The Jack Benny Program (TV Series) Christmas Shopping Show (1957) User Reviews

Mel Blanc Steals The Show

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 9 April 2007]

Mel Blanc, the famous voice of the famous Looney Tunes cartoon characters, is hilarious in this episode. He plays a store clerk who is tormented by Jack Benny.

Jack is Christmas shopping at a department store and decides on getting Don Wilson a wallet. He buys the expensive one, believe it or not, and after Blanc does everything he's asked and more with a wonderful gift wrapping, Benny comes back and wants the note changed inside the gift. This happens several more times and the salesman/clerk (Blanc) unravels big-time. Even Benny can't conceal his laughter near the end.

In the rest of the show, we see and hear the rest of the cast in some funny bits, we hear a song from Dennis Day and there are guest appearances by familiar faces of the era, such as Richard Deacon.

Very Funny

[Christmas-Reviewer · 9/10 · 17 October 2017]

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I AM HONEST! I REVIEW Christmas MOVIES AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN!

Nothing is hardly original on television. People steel ideas from other shows all the time. If you watch this episode of Jack Benny you will see how this Christmas Episode is still being ripped off today.

Nothing rings in the New Year quite like a few hearty laughs, and in this release featuring comedy legend Jack Benny, comedy fans can find out just how hilarious the holidays can be. As Christmas draws near the notoriously stingy funnyman takes a trip to the department store with his good pal Rochester. After Benny's penny-pinching personality draws the ire of a difficult saleslady, a masked robber finds that making off like a bandit isn't as easy as he may have thought when an encounter with the quick-witted comic throws a wrench in his perfect plan. Later, when Benny's plans for New Year's Eve fall through, it's Rochester to the rescue to help kick off the New Year right.

Trust me there is more laughs a minute than most shows on the air today. Watch and enjoy!

Christmas Shopping Show episode of "The Jack Benny Program" is one hilarious holiday entry

[tavm · 10/10 · 7 December 2008]

Before I watched the Jack Benny holiday episode I'm reviewing here, I listened to a couple of episodes of his radio show that aired consecutive weeks on December 14 and 21, 1941. The first of those had Jack and Mary shopping for Christmas presents while Dennis and Rochester waited outside (or maybe they shopped themselves). It's here that Frank Nelson appears as a floorwalker though he has yet to say, "Yeeessss!" Anyway, the running gag concerns Jack's use of what a toy bird he wants to get Dennis sounds like. The following week has Jack planning his Christmas party which threatens to be ruined by his border, Mr. Billingsly who has a screw loose. Also, among the movie stars Jack invited was one Rodney Dangerfield who in this episode is a talked-about-only singing cowboy! I wonder if the real one-who was 20 at the time and was then Jacob Cohen-ever heard this show and thought of it when he became a professional comedian. Both episodes were hit-and-miss concerning various gags but since the shows aired live, there were plenty of bloopers that Benny hilariously kept commenting on so they were a little less uneven. Now on to this TV episode. Jack and Rochester are shopping at a department store. Jack decides to get Don Wilson a $40 wallet. The person who's wrapping it up is a sales clerk played by Mel Blanc. Because of the various times that Jack keeps changing his mind about certain things, Blanc gets more upset every time he comes back. My favorite line of Blanc's concerning him is "The customer is always right. And this jerk is a customer!" LOL! I also loved the way Rochester keeps saying "No" when another clerk asks him what kind of person his boss is. There's also an amusing cameo of Richard Deacon-you know, Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"-as another clerk talking to Dennis Day who sings "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" here. And then Don himself has a bizarre cameo with Santa Claus! Oh, and Frank Nelson is back as the floorwalker. I think I've said enough so all I'll now say is: Watch this show if you're a die-hard Jack Benny fan!

What Were They THINKING?

[DANEMOD · 5 June 2012]

Mel Blanc's hilarious performance in this Christmas-themed show is justly famous; he was so good as a beleaguered wallet salesman driven mad by Benny's constant and ever-changing demands that he cracked Benny up on-camera. But the classic comedy performance is ruined by the way it ends - Blanc's character is finally so overwhelmed he takes out a gun and shoots himself, though it must be said the deed occurs off-camera. Of all the ways to end a Christmas show, this must be the un-funniest example ever, though everyone concerned plays it for laughs all the way through. It's perhaps the ultimate case of writers painting themselves into a corner, and it may be the most wince-inducing episode of a sitcom ever. This one is more palatable if you stop it right after Benny cracks up.