Our Inductees: Burns and Allen

Biography

Burns and Allen were the 16th inductees into the Official National Comedy Hall of Fame®. Burns and Allen was an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen.

They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years. Burns was the straight man and Allen was a silly, addle-headed woman. The duo starred in a number of movies including Lambchops (1929), The Big Broadcast (1932) and two sequels in 1935 and 1936, and A Damsel in Distress (1937).

Their 30-minute radio show debuted in September 1934 as The Adventures of Gracie, whose title changed to The Burns and Allen Show in 1936; the series ran, moving back and forth between NBC and CBS, until May 1950. After their radio show’s cancellation, Burns and Allen reemerged on television with a popular situation comedy, which ran from 1950 to 1958.

Burns and Allen’s radio show was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1994. Their TV series received a total of 11 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and produced what TV Guide ranked No. 56 on its 1997 list of the 100 greatest episodes of all time. They were inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1988

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