In Celebration Of Red Skelton

Red Skelton was a magical man to many. Most people if you mention I Love Lucy or even Dick Van Dyke Show respond with "Ah, ok yeah, I love those old shows". But mention the name Red Skelton and most under 40 or even 50 yrs old probably have no idea who you are talking about.

Im in my late 40s now, I shouldnt really know who he is either. He was really before my time in his heyday, I suppose. Yet, he was my Dads favorite. My Dad being an older father exposed me to comedians like Red Skelton and Jack Benny. But Red was always my favorite. Red Skelton had a way of bringing a family together, even dysfunctional ones like mine. When he was on TV doing his show the sweet nature rubbed off and drew us together and for a few hours all was right in the world.

His kind of humor was never rank or rude. Always a joy. And a deep belly laugh. He had a rare innocence combined with such a upstanding character. He made you feel good about yourself and could have you break a tender tear.

Red Skelton was the ultimate clown in the best sense. A good man with a good heart for mankind. A lost human characteristic in many ways now.

Id like to use this thread as a tribute and celebration to my favorite old school comedian and comic legend:

Red Skelton

Here is a Tonight Show clip to start the thread off. Had me laughing all the way through:



Please share your memories, pics, thoughts and favorite clips!

 

I don't remember much of the tv Red Skelton but love his 40s movies-thanx to TCM for making them accessible to this viewer.

 

This clip shows how quickly Red could ad-lib in his prime:

 

The Red Skelton Show had a lot of musical guests also. There is one funny scene, I believe its with the Rolling Stones. A rush of girls come after Red or something like that.

Cant find the video. Anyone find it?

 

Nice post. The Red Skelton Show was a fixture of my tv viewing years as a kid. Like you said, it was one of the few shows that the whole family enjoyed. I never thought of his brand of comedy as "square", unlike some of the other comedians of the day.

 

He was obviously talented, but even in single digits I found his habit of laughing at his own jokes reeeeeeeelly annoying

 

He was a real odd ball for sure. I've got some of his stuff on DVD, I'll have to pull it out for a watch.

 

Great classic guy and talent. I remember that Three Stooges episode where a skeleton pops out of a trunk and calls himself "Red," and then Shemp goes "Red Skeleton."

 

For whatever reason, one of my most lasting memories of the show was Oliver singing "Jean"......

 

Red could get laughs in a "clean" way. I remember one of his shows in perhaps 1960/61 where he was portraying a drunk, and he sings:

"How dry I am
How dry I am
Nobody seems
To give a censored..."

And the audience just howled. He got a greater reaction to the use of the word "censored" than "damn" ever would have gotten!

This man was the Rolls-Royce of comedians.

 

My family also loved the show. Nobody did the loveable bum better than Red. I have some DVDs of Red that I watch on a regular basis- especially his Christmas episodes. I found his laughing at his own jokes to be part of his charm. He was obviously having a good time.

 

Red was definitely a comic from the old school, and as such may be hard for a modern audience to appreciate. But he seemed to be a genuinely sweet guy.

 

Memories of watching it with my pops as a youngster. Then again we also watched Laugh In, and he's one of the most conservative humans I have met.

 

Yea, my old man used to watch it as well. Red did seem like a nice guy, he was the only celeb to actually visit TV Guide magazine (I worked there in the 80's and saw pics). He used to open each show with some sort of silent routine with Martians on the moon and an odd song played in the background ( I remember that cause my mother thought the song was good). And as someone said above, his laughing at his own jokes got annoying especially when doing standup. No disputing his ability to ad lib was up there with Conway, though.

 

I was one of those fortunate to watch the early shows as they came on. Curious enough, I was the only person in my family who watched and enjoyed the heck out of his show. His humor was always clean (I had no idea what playing blue was back then). As Ray said above, he always seemed to be having a good time while doing the show and it always came across the screen. I enjoyed the talent of this professional.

 

I think because a lot of his comedy was physical his humor transfers a bit better. He wasnt as topical either. My nieces and nephews have no idea what the context of a joke about Fidel Castro is (heck, the humor is lost even on me), but Red Skelton can jump into one of his characters like Gertrude and Heathcliff and they start laughing and covering their faces cracking up. Red had an ability to both be the actor and the audience. Its like he was hearing the pun/joke/act for the first time also. He had a way of laughing with the audience that carried the good vibe.

When I heard my nieces go "Awww" at one of Freddy the Freeloaders actions and watched how their hearts softened when Red Skelton would do some touching mime skit, that showed me that his ablities to touch a brand new generation was timeless.

 

We never missed his show when I was a kid in the 60's. What a sweet man. "Thank you and may God bless"

 

Red Skelton wasnt just a comedian, he was a silent spokesman on the human condition and the best aspects of it. Here is one of my favorite mime skits.

 

I had forgotten about that famous phrase.

 

The last part of this had the kiddos rolling. They were imitating Red and putting oil on their hair all morning trying to get their hair to do this..

 

We really enjoyed his characters.

When he got maudlin or political, he was off-putting. IMO, of course.

 

Red was also a very early proponent of color tv and built his own color studios in which to tape his show. As part as one of his contract renewals, the studio bought his facilties.

 

Very conservative - aside from Eugene V. Debs and New Harmony, Indiana's not known for very progressive thinking...

 

I had read somewhere a LONG time ago that a lot of laugh tracks that are still being used were recorded during Red's pantomime sketches as they didn't have any sound from the stage and were just audience only.

Has anyone else heard of this?

 

Anyone else remember the Pledge of Allegiance flexidiscs that were available at Burger King in the late 1960s? I got one of these when I was only about 5 or 6 years old. I think I was vaguely aware of who Red Skelton was before then, but listening to that disc solidified him in my impressionable mind.