The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1932–1955
- Surviving broadcasts
- 642
- Genre
- comedy
Radio's most durable comedy: Jack Benny (1894–1974) as the vain, penny-pinching thirty-nine-year-old, with Mary Livingstone, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson. The programme began on NBC in May 1932 and moved to CBS in January 1949 after the Paramount talent raid; the radio series ended on 22 May 1955.
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 24 years on the air, with 12 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1932, in original transmission order.
- 1. JB 1932-05-02 First show · 2 May 1932
- 2. JB 1934-04-27 New Hampshire Through a Keyhole · 27 Apr 1934
- 3. JB 1936-11-08 Girls dormitory (8 min only) · 8 Nov 1936
- 01
JB 1932-05-02 First show
2 May 1932 · 30 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 2 May 1932. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 02
JB 1934-04-27 New Hampshire Through a Keyhole
27 Apr 1934 · 3 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “JackBenny1”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 03
JB 1936-11-08 Girls dormitory (8 min only)
8 Nov 1936 · 9 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 8 November 1936. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
JB 1937-03-21 A Day In Our Lives
21 Mar 1937 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “JackBenny1”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 05
JB 1938-02-13 Robert Taylor Plays Duet With Jack
13 Feb 1938 · 30 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 13 February 1938. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 06
JB 1939-05-28 Alexander Graham Bell
28 May 1939 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “JackBenny1”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 07
JB 1940-04-07 Jack Revives Buck Benny After 3 Years
7 Apr 1940 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 7 April 1940. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
JB 1941-12-28 Jack Talks About His Christmas Party
28 Dec 1941 · 22 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “JackBenny1”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
Also on NBC
NBC in 1932–1955
Other series the network carried while The Jack Benny Program was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Jack Benny Program
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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