Fred Allen, right, with future Muppet Show guest stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
"Howdy, bub": An Anything Muppet feeling Moody on Sesame Street
Colonel Claghound, spoofing Allen's Alley denizen Senator Claghorn, on Dog City
Fred Allen was a radio comedian known for his dry wit and nasal twang and star of radio's The Fred Allen Show (1934-1949). Allen used topical material about current news or politics, barbed phrases, and even feuded with his own network later, criticizing censors and vice presidents on air only to have his show cut off early. He had a more comedic mock feud with fellow radio star Jack Benny (a friend in real life), trading insults and engaging in fractious joint crossover appearances for over 15 years. Allen's show was marked by strong writing, much of it by Allen himself but the staff ranged from future novelist/playwright Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny) to Albert G. Miller, who later contributed to The Sesame Street Storybook.
The best remembered feature of the series was Fred Allen's weekly trip to Allen's Alley, asking his topical questions to a wildly contrasting cross-section of the American public. While the street debuted in 1942, it reached its best known form in the mid forties, with its three longest serving residents, who all crossed over into other aspects of pop culture. There was the loud Southern Senator Claghorn (who only drinks from Dixie cups, and was one of two radio inspirations for Looney Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn), Jewish housewife Mrs. Nussbaum, and dry New England farmer Titus Moody. The show also featured guest stars, from dramatic actors Orson Welles (in a Les Misérables sketch) and James Mason to Bob Hope, Milton Berle, and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
After his series went off the air, Allen was a regular guest on Tallullah Bankhead's 90 minute series The Big Show (1950-1952). While he made a few films, notably It's in the Bag (with Benny, Jerry Colonna, and Rudy Vallee), he never transitioned to television apart from a recurring panelist stint on What's My Line?
The term for Allen's repertory company on radio was "The Mighty Allen Art Players," which Johnny Carson paid tribute to on The Tonight Show by christening his own sketch actors "The Mighty Carson Art Players."
References[]
- The Southern Colonel in Southern Bread commercials, particularly his jokes about the North and his visit to Yankee Stadium, show the influence of Senator Claghorn.
- During one of Kermit's lectures, a carpenter with a New England accent (Caroll Spinney) says "Howdy, bub," the catchphrase of Titus Moody.
- Fred Allen, never a fan of television, delivered a famous critique on The Big Show (November 5, 1950 broadcast): “Well, you know, television’s a new medium, and I have discovered why they call it a medium: because nothing is well done, or very little.” Ironically, one of the show’s co-sponsors was television manufacturer RCA Victor. The line has since been referenced, misquoted, paraphrased, and reworked by many, including the Muppets (primarily Statler and Waldorf), often adding the word "rare" to the equation.
- In episode 312 of The Muppet Show, Statler critiques the medium sketch, which "wasn't rare and it certainly wasn't well done."
- In the storybook adaptation of The Muppet Movie, Statler and Waldorf appear in the El Sleezo Cafe and reply to Fozzie's intro (telling jokes "both old and rare.") Waldorf questions the latter adjective, and as usual, Statler quips "That's because they're not well done."
- In the first issue of The Muppet Show Comic Book, Statler frets that the Muppets are going to corrupt a whole new medium (so-called "cause it's rarely well done.") An actual medium appears to take offense. The gag was reused (applying to the internet) in a teaser for the unreleased Muppet Show motion comics (minus the unhappy medium).
- Mrs. Nussbaum's opening rejoinder, "You were expecting maybe..." followed by a pun on a celebrity name, would be reworked (minus the punnery) in several Muppet contexts.
- Mrs. Nussbaum, who was obviously a New Yorker on the air, appears to have relocated to Sesame Street, as an unseen resident. According to Episode 2428 and 2580, she's a customer of the Fix-It Shop.
- The unproduced Muppet video script Campfire Songs notes that the character of Hoss the horse would speak like Western actors Chill Wills, Slim Pickens, "or Fred Allen's senator Klaghorn" (sic).
- Colonel Claghound in the second season Dog City episode "Much Ado About Mad Dog" is a Senator Claghorn parody, from the name and accent to his "I say" speech pattern.