- When your ratings drop little by little, a half a point ... then a quarter of a point,...you're in trouble. If your ratings drop five points you're not in trouble because that means that night somebody that was very good was on against you on another network, but our ratings kept dropping a quarter of a point. One morning I woke up at about 2 o'clock and woke up Gracie. I said, "Gracie, I figured out what our problem is. Our jokes are too young for us. Were're older than these jokes." And that's when I told the audience on the very next show that Gracie and I were married and had two children. So we changed the whole idea, the jokes, the writing, and our ratings picked up.
Burns and Allen's successful transition to television in 1950 proved without a doubt that they were one of the greatest comedy teams in any medium. With grace and ease they moved their radio-style format to a television broadcast, not dissimilar to acts that they performed on stage. Their highly popular television series ran until Allen retired in 1958. It seems that she had been suffering from illness and had been wanting to leave show business for sometime. She died in 1964, but Burns went on to star in a number of Hollywood films and continued to perform until his death in 1996 at the age of one hundred.
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I first got aquainted with Burns and Allen several years ago when I watched the film A Damsel in Distress. At the time I found it to be the most funny film I had yet seen and i still count it as one of the funniest films of all time along with Bringing Up Baby staring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Burns and Allen became real people for me when I read the book Gracie: A Love Story written by George Burns himself. The love that they shared is inspiring and gives me something to strive for as I seek a life-time relationship. Today everybody knows me for my love of those funny people and for the most extensive collection of their shows that I am allowed by availability and finances. |
