Ethel and Albert (aka The Private Lives of Ethel and
Albert) was a radio and television comedy series about a married
couple, Ethel and Albert Arbuckle, living in the small town of Sandy
Harbor. Created by Peg Lynch, who scripted and portrayed Ethel,
the series first aired on local Minnesota radio in the early 1940s,
followed by a run on NBC, CBS, and ABC from May 29, 1944 to August
28, 1950.
Radio historian Gerald Nachman (in Raised on Radio)
called the show "insightful and realistic... a real leap forward
in domestic comedy--a lighthearted, clever, well-observed, daily
15-minute show about the amiable travails of a recognizable suburban
couple" which combined "the domestic comedy of a vaudeville-based
era with a keen modern sensibility. Lynch made her comic points
without stooping to female stereotypes, insults, running gags, funny
voices or goofy plots."
The show began as three-minute filler between a pair of Minnesota
KATE station programs, then expanded to 15 minutes and finally became
a half-hour show in the last couple of years on radio. Like Easy
Aces, the humor on Ethel and Albert was low-key; like Vic and Sade,
it was constructed around such simple, often mundane household situations
as efforts to open a pickle jar. Often Ethel or Albert would attempt
to prove the other wrong over some inconsequential matter. For example,
one entire script centered around Ethel disputing Albert's claim
that he could see her using only his peripheral vision. "I
realised that I didn't have to sit down and knock myself out every
minute to try to think of something funny," Lynch told critic
Leonard Maltin many years later. "All I had to do was look
around me."
This collection of The Couple Next Door Greats includes
147 different shows and appearances for a total of 34+ hours of
listening enjoyment.
This product is a DVD collection of Old Time Radio mp3s. It is
designed to be played on your computer DVD drive with standard mp3
software - like Windows media player or its equivalent on Macintosh
computers. The mp3 files on the DVDs can be copied onto CDs for
play in your car stereo, home entertainment center, etc so you can
take your favorite shows with you anywhere you go.
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