The little routines within each show, as well as the closing routine at the end, are what made the George Burns/Gracie Allen show so enjoyable.  Whatever the silly plot was, the vaudeville, stand-up comic bits made it worth watching for me.

Each one gave Gracie (the character–not the actress) an opportunity to display her ditzy humor.  My favorites were those in which she displayed what I call her “illogical logic.”

A couple of examples might do better to show what I mean than what I’ve said so far:

George is–typically–asking Gracie about one of her relatives.  She mentions an aunt, let’s say (I’ve forgotten), who is having a problem with the thermostat on her oven. She can’t control the temperature so she keeps burning the cakes she bakes.

George asks what did she do about that?

Gracie replies that her aunt decided to bake a very small cake every time she baked a full  size one.

“How would that help?”, Georges asks.

Gracie answers, “Well, when the small cake was burned, the big cake was done.”

(If I need to explain it I’ve either done a poor job of relating it or perhaps you’re not a fan of Gracie’s humor.)

Another example:

One of Gracie’s relatives is a guide in a museum. The tour party comes to a table on which sit two skulls: one smaller one and one larger one.

Her relative, the tour guide, points to the larger skull and says, “And this is the skull of the famous Aztec leader, Montezuma.”

Someone asks Gracie’s relative about the smaller skull, “Whose skull is that?”

The reply comes, “That is the skull of Montezuma when he was a child.”

More difficult than explaining a joke is relating in print a routine that should best be seen and heard.  Such is the case here. However, those of you who really appreciated George and Gracie together can probably picture in your mind each example given here as if it were playing before your eyes and ears.

The Ed Sullivan Theater, currently the home of The David Letterman Show, was, of course, once the home of the Ed Sullivan Show. On the stage where Letterman’s show takes place such acts as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, and other notables of stage, screen and music once performed. And the guest list goes on to include countless dancing bears, plate spinners, former vaudeville acts, comedians, and acrobats who were seen. Finally, who among you that watched that show could forget Topo Gigo, the Spanish mouse (puppet) who always ended his act by saying, “Eddie, kiss me goodnight.”

But less known, perhaps, is the fact that The Jackie Gleason Show got its start in this same theater in 1950. Then known as the Adelphi Theater, it was the first home to Gleason’s show, including The Honeymooners. For the next six years this theater would reverberate with the sounds of Ralph Kramden asking Alice, “How would you like to go to the moon?” and lines such as Ed Norton addressing a golf ball by saying, “Hellooooooo, ball!”

There were other characters established here. The Poor Soul, Joe the Bartender, Reginald Van Gleason, Sedgwick Van Gleason (Reginald’s father as played by Art Carney) all got there start on the Cavalcade of Stars, as it was known then.