Ok, so Mark Evanier posted something on Jack Benny, so I should post something on Jack Benny. Evanier posted a video of the classic "Si. Sy. Sue" routine that always is funny no matter how many times you view it.
What is NOT viewable is most of Jack Benny's material. It is a shame that Benny isn't more revered. I was fortunate to have become a fan of his when I was really young, so that I was actually saddened when he died late in 1974. I was only eight, but I had hoped to get the chance to meet him someday.
I have a very funny Benny movie on video tape that I taped off the air called "The Meanest Man in the World" and it is hysterically funny and also has never been released to commercial home video in any form.
The only Benny movies that have been commercially released to DVD number only TWO! The classic "To Be or Not To Be" and "Charley's Aunt". Of course, there are others with Benny cameos like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", but I'm talking the starring pictures, here. Surely there's room for a DVD of "The Horn Blows at Midnight"?!?
Even his TV work is undervalued. Sure you can find about 20 or so episodes of varying quality on various public domain DVDs, but Benny's TV show was on for 15 years! He even did a few specials after that which have eluded official release.
Evanier posted another posting about pirating stuff, which I tend to agree with, but it's maddening when stuff that COULD be released...isn't. What's a fan to do but resort to bootlegs and YouTube and such. Even Evanier does...
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