but once he does get there he wishes he didn't. I know these "So You Want to Be..." shorts are pretty popular but the four I've seen really haven't worked. They're mildly entertaining but they really don't contain too many laughs for me.

So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar nominated short shows the down side of trying to become a big movie star. There really aren't too many laughs here but lead Joe McDoakes is fun to watch. Ronald Reagon has a small cameo.

Having previously seen So You Want to Be a Detective on YouTube and thinking it was only slightly funny, I found this other Joe McDoakes comedy short in the Related Videos section and found this one a little better. In this one, McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are called to a radio quiz show in which Joe gets splashed with water or hit with pie on face every time his wife answers question wrong. (and how can she get any right when one of them asks to name all first 32 U.S. presidents!) They do get some consolation prizes among which is some tickets for another quiz show in which the host is so obvious about some clues, McDoakes seems a sure winner except...oh, watch the short. I think I liked this one better because there was more consistency in plot and characterization during the proceedings. And the way things twist at the turn of a dime was also very amusing. So on that note, I recommend So You Want to Be on the Radio.

***Academy Award Nomination for Best Short of 1948.

Yes, if you're an I LOVE LUCY fan, creator Jess Oppenheimer likely got some ideas for his crazy radio show bits with Lucy and Ricky from this short. 10 minutes of silliness. Producer Richard L. Bare should have expanded this to two reels.

Joe and his wife (played by Phyllis Coates) have a chance at getting some FAST CASH by appearing on a string of far-outrageous radio quiz shows, like AREN'T PEOPLE RIDICULOUS, sort of in the tradition of Art Linkletter's PEOPLE ARE FUNNY.

McDoakes -- as always -- gets the dirty end of the stick, squirted in the face with water (would you expect anything less?), a round of slick tricks that would make any other mild-mannered guest (or patsy) jump out the nearest window! Directed and written by Bare, who obviously did his homework -- and let this be a warning to anybody (even today) about game shows that go too far.

Bware of the pie thrower! How about DOUBLE UP OR DROP DEAD???

For old time radio buffs Fred Kelsey (often seen fighting with Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges) plays Senator Backtrack, a take-off on Senator Claghorn on Fred Allen's comedy show. Phyllis Coates, who passed in 2023, was at one time married to Richard L. Bare. In a few years, following this short, she would gain tv fame as the first Lois Lane on SUPERMAN.

Thanks to TCM for the memories, bringing back these oldies we first saw on tv in glorious black and white. Remastered Warner Brothers dvd box set.

What passed for humor in the '40s is quite different than today's silliness and nowhere is this more evident than in some of these Joe McDoake comedy shorts that people thought were so hilariously funny in the '40s.

This one attempts to spoof a couple who are crazy about radio quiz shows and get called frequently to participate in them. McDoake (GEORGE O'HANLON) makes a fool of himself over and over again, failing even to answer simple questions like "Who wrote 'The Last of the Mohicans' by James Fenimore Cooper?", and fluffing the answer while his exasperated wife can't believe how dumb he is. Very funny, sure.

O'Hanlon is reasonably okay as a comedian but the script is so foolish, it's sometimes painful to watch. These sort of comedy shorts drew chuckles in the '40s as fillers between double features, but everything about the radio era is so dated today that it all seems even worse than it is. Can't give this a good recommendation, even to nostalgia buffs.