Jack reads phony telegrams wishing him a Happy New Year, then chats with the coaches from tomorrow's Rose Bowl game, Red Sanders of UCLA and Duffy Daugherty of Michigan State. The Sportsmen Quartet sing a football fight song with a verse about Lucky cigarettes. For the last 12 years on radio, the Benny show has done a sentimental, patriotic piece about the New Year year called The New Tenent; they restage it for the camera as a radio performance. Sitting with the cast is a grumpy man Jack doesn't recognize from rehearsal; he's part of the audience but couldn't find a seat. In the radio sketch, Benny plays the Old Timer, 1955, turning 1956 over to a new young kid.
THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM appeared infrequently during its first two years on CBS-TV. In his first season (1950–1951), Jack only performed on four shows, but by the 1951-1952 season, he was ready to do one show approximately every six weeks. During the 1953-1954 season, The Jack Benny Program aired every three weeks. From 1954 to 1960, the program aired every other week, rotating with such shows as Private Secretary and Bachelor Father.
After the radio show ended in 1955, Benny took on another biweekly series, becoming a regular on Shower of Stars, CBS's hourlong comedy/variety anthology series, effectively appearing almost every week on one of the two series; it was on Shower of Stars that Benny's character finally turned 40, throwing a large birthday party for the occasion. Beginning in the 1960–1961 season, The Jack Benny Program began airing every week. The show moved from CBS to NBC prior to the 1964-65 season. During the 1953-54 season, a handful of episodes were filmed during the summer and the others were live, a schedule which allowed Benny to continue doing his radio show.
Directed by Frederick De Cordova, Ralph Levy, Norman Abbott, Seymour Berns Starring Jack Benny, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Don Wilson
Cast Jack Benny as Jack Benny Don Wilson as Don Wilson Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as Rochester Van Jones Dennis Day as Dennis Day Mary Livingstone as Mary Livingstone Mel Blanc as Polly Benny Rubin as Bandit The Sportsmen Quartet as Themselves Frank Nelson as Clerk Ned Miller as 2nd Man Herb Vigran as 2nd Policeman Jeanette Eymann as Nurse Dale White as Harlow Wilson Charles Cantor as Lingerie Salesman Lois Corbett as Lois Wilson
