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The FReeper Canteen Presents  ~Favorite Comedians~ The 1950's, The TV Sitcom Is Born Welcome to the FReeper Canteen! It's great to have you with us!!
Thank you to all of our Troops, Veterans, and their families for allowing us to entertain you! 
The 50's decade was known for many things: post-war affluence and increased choice of leisure time activities, conformity, middle-class values, the rise of modern jazz, the rise of 'fast food' restaurants and drive-ins (Jack in the Box - founded in 1951; McDonalds - first franchised in 1955 in Des Plaines, IL; and A&W Root Beer Company - formed in 1950, although it had already established over 450 drive-ins throughout the country). Also, a baby boom, the all-electric home as the ideal, the advent of television and TV dinners, abstract art, the first credit card (Diners Club, in 1951), the rise of drive-in theaters to a peak number in the late 50's with over 4,000 outdoor screens, and a youth reaction to middle-aged cinema. Older viewers were prone to stay at home and watch television (about 10.5 million US homes had a TV set in 1950).  By the 1950s the television industry had become a serious competition for the movie industry. Despite the technological limitations of the TV medium at the time, more and more people chose to stay home to watch the television. Several comedic forms that had previously been a staple of movie theaters transitioned to the TV. Both the short subject and the cartoon now appeared on the TV rather than in the theater, and the "B" movie also found its outlet on the television. 
As TV became filled with family-oriented comedies, the 1950's saw a trend toward more adult social situations. Only the Walt Disney studios continued to steadily release family comedy movies. The release of comedy films also went into a decline during this decade. In 1947 almost one in five films had been comedic in nature, but by 1954 this was down to ten percent. Here are a few comedians that made films in the 1950's. Pa (Franklin Kettle) (Percy Kilbride) was a gentle but slow-speaking, slow-thinking and lazy man in the "Ma And Pa Kettle" movies. His only talents appeared to be avoiding work and winning contests. Ma (Phoebe Kettle) (Marjorie Main) was larger, raucous, more ambitious and smarter than Pa, but not by much, and could easily be fooled. She was content with her role as mother to a small army of children on the Kettle's ramshackle farm. (Later in the series the Kettles moved into a modern home that Pa won.)
Much of the humor came from the preposterous situations the Kettles found themselves in, such as Pa being mistaken for a wealthy industrialist or being jailed after he accidentally set a series of events in motion that resulted in race horses at the fair eating feed laced with concrete. 
Ma And Pa Kettle - Pa Does Math
"Some Like It Hot" tells the story of two struggling musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), who are on the run from a Chicago gang after witnessing the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. Spats Columbo (Raft), the gangster in charge, orders the execution of Jerry and Joe. They escape in the confusion and decide to leave town, but the only out-of-town job they can find is in an all-girl band. The two disguise themselves as women and call themselves Josephine and Geraldine (later Jerry changes it to Daphne). They join the band and go to Florida by train. Joe and Jerry both fall for "Sugar Kane" Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), the band's sexy Polish-American vocalist and ukulele player, and fight for her affection while maintaining their disguises. "Some Like It Hot" also stars the beloved comedian Joe E. Brown. Likable and gregarious, Joe traveled many thousands of miles visiting G.I.s in far sections of the globe during World War II, and in 1953, became the first President of PONY League Baseball and Softball. He later traveled additional thousands of miles telling the story of PONY League hoping to interest adults in organizing baseball programs for young people. 
Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis in "Some Like It Hot"
Nothing short of a mirth quake, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis romped onto stages, into radios, televisions, and movies, grasping a joyous, adoring public by farce. Together for 10 years, they were one of the most successful comedy team ever. A chance commingling, the kinetic duo exploded into fame, upping the ante on the term "overnight sensations." They were the Beatles AND Elvis of comedy, conquering stage, TV, and movies with ease and electricity, but friendship turned to feud, then the split. While the 16 films (in seven years) failed to fully harvest the team's manic, improvisational frenzy, they remain funny, breezy, and iconic.
 Dean Martin And Jerry Lewis in "That's Amore"
With their birth in the 1950’s, situation comedies mean just what their name suggests. In the beginning, the basic recipe for the perfect sitcom was this: Take one nuclear family, stir in the funny antics of the children or neighbors, and add in a minor problem, which usually could be solved within the half hour. Simmer between commercials. Voila! Comedy and a new lesson learned every week. Wait another week and the characters are back to where they were the week before, only faced with a different, traditionally comical situation. 
