What happens
Jack Benny hosts a Sunday evening program from New York while the regular studio is unavailable, and the show opens with musical numbers and a birthday cake scene. Mary Livingstone and Dennis Day tend to a candle that Benny cannot blow out, while Benny's mother is briefly consulted on the phone. The cast then prepares a parody of The Fred Allen Show, with Benny playing Allen, Phil Harris playing Peter Van Steeden, and Mary taking the part of Portland Hoffa. Rochester appears in a mock interview about his employer, and Allen's guest, an amateur cigar-butt collector, appears in a sketch. The program closes with a sponsor's dessert recipe, a Jell-O Pudding Whip.
A Sunday evening broadcast from New York, with the show originating from Beverly Hills and New York studio segments.
Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Don Wilson
Listen for: Benny's parody of Fred Allen, including the clothespin on his nose, and Rochester's mock interview.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.