The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show

I was just a very small boy when I used to sit and watch this show, but I remember I loved it very much. I loved the way Paul Winchell and his dummy Jerry Mahoney would interact with each other and the other puppets as well. I don't remember too much about the plots and humor, but do remember that Jerry and Paul would at times have other puppets and I really enjoyed it.

The show was already reruns but still good for a boy under 10 years of age. I loved this show so much that in the sixth grade my parents bought me a Jerry Mahoney dummy and I never learned ventriloquism but tried hard. I wish this show would come out on DVD along with Soopy Sales and Howdy Doody two other shows I loved as a child.

You had to be a kid to like this show a lot. I did when I was about five. I recently watched an early episode of this series and was most impressed - not to say appalled - by the unrelenting promotion of sugar. I am no killjoy, but the sponsor of the show in those days (1950) was Tootsie Roll and most of the episode I saw was a long commercial for the candy, interrupted only by occasional ventriloquism and low comedy, plus the audience of children was practically showered in free candy. There was a competition between a girl and a boy to see which could pick up a Tootsie Roll while wearing boxing gloves. The girl won and she was awarded a humongous box of Tootsie Rolls. The boy was given a consolation prize of a slightly less humongous box of Tootsie Rolls. (This show appears to be the origin of the ethos that has everyone getting a participation trophy.) Later in the series, they must have changed sponsors, for I remember the commercials for Nestles. But notice, more sugar! The best thing about the show was Paul Winchell's skill at making ventriloquism look effortless. Winch was, indeed, a master. Jerry Mahoney, his main puppet, could get away with being the horny dummy, even on a kids' show. Introduced to a thirteen-year-old Girl Scout, Jerry says, "I like Girl Scout cookies, and she's a real cookie." (Leer, leer, wink, wink) I learned one thing, which is that Jerry's less intelligent puppet-friend, Knucklehead, was not surnamed "Smith" as I had always thought, but "Smiff".

There was also a cleverly executed if conceptually silly bit about Winchell teaching his human sidekick, Milt, a secret handshake. Having executed it, they found that they could not disengage their interlocked fingers. "How do we get out of this?" asks Milt. "I don't know," says Winch, "that's another secret." In retrospect, this is not a program for adults and loses points from me for the lameness of much of the humor plus the excessive time spent selling sugar to children. After watching it, I needed to have my blood tested.

I loved this show as a child, I mentioned it to the wife and she did not remember the show and I said Jerry Mahoney, and then she remembered and replied you are really dating yourself. I still remember the episode with Milton Berle, one of my favorite comedians.

The reruns ran into the sixties, and I watched the show until they stopped airing in my area. Some of the kids in my neighborhood had the Jerry Mahoney puppet, it looked really nice, but I never asked my parents to purchase one for me. If anyone is interested in this show, there is one episode available on Amazon Prime video for rent. I could not find any available for purchase. I would love to show these to my grandchildren just get their reaction to what I watched as aa child.