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30-418: It was formed as the record label supporting a national talent search, The Big Music America Contest, developed by Kenneth Kramer with support from Harold Stream, a Louisiana businessman and Dr. Donald Altfeld, a songwriter and music producer best known for co-writing " The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena) " by Jan and Dean and co-producing "It Never Rains In Southern California" by Albert Hammond. Originally

60-701: A CD in the UK. These radio episodes may be in the public domain , and CDs containing the entire run of My Favorite Husband in the MP3 format are offered by several private vendors through eBay and other sites, such as the Internet Archive . In July 2018, I Love Lucy: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, a comedy play by Gregg Oppenheimer (son of series creator Jess Oppenheimer ), had its world premiere in

90-622: A minor crisis or problem, typically caused by one of Liz's funny ideas; the resolution of the problem filled the rest of the time. Each episode would end with Liz saying, "Thanks, George. You're my favorite husband." Beginning with the 26th episode, on January 7, 1949, the last name of Lucille Ball's character was changed to Cooper. On this same episode the series, which had begun as a sustaining program , acquired Jell-O as its sponsor. An average of three "plugs" for Jell-O would be made in each episode. The first sponsored episode, titled "Over Budget Beans," opened with: A total of 124 episodes of

120-463: A pistol, telling him "This gun was only fired once -- to kill a little old lady in Pasadena". The song was one of many California related songs played throughout "Sunshine Plaza" in the original Disney California Adventure . The Dead Kennedys satirized the concept in their own song "Buzzbomb from Pasadena," where an elderly driver likewise terrorizes the city with her driving before getting into

150-518: A popular punchline for many comedians, particularly Johnny Carson , who often invoked it when he took The Tonight Show to Los Angeles before permanently moving it there in 1972. In "the Gunslinger", the last episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show to be filmed (though it was not the last aired), Rob dreams he is a sheriff in the Old West , where a gun salesman ( Allan Melvin ) tries to sell him

180-589: A shootout with police at a 7-Eleven The song is featured in the Animaniacs episode "Little Old Slappy from Pasadena", where Slappy Squirrel drives all over town to deliver a letter. The episode ends with her revealing that she never took driving lessons and being arrested. The song is featured on the 1993 kids' surf-rock CD, "Camp California: Where The Music Never Ends;" it is performed by Kath Soucie, Nancy Cartwright, Jess Harnell, Hal Rayle and Susan Boyd. My Favorite Husband My Favorite Husband

210-690: A vintage 1950s Cadillac , Ford , Packard , Studebaker , DeSoto , or La Salle . According to the story, used car salesmen would tell prospective buyers that the previous owner of a vehicle was "a little old lady from Pasadena who only drove it to church on Sundays," thus suggesting the car had little wear. The session musicians who played on this record (who were collectively known as The Wrecking Crew ) included Leon Russell on piano; Tommy Tedesco , Bill Pitman and Billy Strange on guitar; Ray Pohlman and Jimmy Bond on bass; and Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer on drums. Backing vocals were provided by The Honeys . Singer/songwriter P. F. Sloan sings

240-456: Is the name of an American radio program and network television show . The original radio show, starring Lucille Ball , evolved into the groundbreaking television sitcom I Love Lucy . The series was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) written by Isabel Scott Rorick , the earlier of which had previously been adapted into

270-533: The Paramount Pictures feature film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942), co-starring Ray Milland and Betty Field . My Favorite Husband was first broadcast as a one-time special on CBS Radio on July 5, 1948. CBS's new series Our Miss Brooks had been delayed coming to the air, so to fill in the gap that week CBS aired the audition program (the radio equivalent of a television pilot ) for My Favorite Husband . Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played

300-708: The Budweiser Showdown Talent Search Contest. Participating Radio Stations included WRKS, NY, WBMX Chicago, KJLH and KDAY in Los Angeles and KMJQ and KYOK in Houston. Recording of all individual tracks was handled by the bands and occasionally the radio station. The individual tapes to be included on the album were then sent to Starstream where they were mixed and mastered onto tape and sent off to be mastered onto disc. Cook Sound, owned by local Houston radio personality Dwight Cook

330-484: The Starstream label include WCOZ, Boston; WAPP, New York, WPDH Poughkeepsie, KLOL, Houston, KLOS, Los Angeles and KSJO, San Jose. Alumni of Starstream albums include Bon Jovi (WAPP), Twisted Sister (WAPP), Jon Butcher (WCOZ) and The Replacements & Peter Himmelman (KQDS) and WARHEAD (WZLD - Columbia SC) (@warhead) (www.heavenandhellrecords.com) The Soul/R&B titles released by Starstream were part of

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360-589: The TV show's run. For example, the March 18, 1949, radio episode titled "Giveaway Program" inspired the November 24, 1952, I Love Lucy episode "Redecorating". Many of the actors who appeared on My Favorite Husband on radio later appeared on I Love Lucy , often in episodes where they reprised their original roles from a reworked My Favorite Husband script. During the first season of I Love Lucy Gale Gordon twice played

390-456: The audience reaction to this joke that this was a well-known running gag by this time. Later that week, on the December 23, 1949 radio episode of My Favorite Husband , Lucille Ball's character Liz Cooper jokes about getting a used sleigh "only pulled by an elderly reindeer from Pasadena." Both her character's husband, George Cooper (played by Richard Denning) and the studio audience laugh at

420-452: The characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch My Favorite Husband as a series. Bowman was not available to do the series, so when it debuted later that month it starred Lucille Ball and Richard Denning as the leads. The couple lived at 321 Bundy Drive in the fictitious city of Sheridan Falls, and were billed as "two people who live together and like it." The episode would feature

