The Radio Planet
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program cover art
Radio

The Jack Benny Program

NBC

NBC · 1932–1955

Broadcasts

642

Cadence

Fortnightly

Rated

PG

Since

1932

The run

Network
NBC
Years active
1932–1955
Surviving broadcasts
642
Genre
comedy

Radio's most durable comedy: Jack Benny (1894–1974) as the vain, penny-pinching thirty-nine-year-old, with Mary Livingstone, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson. The programme began on NBC in May 1932 and moved to CBS in January 1949 after the Paramount talent raid; the radio series ended on 22 May 1955.

1945 · 11944 · 11943 · 11942 · 11941 · 11940 · 11939 · 11938 · 11937 · 11936 · 11934 · 11932 · 1

Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files

Clean transfer · 2 of 40Listenable · 1 of 40Rough but complete · 37 of 40

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: JackBenny1

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

12 dated broadcasts across 24 years on the air, with 12 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from 1932, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. JB 1932-05-02 First show · 2 May 1932
  2. 2. JB 1934-04-27 New Hampshire Through a Keyhole · 27 Apr 1934
  3. 3. JB 1936-11-08 Girls dormitory (8 min only) · 8 Nov 1936
  • 01

    JB 1932-05-02 First show

    2 May 1932 · 30 min

    Originally broadcast on NBC, 2 May 1932. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 02

    JB 1934-04-27 New Hampshire Through a Keyhole

    27 Apr 1934 · 3 min

  • 03

    JB 1936-11-08 Girls dormitory (8 min only)

    8 Nov 1936 · 9 min

    Originally broadcast on NBC, 8 November 1936. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 04

    JB 1937-03-21 A Day In Our Lives

    21 Mar 1937 · 29 min

  • 05

    JB 1938-02-13 Robert Taylor Plays Duet With Jack

    13 Feb 1938 · 30 min

    Originally broadcast on NBC, 13 February 1938. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 06

    JB 1939-05-28 Alexander Graham Bell

    28 May 1939 · 29 min

  • 07

    JB 1940-04-07 Jack Revives Buck Benny After 3 Years

    7 Apr 1940 · 29 min

    Originally broadcast on NBC, 7 April 1940. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 08

    JB 1941-12-28 Jack Talks About His Christmas Party

    28 Dec 1941 · 22 min

Also on NBC

NBC in 1932–1955

Other series the network carried while The Jack Benny Program was on the air.

Same seasons

comedy on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

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