Customer Reviews

The Jack Benny Program No. 5 (Jack is Kidnapped/The Lucille Ball Show) [VHS]

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Highly recommended. Contain two episodes, and the first is the best, with Jack being kidnapped and robbed. The scene at the bank when Jack is forced to withdrawl $10,000 is hilarious. In the 2nd episode, Jack teams up with Lucille Ball to play a historical parody of Paul Revere; only good for a few laughs.

Volume 5 of this MCA/Universal series of VHS videos gives us two more funny episodes of
"The Jack Benny Program". ..........

1.) "Jack Is Kidnapped" (originally aired on March 12, 1963, during the 13th season of Jack's TV series) has Jack abducted in the middle of the night and held for a ransom of $10,000. Now, you and I both know, that it's going to take a lot of coercion to make Jack Benny fork over 10-grand! This is a very funny episode, that has George Burns popping up at the bank for a brief cameo appearance.

The ending of the episode is a hoot, as it's revealed that the bank actually had to go out of business due to Jack's unexpected withdrawal of funds. LOL!

Another highlight is when Jack is given an ultimatum by his kidnappers of: "You hand over the money or we break both of your legs!"

To which Jack replies (after considerable contemplation): "Does it have to be BOTH?"

Another LOL!

2.) The video's second installment is "The Lucille Ball Show", which was first shown on national TV on October 2, 1964. This was Benny TV episode #232.

Lucy joins Jack in a relatively unfunny comedy sketch. But, still, it's fun to see Jack & Lucy working together on the same stage.

Actually, the highlight of this particular Benny Program comes via a fairly unlikely source -- that being a bit part by Arte Johnson (who would later go on to great success on the "Laugh-In" TV series). Johnson, who plays a member of Benny's stage crew for this episode, does a very funny bit that ends with a really good joke.

This Universal Video product was released in 1994 and sports a running time of approx. 51 minutes. No commercials are included. Audio is in Hi-Fi Mono. Speed is SP (Standard Play) mode. Black-and-White. Closed-Captioned.