NBC's BIG THREE OF TUESDAY NIGHT COMEDY - FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY, BOB HOPE AND RED SKELTON.

TUESDAY’S ALL TIME TOP TEN

Tuesday is best remembered as Comedy Night during the Golden Age. As evidenced by the list of programs that scored three or more seasons among Tuesday’s Top Ten, (below), 14 of the 16 qualifying entries - regardless of their basic formats - contained elements designed to make listeners laugh.

NBC led the comedy pack with its 90 minute Tuesday lineup of Fibber McGee & Molly followed by Bob Hope and Red Skelton - an unchallenged block of popularity in the early World War II years.

As reported in complete detail in Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, Hope and Skelton both peaked on Tuesday, January 19, 1943, with record-setting Hooperatings topping 40.0, which represented some 35 million listeners Their outstanding night benefited from the lead-in of Fibber McGee & Molly with their zany of Wistful Vista neighbors who delivered a rating approaching 38.0.

But which of these shows - if any - leads the list of Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten? And how did the two mysteries that played it straight, Big Town and Eno Crime Club, figure into the list - or the successful mystery/comedy series Mr. & Mrs. North?

You also have to consider music shows headlined by Al Jolson, Ben Bernie and Ginny Simms and audience participation notables People Are Funny, We The People and Battle of The Sexes. Also on the list of potential winners are the early successes of Ed Wynn and Buns & Allen plus two sitcom hits of later years, A Date With Judy and Life With Luigi.

Six Multiple Run shows also had three or more Top Ten seasons on Tuesday night,. But your challenge is to rank Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten in order from the 16 programs and personalities listed below. They're listed in alphabetical order along with the number of times they registered Top Ten seasons on Tuesday night over the 21 years of the Golden Age.
                    Program/Personality & Tuesday Top Ten Finishes
                            Al Jolson - 4
                            Battle of The Sexes - 3
                            Ben Bernie - 4
                            Big Town - 11
                            Bob Hope - 14
                            Burns & Allen - 3
                            A Date With Judy - 5
                            Ed Wynn’s Texaco Fire Chief - 3
                            Eno Crime Club aka Eno Crime Clues - 3
                            Fibber McGee & Molly - 16
                            Ginny Simms - 3
                            Life With Luigi - 4
                            Mr. & Mr. North - 6
                            People Are Funny - 5
                            Red Skelton - 6
                            We, The People - 5

Hint: Don’t depend too much on the obvious. There’s more than one surprising winner in the final results.

Look beneath the book cover below to learn how the millions of Network Radio listeners ranked Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten.

1Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten

1/ Fibber McGee & Molly was a fixture on the NBC Tuesday night schedule at 9:30 for 16 of the Golden Age’s 21 years. Jim & Marian Jordan’s sitcom, written by their partner Don Quinn, was Tuesday’s Number One program seven times. In addition, Fibber McGee & Molly finished in second place after five seasons, twice in third place plus one season each in fourth and fifth.  Network Radio’s most popular situation comedy compiled a total  of 144 points in our Tuesday rankings. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly on this site.)

2/ Bob Hope followed Fibber McGee & Molly on NBC’s Tuesday night schedule for ten seasons and follows them in this ranking with 121 points highlighted by five consecutive first place seasons from 1942 to 1947. Hope also finished in second place five times with two seasons in third, one in fourth and another in sixth - again, all behind Fibber McGee & Moll (See Hope From Home &  "Professor" Jerry Colonna.)

3/ Big Town was unique in several respects. The newspaper drama was the first Network Radio series to star top flight movie actors - Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor, followed in her role by Ona Munson. When Robinson left the cast in 1942, Big Town left the air for a year, returning with a new cast headed by Ed Pawley and Fran Carlon in 1943. After ten seasons on the CBS Tuesday schedule, the series jumped to NBC on Tuesday for another three. Despite the interruption and changes, Big Town compiled 57 points.  (See Big Big Town.)

4/ Red Skelton joined Fibber McGee & Molly and Bob Hope in NBC’s Tuesday’s comedy block in 1941, and except for the 1944-45 season spent in the U. S. Army, he remained until 1948. Over those six seasons Skelton scored one first place season, four in third place and one in fourth for 49 points. Without question, had he not been drafted at the height of his popularity then moved on to Fridays in 1948 and the CBS Sunday schedule in 1949, his Tuesday total would have been much higher.

5/ People Are Funny didn’t move to Tuesday night until the final five years of the Golden Age. But what a five year run it was. After six seasons in Friday’s Top Ten, the stunt show hosted by Art Linkletter and produced by his partner John Guedel kept its momentum going with two first place finishes, two in third and one in fifth for a total of 42 points.  (See People Are Funny and A John Guedel Production.)

6/ Mr. & Mrs. North was another successful transplant, moving from NBC’s Wednesday night lineup and five Top Ten seasons, to CBS on Tuesday, where it scored six more returns to the Top Ten. The mystery/comedy series starred Joseph Curtin and Alice Frost for its first nine seasons. They were replaced in 1951 by Richard Denning and Barbara Britton who also played Mr. & Mrs. North on television. The series’ Tuesday night run resulted in 36 points.

7/ Ben Bernie was one of the early stars of Network Radio‘s Golden Age. The bandleader/comedian who referred to himself as “The Ol’ Maestro” and to his orchestra as “The Lads“ generated three of his Tuesday Top Ten seasons on NBC. Surprisingly, his move to the Blue Network in 1935-36 resulted in Tuesday's Number One rated show. His four seasons combined to give Bernie 33 points.

8/ Al Jolson was a network vagabond, bouncing between NBC and CBS over four nights of the week in his ten seasons spanning 17 years. His first Tuesday run from 1936-39 on CBS resulted in two first place finishes and another in second. His return in 1942-43 finished in a disappointing eighth place. The legendary entertainer’s four season Tuesday total was 32 points.

9/ Ed Wynn, like Eddie Cantor, was a comedy super-star of the early Golden Age. But unlike Cantor, Wynn’s Texaco Fire Chief show flamed out after three seasons and “The Perfect Fool” never regained his Network Radio popularity. His two first place finishes on Tuesday in 1932-33 and 1933-34 plus second place in 1934-35, results in 29 points. .

10/ Life With Luigi was a successful sitcom with an Italian accent. With master dialectician J. Carroll Naish in the title role as the sweet and humble immigrant, Luigi first broke into Tuesday’s Top Ten on CBS in 1949-50. By the next season the show beat NBC’s Bob Hope in his 9:00 time period - an unthinkable feat not many years earlier. In the final four seasons of the Golden Age, Life With Luigi accumulated 27 points.  (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)

The remaining candidates for Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten were: A Date With Judy and We The People - 26 points each, Burns & Allen - 21 points, Ginny Simms - 10 points, Eno Crime Club - 8 points, and Battle of The Sexes - 7 points.

Multiple Runs: The above was limited to the weekly programs heard on Tuesday nights. If the Multiple Run programs heard three to five nights a week had been included, Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten would have put Lowell Thomas News in third place with 73 points and Amos & Andy in fourth with 65.

                    Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL    Email: [email protected]