Burns and Allen – George is on Trial. 400902.

George has been having legal troubles over promising Elsie Tralfaz a spot on the radio, but is being sued when he couldn’t follow through. Today George tries to get Gracie and the cast to be his character witnesses. Senor Lee, Artie Shaw, and even the sound man are willing to come to his aid, but they all know him to well to say anything that will be helpful. Just when George is feeling low, Gracie and the sound man try to cheer him up with two tales of success.

The Smoothies sing Pretty Baby. On the way to the courthouse, Gracie still can’t grasp what a character witness is, but the distracted George gets into an auto accident. Making his fast get away, George arrives in the courtroom, only to learn the man he hit in his car is the judge. Artie Shaw plays some jazzy transitional tunes.

Is George doomed? Can he somehow disguise himself, hide from the judge, or get Gracie to defend his character? The world is Gracie’s straight man as she punches out the puns, and come bacs. Can things get any worse for George? It’s all worthwhile when the laughs keep coming.

Note: In a later interview a couple decades later, Artie Shaw stated that the producers wanted him to deliver his lines flavored with typical jive talking slang of jazz musicians of the times. Something like what Phil Harris did on the Jack Benny program. He refused, because he just didn’t talk that way in real life, and didn’t feel comfortable doing it for his character.