The Bickersons/Drene Time.

[hbenthow]

"Drene Time" was a 1940s radio show starring Don Ameche, Frances Langford, and Danny Thomas, with music by Carmen Dragon. It was sponsored, of course, by Drene, and sometimes Dreft as well. The show usually had two musical numbers, one being a hilarious song sung by Danny Thomas, the other being some popular song of the time, sung by Frances Langford. There were several comedy sketches, the most popular being The Bickersons. In The Bickersons, poor John Bickerson (Don Ameche) would be snoring away in the most hilarious way possible, when his wife Blanche (Frances Langford) would wake him up. True to their surname, they would start bickering. The conversation would usually include Blanche accusing John of chasing Gloria Gooseby, a friend's wife, Blanche ordering John to perform some task or another (which he would promise to do in the morning, to which she would reply "Do it now!"), and other hilarity. Often, Blanche's crook brother Amos (Danny Thomas) would call up (he always called John "Jacko") and John would eventually tell him to "Drop dead!".

Eventually, the Bickersons were given their own show, and Drene Time ceased to be. Unfortunately, Don Ameche was replaced by Lew Parker, who wasn't as funny.

The Bickersons were shocking for their time, as most radio couples never argued. They became quite influential, inspiring the version of the Olsens portrayed in "Little House on the Prairie", and such television shows as "Married, With Children" (which, unlike The Bickersons, wasn't all that funny), and even a homage on an episode of "M.A.S.H.".

There was an attempt to make a Bickersons television show but it didn't last long.

Is anyone else here a fan of "Drene Time" and "The Bickersons"?

 

[Espee]

I'm something of a fan, but I've never ordered a set of the recordings (I just enjoy what the "OTR shows" put on the air.)
It was in the movie version of M*A*S*H* where the passionate moans of Sally Kellerman and _?_ were broadcast over the camp's loudspeakers and the chaplain asks, "Is that the Battling Bickersons?"
I've never watched very many TV eps of M*A*S*H*, but in the two-part real-time story (where one hour is portrayed, over the course of one hour) the doctors listen to a Bob Hope show with Hy Averback as the announcer. And the two-part TV story was directed by... Hy Averback.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I've listened to The Bickersons and I found them a little annoying :/ The wife was picking arguments over nothing, really.

Married With Children, though, is funny. lol

 

[hbenthow]

The wife was picking arguments over nothing, really.

Well, that was the point. Blanche was an annoying shrew, and John was a henpecked husband.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Well, if that's the point then I don't get it. Nor did I find it funny. As a woman, I just found it to be annoying shakeshead

If there was a basis for her nagging (like Married With Children!) then I might have taken more to it. But since it was over nothing...meh. I listened to two episodes once and had enough.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Bickersons" had a very very strong predecessor in a series of Vitaphone shorts made from 1930-32 by the vaudeville husband-and-wife team of Jack Norworth and Dorothy Adelphi, under the title "The Naggers." The setup was pretty much identical to that of the Bickersons -- a sour-tempered married couple who argued with each other over every little petty thing, but the Naggers occasionally erupted into slapstick violence which can be pretty disquieting if you aren't expecting it. I don't believe Bickersons creator Phil Rapp ever acknowledged a debt to "The Naggers," but the resemblance is impossible to deny.

These shorts are rarely shown anywhere anymore -- in part because of the violent bits, and even more because they're so mean-spirited they just aren't funny. There's a fine line with this type of comedy that's difficult to avoid crossing.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I would like to see The Naggers. I think I've heard of it before somewhere in my travels. Bickering husbands and wives can be either be funny or really annoying. As you said -- there is a fine line. The Bickersons, I gave them a second chance and found I did not like them. As a married woman I just felt Blanche was incredibly annoying and her husband incredibly weak. I didn't feel there was a basis for it, either -- it just WAS for the sake of being.

Peg and Al Bundy have a basis for their bickering. Al is a loser. Peg is spoiled. I even find THEM annoying at times lol Maybe bickering couples just isn't my type of comedy. I prefer George and Gracie and even Irma and Al. Those types of couples endear me and I find them funny.

 

[hbenthow]

I never heard of "The Naggers" before. I've always read that Philip Rapp based the Bickersons on his own marriage, although I'm not sure if that is true.