May 12 2009
Freddie the Singer - The Red Skelton Show, Season 8, Episode 30
Episode: Freddie the Singer
Original Air Date: 1959/06/02
Guest Star: Frank McHugh
Tonight’s show theme: Music and Singing.
“We have great news for music lovers: Elvis Presley has a year to go.” Elvis-in-the-army jokes aplenty.
“Do you realize is the first time in the history of the United States Army that a soldier was in charge of Naval maneuvers.”
Oh dear, Gogan the singing parrot: “I’m warning you. You step on one punchline and 7 days from today you’ll’ve been dead 1 week.”
Wow. Impromptu screams from the crowd when he threatened to let it go. This show is awful lively. I couldn’t imagine Carson or Leno doing this without a trainer.
He can’t get the bird to sing. Niiiice, Red Skelton brought out the words for the parrot.
They close the curtain and you hear a shotgun sound.
Singing n Dancing time in a record store. I love how they sing about how many kinds of songs you can purchase - another retail products.
Freddie the Singer Act I
Freddie’s chillin’ in the street sweeper’s trash can. Mugsy (Frank McHugh) is another bum. Mugsy wants to take him to go listen to music. The catch: pretend to music store patrons and sample the sounds.
Mugsy and Freddie find a new invention: A Tape Recorder. Freddie’s singing and Hugh is playing the nice-looking guitar. Red almost knows how to sing. Frank McHugh is playing some classic chord structures. He’s picking too. I’ve played enough guitar to know Frank knows how to play the song…”Cause you marry 10 pretty girls.”
The manager kicks them out before they can listen to it. Here comes the playback.
The song becomes a top hit. Mugsy n Freddie aren’t aware. Tired of poker swindling each other, they turn on the radio and hear their song, agin. They don’t know who’s song it is.
Mugsy just realized it is their song.
Freddie the Singer Act II
Freddie has a bunch of gold records and a butler in his shack. Freddie’s business manager says he has to live this way because this is what his fans expect.
Here comes Mugsy, dressed to the hill in a tuxedo.
“It seems like only 6 months ago I was on a garbage dump and now I’m on top of the heap.”
The record company is selling Freddie the Freeloader suits.
Mugsy gets a luxury bedroom sitting off of Freddie’s shack. Nice.
Fans have come wearing Mugsy tuxedos. They want to interview Freddie for a school paper.
Freddie is coming out a new album about his New York vacation, “Sing Sing Freddie.” 
Freddie will be the guest to their high school play tonight.
Uh-oh, the PTA has come to protest.
Jokes are flying in this episode. You can tell Red Skelton loves the Freddie the Freeloader character.
Freddie’s now depressed because of the image he’s setting for Freddie.
Mugsy can’t go back to being a bum. Or maybe he can.
Final Thoughts on Freddie the Singer
This is one of those episodes that came out firing. I enjoyed the zingers. What they don’t say is what happened to the money Freddie already made. What gives? It does come up with a nice stereotype of hour the retail music industry works.
Red n Freddie are good friends
