Tue 7 Apr 2020

DUFFY’S TAVERN “Archie Gets Engaged.” CBS-East Coast/Syndicated. 31 August 1954 (Season 1, Episode 18.) [I am using Martin Gram’s log for this information.]  Ed Gardner (Archie), Pattee Chapman (Miss Duffy), Alan Reed (Finnegan), Jimmy Conlin. Recurring: Veda Ann Borg (Peaches La Tour). Guest Cast: Barbara Morrison. …

   “Hello, Duffy’s Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin’. Duffy ain’t here — oh, hello, Duffy.”

   Duffy’s Tavern, very much a one-man operation, that of creator, director, writer, producer and star Ed Gardner, was a long running radio for many years (1941-51), a movie (Ed Gardner’s Duffy’s Tavern, 1945) before a one season run (26 episodes) in 1954 co-produced by Hal Roach, Jr.

   While the radio show was noted for its well-known guest stars every week, the radio show was a bare bones operation, with very little movement outside of the tavern itself. “Archie Gets Engaged” was in all likelihood not the official title of this particular episode, but it is what it is generallyl known by. It can be seen here.

   It begins with Archie thinking of matrimony, and in particular with a stripper he knows by the name of Peaches La Tour (the most delightfully voluptuous Veda Ann Borg). Being more interested in monetary matters than love, she most sensibly turns him down, since love is all he has to offer. Being so emphatically turned down in such a fashion, Archie decides to bite the bullet and proposes instead to the very rich (and not nearly as voluptuous) Mrs. Van Clyde (Barbara Morrison) instead.

   The complications that follow are amusing, but not laugh-out-loud funny, except for Alan Reed’s slapstick portrayal of the slow-witted Finngan, one of the tavern’s regular habitues. (Possibly not an acceptable character today, but allow me this indulgence. I grew up when a lot of comedy was built around the antics of The Three Stooges, Lou Costello, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, and so on.)

   Another aspect of the show was the use of well-mangled wordplay. In the opening conversation Archie has on the phone with Duffy, he asks the latter for his advice on “maritime” relations. Talking about the chances that Peaches will accept his proposal, he says he’s not sure she will accept him or not, “With a dame like that, things are on one minute, off the next.”

   The jokes and the reactions to them are reflected by a lot of exaggerated eye-rolling. Worse, from my point of view, is the fact that Ed Gardner, never the greatest of actors, was an aging 53 when the TV series was filmed, and it shows. The show was meant for radio. As a television series, it may be best to call it a relic of its era and leave it at that.
   

 

7 Responses to “A TV Comedy Episode Review: DUFFY’S TAVERN “Archie Gets Engaged” (1954).”

1. David Vineyard Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 6:57 pm

   Just watched the movie on YouTube, lots of big guest stars like Paulette Goddard, Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Victor Moore, plus Gardner and Marjorie Reynolds. Mostly familiar laughs from running gags on the radio series and a few musical numbers.

2. Steve Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 7:58 pm

   Thanks, David. Here’s the link to the movie:

   https://youtu.be/oCZzWxdnkfU

   Lots of guest stars, as you say. As I said up above, having one famous movie star on every episode on the radio was the usual format. I wonder if that would have helped the TV series, had their budget allowed it.

3. Dan Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 7:40 pm

   Another Comedy Act that fared badly on Television was Bob & Ray, whose relaxed sense of spontaneity crumbled under the cameras of Early TV.

4. Steve Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 8:02 pm

   Yet another was FIBBER McGEE & MOLLIE. A huge hit on the radio, but they went nowhere n TV. Likewise THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE. Other radio comedians did make the transition: Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Red Skeleton.

5. Barry Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 8:59 pm

   Steve, the examples of Hope, Benny and Skelton making it on film are also men who made it in television. Better and more visual.

6. Steve Says:
   April 7th, 2020 at 9:02 pm

   Absolutely right, Barry. Better and more visual, as you say. That was my point: the transition from radio to TV. (Duffy’s Tavern and Fibber McGee’s closet were better visualized in your mind.)

7. Lazy Georgenby Says:
   July 25th, 2021 at 11:46 pm

   The repartee on some of those radio comedies moved at a rate which outpaces the speed of even the fastest slapstick. Nothing moves swifter than Thought.

   Good examples are found on McGee/Molly. McGee had a recurring schtick describing some past episode in his life with each word in each sentence, rapid-fire and alliterated. A vaudeville staple. But the visual complement to such a feat would be nil. Just a talking head moving his lips.

   Or, Gale Gordon’s famous meltdowns. Same show. Reduced by rage to a spluttering, discombobulated wretch. Visualizing this only adds drag. Your eyeballs would swivel from side to side, looking for some new element in the frame, but there would be none; and fatigue would set in. It’s purely verbal.

   Indeed some shows like “Duffy’s Tavern” just can’t make the jump. Too claustrophobic, not enough movement. Static compositions.

   On the air, it certainly had a big star each episode; although the only ‘action’ were typically, phone calls. Still, Gardner himself kept each show inventive.

   Not sure though, why ‘Finnegan’ is an unacceptable character today? Is humor festooned to such a figure, considered “making fun of the mentally ill”?

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