Phil Harris and Alice Faye's UFO Show

Seems like there is a limited number of plots that a successful show must do during its run if it's to fill all the cultural niches its audience expects. Of course, there are the obligatory observances - Halloween, Christmas and New Year - and some that are not tied to a day, but to the heart - weddings, babies, birthdays. But there are others that sneak in unexpectedly and are even more interesting to me. Among them: The UFO show.


Seems like every series needs to do a UFO show; I love this type of shows nearly as much as the Christmas show. I suppose it's the era that soldered my synapses,[1] though it predates me. (I didn't see Lucy and Ethel don space suits and climb to the top of Empire State Building until I was in college and watching reruns.) I don't know the earliest pop culture reference, but it was alive and well in radio with many science fiction series of course, but also the half hour comedy, including the Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show.[2],[3]

I have 2 copies of this episode under different titles; the one I've streamed here is the best quality. I have them as 500326__LAST_DAY_IN_PALM_SPRINGS.mp3 (poorer quality) and 500402__THE_FLYING_SAUCER.mp3 (better quality).

Both March 26 and April, 2 1950 were on a Sunday, the day the show aired. I tried to catch any differences between them, and since they were done in front of a live audience, this shouldn't be difficult, but they appear to be the same show. The flying saucer spin would have been appropriate on April 2, the day after April Fools, but March 26 would seem to be too early. One thing you'll notice as you go back into the OTR vaults is that the popular culture of our parents and grandparents spent much less time on holiday themes before the holiday than we do today. They often saved the special songs and stories for the week of the event and did the broadcast before the event (or, more rarely, a day or a few days after the event, and then only in the case of large observances, and then because the fun factor compensated for the anachronism[4]).

I could be wrong (because I simply don't know) but my guess is that March 26 is too early, especially since the show doesn't reference April Fools; the plot may have been conceived however with that in mind.

Click here to listen to and Phil's encounter with a UFO



(BTW, this UFO episode occurs within another genre, The Family Vacation; the show was actually broadcast from Palm Springs, as you can tell from Phil Harris's closing comments - "we're a little late," a la Jack Benny. I don't know but presume this was unique enough to call out, just as live radio shows still do today.)

[1]
To put a twist on an old question, "If you were stranded on a deserted Island and could have only one Old Time Radio show, which one would it be? Well, since it's my question, I'll revise it to include all my favorites, and while I'm at it, I'll mention that someday, should any kind soul be at my funeral, do me a favor, play some Old Time Radio. Let's all share a laugh with some wonderful people that went before us, the ones my mom and dad listened to, and their parents with them. This is what I'd choose...

Life of Riley
Phil Harris and Alice Faye
Martin and Lewis
Jack Benny

Put it on shuffle, okay? Break it up a bit. And put a copy of Music for Chameleons in my coffin, and my Sangean ATS-909, I'd like something to read and listen to while I'm wiping my feet; I expect that to take a while.

[2]
My father worked like a dog his whole life. He's retired now, enjoys his couch and baseball games more than ever, but once upon a time he would drag his tired frame home from the grocery store after a day of bearing the impossible expectations of customers and bosses, kiss his wife and hug his children, sit down in his La-Z-Boy and read some of the paper while dinner was cooking. Twice I can remember him bringing something to me on his way home from work, on occasions I was home sick, and they were very special to me:

1. A board game of Barnabas Collins House of Dark Shadows➚, which we couldn't watch because it was on while we were in school, but there were a couple moves based on it and kids my age were allowed to stay up longer than me and they watched it and came to school and talked about it. I thought I was missing the most important TV event in history.

2. Erik von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods➚. Every child my age, perhaps that was 5th or 6th grade, was reading it or talking about it. We devoured this sort of thing - aliens, the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts and demons and such, and scanned the skies each night certain that if we were patient enough we would see a UFO, because there were so many, it was only a matter of time.

And to this day, I want to believe it all, and what's the harm. I still  have the book.


[3]
I share Phil Harris's aversion to bright light. I know it's just a joke for the show, but if it were up to me, I'd have rain and fog most days. I say "most" because I like a sunny Saturday morning or crisp Easter sunrise like most people, but after about 10am, I'm ready for a cool soft cozy gray.

[4]
Ever watch A Christmas Carol after Christmas? I mean after all the presents are opened and guests have come and gone and dinner is a salty memory at the corner of your mouth. There's something palpably empty in it, like a detached 4th of July bunting after a picnic or extinguished birthday candles on a half-eaten cake.

My favorite version bar none is with Albert Finney in Scrooge➚. All-time-favorites of course are most often hooked very deep into our childhood memories; seldom (though it happens) does a movie or book or piece of music come along and we say "Ah, yes, that's my new all-time-favorite."

In fact, what is my favorite Lucy? Of course, the Lucy I grew up with, the one that worked for Mr Mooney (another OTR star Gale Gordon). That  kaleidescope of faces and opening musics is among the deepest and earliest of my TV memories.