What happens
Jack Benny arrives at the studio to find his writers have not finished the script, and the live broadcast is minutes away. Mary Livingstone, Dennis Day, Bob Crosby and the band help stall for time while the writers struggle with a murder mystery. Benny, Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson and Phil Harris are among the cast, with Benny improvising a play about police captain O'Benny investigating the death of J. Malcolm Smith. The writers keep arguing over the plot and the pencil, and the cast takes up the story as they go. The episode is an NBC and CBS Radio broadcast of the Jack Benny series, first aired on January 16, 1955.
A radio studio where the Jack Benny program is about to go on the air, with writers working in another room and Jack's home in the background.
Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Rochester, Dennis Day, Bob Crosby, Don, Phil Harris, Sam
Listen for: The writers arguing over the murder mystery plot and the stalling jokes while the cast waits on the air.
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.