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.

That’s the way every episode of the Burns and Allen show would end–or rather, it was the next-to-the last thing said. That line, spoken by George, was always followed by Gracie saying “Goodnight.”

Quite a while back I caught a trivia quiz on some show (I forget which). One question was about how the Burns and Allen show ended. The “correct” answer, which several participants and the host agreed upon as Gracie’s response was “Goodnight, Gracie.”

I was appalled (not really, but you know what I mean!). These people–none of whom as old as I (although close), as I remember. Got it wrong!

I suspected they were not actually all that familiar with the show but, instead, remembered the closing to “Laugh In”. As you may remember, Dan Rowan would always tell Dick Martin, “Say Goodnight, Dick” to which Dick would reply, “Goodnight, Dick.”

I never contacted the show about the error. Not that it was that important. And now I forget where the error occurred.

Gracie portrayed this demure but zany woman who lived in her own world with her own logic (much more on that in later articles). But she was not Dick Martin–or at least the character he portrayed. Gracie would have never responded like Dick.

When George indicated it was time to go, she was simply following his lead. It was completely in character with the woman she portrayed in the series. And I loved it.