Episode:  Appleby the Weatherman
Original Air Date:  1959/11/17
Guest Stars:  Peter Lorre, Mercedes McCambridge

Aww, Red started off by thanking everyone for an award he just one. A “Who’s Who…,” and showed the plaque.

“I don’t like anybody saying you’re the best at anything. I’m just part of a wonderful, great industry and I’m grateful that you folks like it. That’s about all I can say. Really.” - Red Skelton

Pantomime sketch about people on those “new” jets. Good stuff. I flew next to the scared guy a couple months ago…I almost forgot you could smoke on planes for awhile. Even cigars…wow.

Now I remember why that made air sickness bag

Time for the dancers. Theme:  landing on the moon, “We beat the Russians in coming here / the consequences may be severe.” Who knew the writers of The Red Skelton Show could accurately predict the lunar landing nearly a decade in advance…isn’t it always about real estate in the end? The advantages of living on the moon? No Smog.

Appleby the Weatherman Act I

It starts off with the US launching a super rocket. Why is the flight delayed? Appleby’s weather prediction.

“Whoever heard of snow in Florida?”…”Appleby’s right again.” Wow, George can call it down to the second. Man, now he’s getting all the elements.

“It’s raining cats and dogs. You can step into a poodle in a minute.”

Appleby can predict the weather to a second but can’t server his wife’s (Mc Cambridge)dinner properly. The gig is up!

“Your predictions? If it weren’t for my lumbago and my rheumatism you couldn’t predict a thing.”

“Yes. God bless your little aches n pains.”

Classic physical comedy going on.

Appleby’s  telling Canaveral they can launch based on how his wife’s stomach felt today.

Oh no. Yugabanian mobsters (Peter Lorre) are kidnapping George and making him the official weatherman of Yugabania

Appleby the Weatherman Act II

“The weather? It’s getting warmer too.”

George confesses to the Yugabanains that he gets his predictions from his wife’s aches and pains.

The other terrorist is Jamie Farr. NIIICE. I just noticed.

“You cost me a lot of money…I could have brought you both over, flown over on a family plan.”

Both captured, the Yugabanians tell them they have to predict the weather or die. George remove’s his wife’s gag, “I hate to get rid of this. That’s the best gag we’ve had so far.”

His wife isn’t feeling any pain because of the Yugabanian pain. George steps on her toe. She hits him with a beaker.

George has her feet in ice water with an electric fan blowing on her. Now George is going to have her sit on a block of ice. It’s a real block of ice and it’s messing George up.

George n his wife give them false predictions and try to sneak out. Come to find out the rocket is right outside the door…

Red’s doing the final bit of the show with the ice in his hand. It’s fun watching him try to hold on to it while he calls the guests out. He gives the ice to Peter Lorre n walks off stage. Nice

Final thoughts on Appleby the Weatherman

It was a nice episode. Not as aggressive or spontaneous. For a moment, Red’s joke about the gag summed up the episode. I think that’s where he got his inspiration. Ehh, whatareyagonnado? Not every one’s a winner.

And remember to check out http://www.TheRedSkeltonShow.com

Episode:  Appleby’s Bearded Boarder
Original Air Date: 1962/03/06
Guest Stars: John Carradine, Marie Windsor

Show theme:  fake Indian Shieks - (maybe the Beatles should have seen this episode) - and their power of concentrations on things like dieting…

The monologue is diet themed. Hard to quote a pantomime, but it was fun watching him making fun of the diet scene at West Palm Beach.

The cast is singing about ’signs, signs, everywhere signs’ (but not that song). It’s this kind of choreography that makes me wonder if Danny Kaye ever guest starred on the Red Skelton Show and if he did, then whether or not he danced with the cast. That’d be worth the price of admission.

Ahh…song leads into the skit with the “Room for Rent” sign. And Appleby’s Bearded Boarder begins…

Red runs through the laundry list of items he picked up at the store for his wife and became dumbfounded at the cue card, “Cooking Vodka?” as if it was supposed to be cooking, “Sherry.” I don’t think Red had the heart to make an alcoholic joke out of the line.

“Now gimmie the rest of your paycheck.”

“Well how you have it? Heads or tails?”

Marie Windsor doesn’t break character despite Red’s attempts to crack her up. She plays a great bitter wife. She just rolls her eyes at him as she stays in character about how they need more income. Perfect domestic housewife stereotype (my apologies).

Her practicality has her decide that they should rent out the back bedroom. Red still can’t crack her. She’s good.

After the commercial break the scene cuts to the couple in the bed room.

“Ohh, I’m kinda sorry we’re shooting this show. The rehearsals were so much better.” - and with that Red line, he finally got Marie to crack. She was a tough nut to crack. There must be an inside joke I’m not privileged to.

Now he has fun with the censors, “This is what is known as the CBS honor system. Of course with that big Eye lookin’ at you, what can you do?”

“Oh, well. On to the funny stuff…”

Once the scene starts you see that the shot was zoomed in way to close for the snoring gags.

Persistent door ringer at 3am.

“Time is a fraud perpetrated on the human race by the manufacturers of wrist watches,” Yeah, George and the boarder will get along in that ying & sardine sort of way.

‘Towelhead’ jokes aplenty. Phrases you couldn’t say in today’s world.

“I couldn’t let him see me like this.”
“Well, I wish you would show me the same courtesy.” - wife and husband banter aplenty.

The boarder, of course, hasn’t paid and needs sundries every 5 minutes. Now he’s making phone calls to Calcutta.

The boarder has got the wife doing workouts. ‘Old hindu exercises.’

“That’s the first time I’ve seen him go out of character,” Red says of Carradine as Carradine struggles to get up from the exercise.

Now the wife is quoting the boarder.

Now, after a hard day’s work, his dinner consists of a lima bean.

Uh, oh, the boarder is a con man and is on the front page of the paper.

Nice, the producers start the end music and cut the scene short. The downside of waiting for the laugh. That steak must have been tough.

Red uses the con man’s getup and gets his dream…the episode was shot on the 50th Anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

Final Thoughts on Appleby’s Bearded Boarder:

Enjoyable. It wasn’t as aggressive as some of the other episodes I’ve seen. But in the same breath, I don’t know if they could use the them in today’s world. Not as many zingers either. And the sharp zingers are not PC by today’s times. But I enjoyed it.

Welcome to The Red Skelton Show Episode Review Blog

When people look for classic Red Skelton Show episodes and find us at TheRedSkeltonShow.com, they ofter wonder exactly what episodes they’ll be encountering. After all, The Red Skelton Show started in the fall of 1951 and chugged its way to 1971 before Red ended the last show with his trademark, “Good night and God Bless.” Hundreds of episodes were taped. Countless guest stars graced the stage. Endless moments in television history came courtesy of The Red Skelton Show. After all, what other television program can claim that The Rolling Stones made their US TV debut on their show? Yep. Only Red’s longest running variety show has such an honor.

This is why blog.theredskeltonshow.com is now up and running. Once a day, blog.TheRedSkeltonShow.com will review a different episode of The Red Skelton Show from the Red Skelton Unreleased collection found on TheRedSkeltonShow.com. There are about 47 individual episodes and shows in all - including the special bonus discs. Each episode review will come with highlights, timeless quotes, classic Red characters as well as guest starts and mentions to the David Rose Orchestra.

And, to give you a little taste of the episode, we’ll post a 30 second clip of the episode.

Please keep checking back. Hopefully, we’ll review your favorite The Red Skelton Show episode!