So You Want to Be on the Radio

In this installment of the Joe McDoakes series (starring George O'Hanlon), Joe and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are amazingly lucky. During the short course of the film, they appear on three separate radio quiz shows! I could say more about what happens next, but I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you if they won or not or what they won--just watch it and see.

As the short played on Turner Classic Movies, my wife commented about how silly the film was--and I would agree. It was ridiculous--but also quite funny in a brainless, madcap way. My only negative comment is that in one portion, Joe is being tormented to the delight of the audience at the radio show. BUT, as they never describe what's happening, the people listening to the show at how would have no idea whatsoever what's occurring. This, oddly, is a relatively common cliché in movies involving radio--and is seen in other films such as "The Great American Broadcast".

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.

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

Long before television and its plethora of game and quiz shows, radio had such shows. This 1948 short by Warner Brothers is a very good and funny spoof of the quiz and game shows that aired over radio before TV squeezed them out. Made in the series of Joe McDoakes, "So you want to," or "Behind the 8-ball" format, it stars George O'Hanlon in one of his many short comic roles. Phyllis Coates plays his wife, Alice; Fred Kelsey plays Senator Backtrack, and Jack Perrin plays the radio official.

One of the shows Joe tries to get on is called, "Aren't People Ridiculous." Joe says to Alice, "We can be as ridiculous as anyone else. Maybe even more so." The last show they get on is called "Double Up or Drop Dead."

What a great parody - years before some popular TV shows that would last for decades. And what laughs this provided. Here are the subjects from the blackboard on Double Up or Drop Dead. 1 - Mid Victorian Literature; 2 - Abyssinian Statesmen; 3 - Nuclear Fission; 4 - Einstein's Relativity; 5 - Social Habits of the Aborigines; 6 - Dynamic Tension; 7 - Girls; 8 - Protracted Physics.

This is a nice 10-minute short for some good laughs.

***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.