450-435: The couple's name to Cooper and remade them into a middle-class couple, which they thought average listeners would find more accessible. In March 1949, Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George's boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. One discovery made during the run of the show was that Lucille Ball performed comedy far better when she played to an audience. In 1950, Lucille Ball

480-412: The end. A few of the early Budweiser Showdown discs were also pressed at Houston Record Plant. The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena) " The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena) " is a song written by Don Altfeld, Jan Berry and Roger Christian , and recorded by 1960s American pop singers Jan and Dean . Jan & Dean reworked the lyrics from "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" in 1967, renaming

510-470: The falsetto part usually sung by Dean Torrence, while Dean sings one of the backup parts. This was the first time Sloan sang the falsetto on a single, although he had already sung some falsetto on the last album Dead Man’s Curve/The New Girl In School . In 1964, the song reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number one on Canada's RPM chart. During the 1960s, the term became

540-431: The gags were funny; some pretty drab." CBS brought My Favorite Husband to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The couple now resembled their earliest radio version, with George Cooper a well-to-do bank executive and with plots dealing with the couple's society life. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955. Reruns of

570-749: The label was known as Nova Records and the first release was Nova Records MS7801 - The Best of Mississippi. Later, when the contest changed from the Big Music America Contest to the Miller High Life Rock To Riches Talent Search, the operating company was changed from Big Music America to Starstream Communications Group. Approximately 250 albums and singles were released by Starstream as part of local rock , soul and Hispanic music talent searches conducted by Starstream and local radio stations in top US markets. Radio stations releasing LPs on

600-546: The program aired from July 23, 1948, through March 31, 1951. It was initially written by Frank Fox and Bill Davenport, who were the writers for radio's Ozzie and Harriet . The show portrayed the Cugats as a well-to-do banker and his socially prominent wife. That fall, after about ten episodes had been written, Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll Jr. , Madelyn Pugh , and head writer/producer/director Jess Oppenheimer . They subsequently changed

630-408: The recording studio to initiate them in the surf music genre. The origins of "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" stem from a very popular Dodge ad campaign in southern California that launched in early 1964. Starring actress Kathryn Minner , the commercials showed the white-haired elderly lady speeding down the street (and sometimes a drag strip) driving a modified Dodge. She would stop, look out

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660-524: The reference. In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock uses the phrase “a little old lady from Pasadena” in one of his intros for his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents . "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" was a folk archetype in Southern California in the mid-20th century. Part of this lore was that many an elderly man who died in Pasadena would leave his widow with a powerful car that she rarely, if ever, drove, such as an old Buick Roadmaster , or

690-562: The role of the boss, and the May 26, 1952, episode titled "Lucy's Schedule" was a rewrite of the April 22, 1949, My Favorite Husband episode "Time Schedule" (also called "Budgeting Time".) A review of the July 5, 1948 audition episode in the trade publication Variety was very positive. It praised the show's "adult, smart scripting that never plays down to its audience." However it also noted that

720-467: The series were broadcast during summer 1957. The show was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season, filmed at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown . Though the radio show was never commercially released on its own CD or DVD collections, at least one episode can be found on each disk from the I Love Lucy DVD releases. In 2003, two episodes were released together on

750-478: The show's current writers would depart after the summer run, and "That's when the real test for Favorite Husband will come". A later review of the January 7, 1949, episode stated that the program had "gone a little pat", describing the content as "a little pedestrian and synthetic." It noted that part of the content was amusing but said "dialog strained a little too much for effect and laughs", concluding, "Some of

780-545: The television sponsor. Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet , who played the Atterburys, were both given first consideration for the roles that would become Fred and Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy , but both had contract conflicts that forced them to turn down the roles. Writers Bob Carroll Jr. , Madelyn Pugh Davis and Jess Oppenheimer all agreed to continue with I Love Lucy . They subsequently reworked numerous My Favorite Husband episodes into I Love Lucy episodes early in

810-716: The track "Tijuana" and releasing it as a single that same year. The lyrics now contained thinly-veiled references to marijuana use. "Tijuana" was to be included on the act's final album Carnival of Sound , completed in 1969, but the LP went unreleased for several decades. The record was circulated as a bootleg until it garnered official release in 2010. The song was performed live by The Beach Boys at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on August 1, 1964, for inclusion on their No. 1 album Beach Boys Concert . The Beach Boys, and particularly Brian Wilson , who co-wrote several of Jan & Dean's biggest surf hits, had supported Jan & Dean in

840-476: The window and say "Put a Dodge in your garage, Hon-ey!". The song soon followed and Minner enjoyed great popularity until she died in 1969. On December 18, 1949, on an episode of the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy radio show with June Allyson, a joke about a used horse being owned by an old lady in Pasadena was made. (See Old Time Radio Show Downloads, etc. for first hand material.) It appears evident by

870-448: Was asked to do a television version of the show, and CBS and Jell-O both insisted that Richard Denning continue as her co-star. Ball refused to do it without real-life husband Desi Arnaz playing her on-screen husband. The network reluctantly agreed, and the concept was reworked into I Love Lucy after Ball and Arnaz took a show on the road to convince the network that audiences would respond. Jell-O dropped out and Philip Morris became

900-630: Was used for most of the mastering. The early master discs were cut by Bernie Grundman at Capitol Records and then later M.C, Rather at Columbia Records in Nashville and Carl Rowatti at Truetone in New York. Pressing was originally done at Columbia Records Custom Pressing in Indiana and New Jersey. Later, (early mid 80's), pressing moved to Peter Pan Industries in New Jersey where it stayed until

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