Fibber McGee and Molly on the Air 1935-1959 Quotes

“A Quinn quote of note that Fibber hopes will make Reader’s Digest is an explanation of why nature is always referred to as she: “Nature is inconsistent, unstable, unpredictable, beautiful, mean, gorgeous, appealing, nasty, and nobody yet has ever understood her.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Broadcast just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, this episode provides ample evidence that everyone involved with Fibber McGee and Molly is behind the war effort, from Wilcox’s reading a telegram from Johnson’s Wax authorizing NBC to break in with any news bulletins to Harlow’s appeal to buy defense bonds at the close which leads into a stirring version of the first verse of a patriotic hymn sung by everyone in attendance.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Fibber McGee and Molly boasted one of the strongest line-ups of any comedy program. Harold Peary, Bea Benaderet, Gale Gordon, Dick LeGrand, and Arthur Q. Bryan possessed some of the better-known voices on the air; Bill Thompson alone owned a handful of them.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Fans who insist that the voice of Myrt was never heard on the show will learn that she did appear one time at 79 Wistful Vista to wish the McGees well for the summer.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Fibber is probably the only adult in Wistful Vista who prefers a synopsis of a cartoon to that of a feature film.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Using the malapropisms percolator and prefabricated and going full speed ahead relentlessly, Fibber and the writers are in fine form as they usually are when McGee plays that old familiar strain “I fought the law and the law won.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Dissatisfied with the Christmas cards at Kremer’s Drugstore, Fibber and Molly look over a selection brought to their home by one of Wallace Wimple’s acquaintances. Writer: Phil Leslie Sponsors: Prudential, RCA Victor; promo for NBC programs Comments: This episode brings back the “those were the days” feeling when only drugstores were open on Sundays and greeting cards cost a dime each.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Years before Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, Fibber is preaching the advantages of buying in volume, selling for less than competitors, and using a club which provides savings for members.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Fibber’s statement of “If I ever get to be 91…” is prophetic for that is the age Jim Jordan was when he died in 1988. The Old Timer celebrates his birthday on January 1st and claims to be 89 years old. Judging by the cost of the dinner, an evening of food and film for three adults in 1954 was about $6.00, less than the price of admission for one at a cineplex today.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The reminiscing that the McGees do invokes one of the laws of nostalgia: nothing today tastes (or looks or smells or feels) as good as the way we remember it in our youth.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Summary: The McGees endure a harrowing experience trying to get off a freeway filled with fast-moving vehicles. Writers: Phil Leslie, Len Levinson Sponsors: PSAs for American economic system, Easter Seals; promo by Jay Stewart for It Pays To Be Married Comments: This show was heard very early in the freeway era, at a time when McGee felt he was cruising at forty-five miles an hour, a speed motorists adopt on city streets today.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The story told to Teeny is also different, the 1950 tale about rabbits because of it being closer to Easter and this story about cuckoos. Transcriptions of earlier shows were used to produce this episode. When Marian was still not well enough to return after three weeks of repeats, new shows were written.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Although Fibber has put on airs a number of times speaking in a formal British dialect, this is the first time he adopts sixteenth-century language, the topper being his question after he breaks a knickknack: “What the hecketh was that?”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Ed’s reason for breaking up with Debbie Lynn (played by Gloria McMillan) is that she got married. Actually, Gloria was busy doing episodes of Our Miss Brooks for television and radio as was Gale Gordon which is why Gordon appears in only thirteen Fibber McGee and Molly episodes during the 1952-1953 season and three of those are repeats of shows from previous years.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Anyone who remembers licking stamps before the days of self-adhesives will appreciate Fibber’s description that the last batch he had “tasted like a rubber floor mat out of the engine room of a diesel-powered Scandinavian tuna boat.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“during the Don Quinn years, but Leslie and Fowler came up with dandies of their own, including two from this episode: “He’s more rattled than a gourd in a rumba band” and “I’m as nervous as a mother clam taking her kids past a chowder factory.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Shrimpboats” (The King’s Men, vocal)”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Betty Wand, who complements the King’s Men nicely on “Dearie,” was an unseen presence in a number of motion pictures, most notably dubbing songs for Leslie Caron in Gigi and Rita Moreno in West Side Story.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“LaTrivia delivers a Quinn and Leslie quote of note when he draws this line of distinction: “A statesman is always out to get his country the best deal he can. A politician is always out to get his.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“This is the only sixty-minute episode in the program’s history. The purpose of this special broadcast is primarily to promote NBC shows returning to the air for the new season. Bob Hope’s comment, “There’s only a few of us left,” refers to The Jack Benny Program, Amos ’n’ Andy, and other shows which had moved to CBS.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The writers tease listeners a bit by having Fibber mention something in the closet twice before lowering the boom with LaTrivia. The Old Timer claims to be 116.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The titles of both musical selections are in the same key as the show’s theme this week.This is another of the pun-filled episodes right up to Fibber’s closing line. Ideas come from many places, but if Charles Schulz had listened to Fibber’s mixture of disparate plotlines that never come together, the bit might have been filed away in his subconscious until awakened years later by a beagle sitting in front of a typewriter on a doghouse.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Bud Stefan appears for the first time. An indication of the strength of the dollar in 1949 (or the weakness of it now) is that Molly says that 1,000 pounds is equivalent to $4,000.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“Sometimes the adage of the simplest things in life being the best (jokes included) is true as evidenced by Fibber’s pithy comment on the Old Timer’s short career of being shot out of a cannon: “You mean, they fired you and then you quit.” In the tag Jim and Marian acknowledge the contribution of Ken Darby, who eventually will win three Oscars of his own, in helping “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” win the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The McGees visit the Book Nook to buy Horatio Alger novels they plan to resell to a book collector.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“If the first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin used as a doorstop worth $200 in 1947 was the first printing in cloth published in two volumes in 1852, its current value would exceed $3,000.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“This episode plays wonderfully on radio because, just as the raft fills the room, so the imaginations of listeners expand to their fullest to visualize the incongruous scene and the expressions on the faces of thunderstruck visitors. “The Curious Thing About Women” episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in which Laura Petrie opens a package which contains a life raft, is funny, but the raft doesn’t consume the whole room as the McGee raft extends to all corners of our minds.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The McGees get a close view of the effects of inflation when a sixteen-man raft fills their living room, leaving little room for living.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“The name of the judge is a takeoff on Judge Crater, the man whose unexplained disappearance was the subject of as many jokes in the thirties and forties as Jimmy Hoffa in recent times.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959

“A Quinn and Leslie quote of note is Fibber’s citing the political lesson to be learned from The Spirit of ’ 76: “If you’re on the left, you make shrill noises; if you’re on the right, you get ready to beat it; and if you get caught in the middle, you start waving the flag.”
― Clair Schulz, FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY ON THE AIR, 1935-1959