Tag: The Great Gildersleeve

Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 11

by  • 0 Comments

The 11th Volume of the Radio Archives collection begins with the start of The Great Gildersleeve’s fourth season on the radio, with Harold Peary starring as Gildersleeve during the 1944-1945 radio season. It collects twelve of the first fourteen episodes from the fall of 1944.

After big arcs in the previous two seasons (around Gildersleeve’s romance with Leila Ransom (Shirley Mitchell) in Season 2 and around his engagement to Eve Goodwin (Bea Bernadette) and his run for mayor in Season 3), Season 4 sees Gildersleeve promising to avoid getting too serious with anyone, and he keeps that promise as far as he can.

There are actually two shorter story arcs in this set, as well as some episodes that feel more stand-alone.

The season begins by shaking up the status quo. Gildersleeve is fired as Water Commissioner in the very first episode, by the man who bested him in the mayoral primary at the end of Season Three. Whether the decision by the mayor was politically motivated is something the series doesn’t address. If it was, though, Gildersleeve gives him an excuse. The season opener has probably the most ironic ending in the entire box set.

The stories after GIldersleeve is fired as water commissioner of Summerfield and therefore unemployed have some ups and downs, not helped by the show forgetting continuity about the family’s financial situation and Gildersleeve’s own prosperous past when it feels convenient. The overarching idea of the story is that Fibber McGee (from Fibber McGee and Molly) has come up with a post-war plan for a new mouse trap which Gildersleeve is pursuing. It doesn’t appear that this was actually a plot point on Fibber McGee and Molly at the time, so it appears McGee is acting off-air.

I didn’t care much for the plotline. There are some funny individual moments, but the mouse trap scheme is so thin, uninspired, and doomed to fail that it feels like a pointless McGuffin to center plots around. Probably the most interesting aspect of this whole series of episodes is when McGee is looking for a job and has a minute where he and a guest character discuss their feelings of uncertainty about the post-War economic future, as, even with the war still ongoing, some war manufacturing operations are winding down. Given the general positive vibe of the series on the war, that is a fascinating moment.

The second plot arc happens toward the end of the box set and it involves Gildersleeve and Judge Hooker (Earle Ross) trying to help a Spanish dance instructor get started in Summerfield. The judge is interested in her, and Gildersleeve tries to be supportive but is clearly attracted to her. There’s a failed party thrown by Gildersleeve to help her promote her business. Then events conspire to lead her to think Gildersleeve has proposed, and the box set ends up on one of the classic tropes of Golden Age comedy, the breach of promise suit. It’s the more funny and interesting plot and hopefully, there will be more resolution in Volume 12, although that volume has far more missing episodes than this one.

Outside of the overall arcs, the biggest thing to happen in this season is the formation of the Jolly Boys Club. This group would formalize the fraternity of Gildersleeve and his closest friends and also lend themselves to some great acapella performances of great standards of the era.

There is also a nice election day program that begins with comedy and political bluster, but ends up striking the most patriotic tone of any episode so far in this season.

Beyond the individual episodes, what impresses me is how lived-in Summerfield feels in these episodes. When I was listening to the first season, I was struck by how the only real characters throughout the season were Gildersleeve, his niece Marjorie (Lurene Tuttle), his nephew, Leroy, the family Cook (Birdie), and Judge Hooker.

At this point, the series regular supporting characters include Peavey, the druggist (Richard LeGrand), and Floyd the Barber (Arthur Q. Bryan) with both of Gildersleeve’s ex-fiancées continuing to make regular appearances. And there are also a number of recurring characters as well. Not everyone is in every episode, but as Season 4 starts, Summerfield easily feels like a real-world community, rather than just a staging area for a sitcom.

As usual, Radio Archives features a high audio quality on this set. All in all, these are a decent run of episodes. While I do think the first story arc was a bit lacking, the rest of the episodes more than make up for it. And the birth of the Jolly Boys club is something every fan of The Great Gildersleeve should listen to.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 10

by  • 0 Comments

*The tenth volume of Radio Archive’s Great Gildersleeve collection collects all of the circulating episodes of The Great Gildersleeve from March 12-June 25,1944, which includes the conclusion of the 1943-44 radio season, and also wraps up the third season’s storyline.

There are lost episodes in sets for this season, but thankfully, the final nine episodes are in circulation, which is really helpful, as the ongoing story really takes center stage. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) has already decided to run for Mayor of Summerfield, but he also ends up proposing marriage. School principal Eve Goodwin (Bea Benaderet) has agreed to marry Gildersleeve if he manages to win victory in the June 25 primary. If he doesn’t … she keeps her cards pretty close to the vest on what her response will be.

Gildersleeve’s relationship with Eve is interesting. There’s a three-episode arc involving Eve’s mother’s visit to Summerfield and Gildersleeve meeting her. It’s an interesting dynamic. He’s initially nervous but actually finds himself liking her. But when the dynamic between Eve and her mother starts to get in the way of romance, Gildersleeve has to try to work through the complicated and difficult wartime travel situation to get her back to her home. It’s a very different sort of mix and shows a bit more nuance than the typical hostile relationship.

The light-hearted campaign storyline was interesting to listen to, particularly as a far less lighthearted election was playing out while I was listening to the volume. One thing I had to appreciate is that they worked up a backstory for Summerfield’s political situation. Because people of all parties listened to the radio, they didn’t want to offend anyone. So there are two generically named parties in Summerfield and the writers worked up an entire story of how they split, and Republicans and Democrats ended up in both of them. Now, it might take some suspension of disbelief to believe that Summerfield formed its own pocket political universe, but the writers earn right to the benefit of the doubt with the detail they put into this explanation.

The war figures in this story in subte and not-so-subtle ways. In addition to creating a plot point that makes it hard for Eve’s mother to leave town, the end of the show is given to in-universe PSAs that are surprisingly effective.

Gildersleeve’s challenge to the incumbent Mayor gets off to a rocky start. However, a turning point is when the Mayor decides to put Gildersleeve on the spot and have him sing at the town picnic. Gildersleeve wows the crowd and is asked for countless encores, gaining in popularity and heading to frontrunner status. However, as election day and potentially the date for setting his wedding near, we’re treated to the same internal conflict that Gildersleeve shows in the previous season. He’s a man of big ambitions and big dreams but he also likes his status quo life and is afraid of it changing. Will he win despite himself or will subtle (and sometimes not-too-subtle) self-sabotage doom him?

Without giving away the ending, I like the way the writers handle it. The show’s final episode offers a satisfying conclusion to Gildersleeve’s story line without feeling like a retread of season two’s conclusion, while still being true to the character. As usual, the series features strong supporting performances, with Gildersleeve’s iconic supporting characters like Judge Hooker (Earle Ross), Mr. Peavey the Druggist (Richard LeGrand), Floyd the Barber (Arthur Q. Bryan), and his cook Birdie (Lillian Randolph).

There are few points for real complaint with the box set or the season as a whole. As usual, Radio Archives provides a high-quality production which provides a better listening experience than most circulating Gildersleeve episodes. One might wish that there were more episodes, with a greater focus on Gildersleeve‘s supporting cast. But the number of lost episodes makes this judgment hard, as there could have been more episodes focusing on supporting players, but they’re lost. The only real complaint is that the character of Gildersleeve’s niece Marjorie (Lurene Tuttle) seems a little less mature this season, which leads to some weaker jokes.

Still, what we have of season three is very strong. It mixes music, romance, comedy, drama, and a bit of political satire for good measure to create a really grand listening experience.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5