Talk:Gracie Allen/Archive 1

Archive 1

Untitled

This article has been revised many times, but the quality notice keeps reappearing. Would whoever is putting it back please specify which section or sections are in need of "cleaning up"? I have read many less scholarly entries on Wikipedia which are not marked as needing editing. Specific feedback would be helpful here.

I'm not sure when the preceding comment is from, but I tend to agree with what is stated. The article has clear formation and referrences and uses correct grammar and sequence. The tone is not discordant. Im not sure what's being looked for here. I'm not the author, so objectively I feel this article is an asset. A better understanding of what may be lacking should be expressed so it's not a guessing game. TFBCT1 (talk) 11:43, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I kinda doubt color tv had anything to do with her heterochromia-shame. As you can see from the picture in this article, it's clearly obvious her irides are two different colors even in black-and-white.

Color TV probably didn't, because she was very retired by the time it began to become popular, but according to several of George Burns's books she wasn't bothered by it on TV mainly because it was in black and white. --Dan Moore 23:24, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Famous Closing

The "Good night, Gracie" legend refuses to die. I have corrected this several times, with some kind soul(s) coming in and "correcting" me every time. Prior to this most recent correction of the facts I watched more than fifty episodes of the Burns & Allen Show on video and DVD. The episodes were from a five-year period, and included both film and kinescope sources. The only episode which deviated from the norm ("Say good night, Gracie." "Good night.") was the January 29, 1953 episode which I quoted in the article. I also refer to specific, published references to back me up. Now that a large number of episodes are commercially available, I hope skeptics will watch for themselves instead of relying on faulty memories of the show. --Fshepinc 08:53, 16 June 2006

I back up this editor, George Burns said the same thing in his biography "Gracie a Love Story" about his wife. He claims they only did it once if ever, but he didn't even remember that, and that they didn't do it largely because nobody thought to do it. 216.201.48.26 (talk) 20:25, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, Fshepinc! I'm incredibly surprised and pleased to see someone **finally** get this right. "Goodnight, Gracie" is a misquote on the level of "Play it again, Sam" never having been uttered in Casablanca. "Goodnight, Gracie" was even used once as the supposedly correct answer to a question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, even though there is *no* surviving example of any broadcast where this joke has been used. I've personally, meticulously gone through almost 250 radio shows and 270 of the 291 TV shows looking for this line and can categorically state that if this joke ever was used, it hasn't been heard for over 50 years, because no surviving/publicly available Burns & Allen programs use it. None.

I hesitate to go further, but in fact, George rarely even said "Say goodnight, Gracie." Most of the time it was phrased, "Gracie, say goodnight." Nitpicky, to be sure, but frustrating as it's the *only* thing modern audiences are likely to know about Burns and Allen at all!

You can't prove a negative, so there's no way to ever definitely make this go away. WGaryW (talk) 19:32, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Family Section: Ronnie and Sandra

In the section on "Family" the article states that Ronnie and Sandy played their famous parents in a skit on the Burns and Allen Television program. While it is true that Ronnie played his father in the skit, Sandra was not the young woman who played Gracie. Sandy was on the show several times, often as the voice of an operator on the telephone. --Sarty 05:56, 15 January 2006 (UTC)Sarty

Absolutely correct. The actress who played Gracie opposite Ronnie as George was Diane Jergens. Harry Von Zell announces her name ("Diane Jergens as Diane") over the closing credits, as he did for every actor in a non-regular part throughout the series. Note that the IMDB has incorrect info, listing Diane as having been played by Judy Clark, with a separate entry for Diane Jergens with no character name specified. Unless the IMDB knows something Harry Von Zell didn't. WGaryW (talk) 19:43, 29 April 2011 (UTC)