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Randy Hodgins and Steve McLellan’s lifelong love of comedy was kindled when they met more than 40 years ago in graduate school in Seattle. While managing family and professional work responsibilities, they hosted a one hour comedy radio program on Saturday mornings for 10 years on a small radio station in Olympia, WA and also co-authored two books on northwest popular culture – Seattle on Film (1995) and Wet and Wired (2000). Stuck at home during the early days of the pandemic with hundreds of comedy albums, cassettes and CD’s gathering dust on their shelves, they launched Laugh Tracks Legends of Comedy in May 2020, a weekly mini-program featuring a different comedy icon, with biographical bits and a nice slice of the comedy that made them famous. From standup stars, to stellar sketch teams, to novelty music maestros -- they are all part of our Legends.
Episodes
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
One of the titans of early tv sitcoms, as well as a massively successful producer, singer, and philanthropist, Danny Thomas earned his stripes as a radio comedian (especially on The Bickersons) in the 1940s, then hosted his own radio variety show, then in the early 1950s jumped to television and began his classic show "Make Room for Daddy". After that, while Danny would continue to make tv and stage appearances (including a 1970's reboot called Make Room for Granddaddy), he also conquered the tv production world with shows including The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mod Squad, and That Girl (starring real-life daughter Marlo Thomas). Closest to Danny's heart, though, was the word he did to establish the world-famous St. Jude Children's Medical Center, the result of a promise a young and struggling Danny made to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of lost causes. As always find extra cuts below and thanks for sharing our shows!
Want more Danny Thomas?
A signature theme song was a must for early tv stars -- think of The Honeymooners -- and Danny Thomas was no exception with this fine jazz version of the Irish classic Danny Boy. https://youtu.be/rAMrzvqU2RQ?si=RutT59t7anfOh3_J
To get a feel for Danny's comedy style, here's a great full episode of Make Room for Daddy from season six, back before tv discovered the world was in color. https://youtu.be/sJjFeM9ZvbU?si=lGXBgUiHE9RvTDI_
Late in his career Danny would take the occasional guest spot, as he did in Happy Days in 1978. https://youtu.be/qWxNS202fV4?si=vZaFGX990ROP5vF0
As with may 1960s(ish) era tv stars, Danny was happy to be a pitchman when needed and this is a great example -- a Maxwell House Coffee ad. Sorry for the video quality, but enjoy the "Brady Bunch house" vibes of the set.https://youtu.be/sJjFeM9ZvbU?si=lGXBgUiHE9RvTDI_
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