"Leave It to Beaver" is an iconic American television situation comedy about an idealized American family of the 1950s. The show is built around young Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) and the trouble he gets himself into while navigating his way through an often-incomprehensible, sometimes-illogical world. When he was a baby, his older brother Wallace "Wally" (Tony Dow) mispronounced "Theodore" as "Tweedor". Their firm-but-loving parents, Ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley), felt "Beaver" sounded better. Conversely, Mathers has said that the real reason for the name "Beaver" is that one of the show’s writers, Joe Connelly, had a shipmate named "The Beaver" in World War II. And, from that, came the family's name, "Cleaver." 
Leave It To Beaver - "Beaver And Henry"
On its face, "Make Room for Daddy" (The Danny Thomas Show) doesn't sound like much of a series, especially for one that ran for 12 years, mostly because so much of what it introduced became standard to the sitcom genre. But it was actually more than a sitcom - it was a creative and business flashpoint in television history. Make Room for Daddy was a sincere effort at depicting family life on television, with rivalries between siblings, strains between husbands and wives, school woes, budget worries, and other little tribulations. 
Danny Thomas in "Make Room For Daddy"
"Father Knows Best", the successful series about the life of an American family in the 1950s, starred Robert Young and Jane Wyatt as Jim and Margaret Anderson, with Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, and Lauren Chapin as their children, Betty, Bud, and Kathy. The series lasted from 1954-1960 and produced 203 episodes. The brainchild of series star Robert Young, who played insurance salesman Jim Anderson, and producer Eugene B. Rodney, Father Knows Best first debuted as a radio sitcom in 1949. In the audio version the title of the show ended with a question mark, suggesting that father's role as family leader and arbiter was dubious. The partner's production company, Rodney-Young Enterprises, transplanted the series to television in 1954--without the questioning marker--where it ran until 1963. 
Father Knows Best - Bud And The Bongos
"The Phil Silvers Show", a half-hour comedy series, first ran from September 1955 to September 1959. Frequently, unforeseen obstacles to Sgt. Bilko's strategies arise out of a misunderstanding between the principal characters. Much of the program's humor derives from Sgt. Bilko's incomplete knowledge of a situation--the audience watches as he unwittingly makes matters worse for himself, before realizing his error and having to employ his quick thinking in order to make amends. Sharp dialogue and tightly woven plot lines (involving absurd, but believable, situations), combined with a heavy emphasis on visual comedy, made The Phil Silvers Show one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed sitcoms of the 1950s. 
Phil Silvers in "Doberman's Sister" - Part 1 Phil Silvers in "Doberman's Sister" - Part 2 Phil Silvers in "Doberman's Sister" - Part 3
Despite its relatively brief run, "The Honeymooners" is considered one of the premier examples of American television comedy. It has been referenced in numerous homages and parodies, and has inspired successful television comedies such as The Flintstones and The King of Queens. "The Honeymooners" made its debut on October 5, 1951, as a six-minute sketch. Castmember Art Carney made a brief appearance as a police officer who gets hit with a pie Ralph had thrown out the window. The Kramdens' financial struggles mirrored those of Gleason's early life in Brooklyn, and he took pains to duplicate on set the interior of the apartment where he grew up (right down to his boyhood address of 328 Chauncey Street). 
The Honeymooners in "The Man From Space" Part 1 The Honeymooners in "The Man From Space" Part 2 The Honeymooners in "The Man From Space" Part 3
"I Love Lucy" is a television situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, (181 episodes, including the "lost" Christmas episode and original pilot). Then, the show introduced three more seasons, running from 1957 to 1960, known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. In 2002, it was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top-50 greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. In 2007, it was placed on Time magazine's unranked list of the 100 best TV shows.
I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. Episodes of I Love Lucy are still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world. 
I Love Lucy - "Vitameatavegamin" I Love Lucy - "Bitter Grapes" I Love Lucy - "Pioneer Women" FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT~Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before.
Please remember: The Canteen is a place to honor and entertain our troops. The Canteen is family friendly, and please leave politics at the door. Let's have fun!
We pray for your continued strength, to be strong in the face of adversity.
We pray for your safety, that you will return to your families and friends soon.
We pray that your hope, courage, and dignity remain unbroken, so that you may show others the way.
God Bless You All ~ Today, Tomorrow and Always
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