All
American Old Time Radio Show Classic
Duffy's Tavern
For a small taste of this great
series,
listen to the preview below.
This show comes on CD In MP3 Format
Duffy's Tavern, an American radio situation comedy (CBS, 1941-1942;
NBC-Blue Network, 1942-1944; NBC, 1944-1951), often featured top-name stage
and film guest stars but always hooked those around the misadventures,
get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment's
malapropos-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie, played by the
writer/actor who co-created the show, Ed Gardner. The final show on radio
was broadcast on December 28, 1951.
In the show's familiar opening, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," either
solo on an old-sounding piano or by a larger orchestra, was interrupted by
the ring of a telephone and Gardner's New Yorkese accent as he answered,
"Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'.
Duffy ain't here — oh, hello, Duffy."
Duffy, the owner, was never heard (or seen, when a film based on the show
was made in 1945 or when a bid to bring the show to television was tried in
1954). But Archie always was — bantering with Duffy's man-crazy daughter,
Miss Duffy (played by several actresses, beginning with Gardner's real-life
first wife, Shirley Booth); with Eddie, the waiter/janitor (Eddie Green);
and, especially, with Clifton Finnegan (Charlie Cantor), a likeable soul
with several screws loose and a knack for falling for every other salesman's
scam.
The show featured many high-profile guest stars, including Fred Allen,
Mel Allen, Nigel Bruce, Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff, Veronica Lake, Bob Hope,
Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, Gene Tierney, Arthur Treacher, Alan Ladd, Marie
McDonald and Shelley Winters. As the series progressed, Archie slipped in
and out of a variety of quixotic, self-imploding plotlines — from writing an
opera to faking a fortune to marry an heiress. Such situations mattered less
than did the show's quietly clever depiction of earthbound-but-dreaming New
York City life and its individualistic, often bizarre characters.
Duffy's Tavern was Gardner's creation, and he oversaw its writing
intently enough, drawing also on his earlier experience as a successful
radio director. His directing credits included stints for George Burns and
Gracie Allen, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and The Rudy Vallee Hour. Gardner
also brought aboard several keen writing talents, including theatric
humorist Abe Burrows (the show's co-creator and head writer for its first
five years), future M*A*S*H writer Larry Gelbart, and Dick Martin, who later
became famous as the co-host of television's groundbreaking Rowan and
Martin's Laugh-In.
Early in the show's life, however, its name was changed — first to Duffy
and, for four episodes, Duffy's Variety. A staffer for Bristol-Myers --
whose Ipana toothpaste was the show's early sponsor -- persuaded the
company's publicity director to demand the name change because the original
title promoted "the hobby of drinking" too much for certain sensibilities.
Bristol-Myers eventually admitted the staffer had little to go on other than
a handful of protesting letters, and -— to the delight of fans who never
stopped using the original name, anyway —- the original title was restored
permanently. The name change was often subverted by the Armed Forces Radio
Network. When the AFRN rebroadcast those episodes for U.S. servicemen during
World War II, the announcer referred to Duffy's Tavern.
Duffy's Tavern inspired a number of future TV series set in neighborhood
taverns. Examples are:
Archie Bunker's Place, the low-keyed spinoff from the groundbreaking All
in the Family, which moved the now-title character from the loading dock and
the taxicab to running a blue-collar bar with his usual repertoire of
malapropos.
The soap opera Ryan's Hope (whose title family oriented around
tavern-owning Irish parents).
The 1980s situation comedy classic Cheers (which was co-created by James
Burrows, the son of Duffy's Tavern co-creator Abe Burrows).
Jackie Gleason's "Joe the Bartender" sketches. These usually began with
Joe (Gleason) in a conversation with an unseen patron, Mr. Dunahy, before
being joined (usually at Dunahy's request) by a Finnegan-like, cheerful
dolt, Crazy Guggenheim (Frank Fontaine).
The Simpsons, in the form of Moe the bartender, who answers the telephone
saying, "Moe's Tavern, where the elite meet to drink."
The show was parodied in the 1947 Popeye cartoon "I'll Be Skiing Ya." A
billboard advertises: "Stuffy's Tavern. Where The Elite Beat The Heat. Lake
Plastered, NY."
The Warner Bros. cartoon "Hush My Mouse" also parodied the show, with
Sniffles the mouse visiting "Tuffy's Tavern."
Whether or not they were inspired by the radio show, there are numerous
bars across the United States today that call themselves Duffy's Tavern —
from Wickford, Rhode Island, to Monterey, California.
There are over 80 episodes
and better then 40 hours of wonderful hilarity contained on the CD.
The following are the episodes contained on the CD.
