Phil Harris and Alice Faye's UFO Show

(Originally posted August, 21, 2011 over at KD8OSB; some edits.)

Seems like there is a limited number of plots that a successful show must do during its run if it's to fill all the cultural niches its audience expects. Of course, there are the obligatory observances – Halloween, Christmas and New Year – and some that are not tied to a day, but to events – weddings, babies, birthdays – but there are others that sneak in unexpectedly and are even more interesting to me. Among them: The UFO show.

Seems like every series needs to do a UFO show; I love this type of show nearly as much as the Christmas show. I suppose it's the era that soldered my synapses,[1] though it predates me. (I didn't see Lucy and Ethel don space suits and climb to the top of Empire State Building until I was in college and watching reruns.) I don't know the earliest pop culture reference, but UFOs were alive and well in radio science fiction of course, but also the half hour comedy, including the Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show.[2],[3]

I have 2 copies of this episode under different titles; I've linked to one below hosted elsewhere. I have them as 500326__LAST_DAY_IN_PALM_SPRINGS.mp3 (poorer quality) and 500402__THE_FLYING_SAUCER.mp3 (better quality).

Both March 26 and April, 2 1950 were on a Sunday, the day the show aired. I tried to catch any differences between them, and since they were done in front of a live audience, this shouldn't be difficult, but they appear to be the same show. The flying saucer theme would have been appropriate on April 2, the day after April Fools, but March 26 would seem to be too early.

One thing you'll notice as you go back into the OTR vaults is that our parents and grandparents didn't start celebrating holidays until they were much closer. They saved the special songs and stories for the week of the event, including Christmas (and rarely would do the broadcast after the event, and then only in the case of large observances, when the fun factor compensated for the anachronism[4]).

I could be wrong, but my guess is that March 26 is too early for an April Fools tie-in, especially since the show doesn't reference it; but the plot may have been conceived with that in mind.

Listen to Phil’s encounter with a UFO here

(BTW, this UFO episode occurs within another genre, The Family Vacation; the show was actually broadcast from Palm Springs, as you can tell from Phil Harris's closing comments - "we're a little late," a la Jack Benny. I don't know but presume this was unique enough to call out, just as live broadcasts might do today.)

 

[1]
[Deleted March 20, 2012; subject for a later post.]

[2]
My father worked like a dog his whole life. He's retired now, enjoys his couch and baseball games more than ever, but once upon a time he would drag his tired frame home from the grocery store after a day of bearing the impossible expectations of customers and bosses, kiss his wife and hug his children, sit down in his La-Z-Boy and read some of the paper while dinner was cooking. Twice I can remember him bringing something to me on his way home from work, on occasions I had been home sick, and they were very special to me:

1. A board game of Barnabas Collins House of Dark Shadows, based on the daytime soap opera , which we couldn't watch because it was on while we were in school, but there were a couple movies based on it and the other kids were allowed to stay up later than me and they watched them and came to school and talked about them. I thought I was missing the most important TV events in history.

2. Erik von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods . [Balance deleted; subject of an upcoming post.]

To this day, I want to believe it all, and what's the harm. I still  have the book.

 

[3]
I share Phil Harris's aversion to bright light. I know it's just a joke for the show, but if it were up to me, I'd have rain and fog most days. I say "most" because I like a sunny Saturday morning or crisp Easter sunrise like most people, but after about 10am, I'm ready for a cool soft cozy gray.

[4]
Ever watch A Christmas Carol after Christmas? I mean after all the presents are opened and guests have come and gone and dinner is a salty memory at the corner of your mouth. There's something palpably empty in it, like a detached 4th of July bunting after a picnic or extinguished birthday candles on a half-eaten cake. [<- this is a very good paragraph, the best one in this post ; 2012-03-20]

My favorite version bar none is with Albert Finney in Scrooge . All-time-favorites of course are most often hooked very deep into our childhood memories; seldom (though it happens) does a movie or book or piece of music come along and we say "Ah, yes, that's my new all-time-favorite."

In fact, which Lucy is my favorite Lucy? Of course, the Lucy I grew up with, the one that worked for Mr Mooney (another OTR star Gale Gordon). That  kaleidoscope of faces and opening music is among the deepest and earliest of my TV memories.