George Burns & Gracie Allen Show S6E28 A Night of Vaudeville - RARE EPISODE (no longer in reruns!)

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• published: 09 Aug 2015
• views: 1966

This is a very special episode of the Burns and Allen Show that has been pulled out of the syndication package (Season 6, episode 28, originally aired April 9, 1956). My best guess as to why is that there are two numbers in black face, and if these are removed, the remaining show is too short to fill the time slot. In this episode, George stages a vaudeville show to raise funds for son Ronnie's dramatic school. Among the many, many highlights: Ronnie and a schoolmate performing a Burns and Allen routine; Gracie's one and only dramatic moment in the entire series, perhaps her entire career; George getting his due as a vaudeville expert (rather than simply being subjected to the endless put downs he normally gets); Gracie emceeing the show-within-a-show all by herself (she *very* rarely performed without George); and several pastiches of classic vaudeville acts, like Eddie Cantor's and Sophie Tucker's. Please note that at times the video quality will shift dramatically-- these are instances of scenes I've spliced in from older reruns to cover the edits in the version aired on ME-TV. ME-TV aired the show minus the black face numbers, but it appears that Antenna TV has decided not to rerun this episode at all. I understand the sensitivity surrounding black face, but it's a real shame this particular show had to be pulled, since it is truly one of the most unique episodes they ever did. Respectful comments about the appropriateness of black face and/or the editing out of same are perfectly fine, but please be forewarned: I will not allow the comments sections on my videos to become a playground for the useless political arguments found almost everywhere else on YouTube. If you feel compelled to pontificate on the black face numbers, PLEASE-- keep it civil, and remember that the purpose of sharing this video is that it's a great "lost" episode of Burns and Allen. I'm not attempting to justify the black face performances by posting them. All I want to say on this subject is that it was a different time, and regardless of how legitimately offensive this is to us now, it was *not* intended as a slight against African Americans.