The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show was situation comedy which ran from 1948 to 1954 on the NBC radio network. Evolving from their earlier variety show, The Fitch Bandwagon, the show starred the egotistical singer-bandleader Phil Harris and his wife, actress-singer Alice Faye---both of whom proved excellent comedians---playing slightly fictionalized versions of themselves as a working radio and musical couple raising two young daughters in a slightly madcap home. The program was sponsored first by the Rexall drug company and, after a period of self-sustainment, RCA Victor.
Harris and Faye were radio veterans. Harris had been a mainstay and musical director for The Jack Benny Show. The couple's combined comic talents made them the obvious breakout stars of The Fitch Bandwagon, formed originally to showcase big bands, including Harris's. When announcer Bill Foreman hailed, "Good health to all . . . from Rexall!", The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show launched its independent life under Rexall's sponsorship, with a debut plot that recalled the fictitious day the couple signed their sponsorship deal.
In short order, the show was a success, partially due to being scheduled in NBC's powerhouse Sunday night lineup (Jack Benny and Fred Allen before them, and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy following them), but The Fitch Bandwagon had already made them a Sunday night presence, well before NBC moved other shows to that night.
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FIRST BROADCAST: September 29th 1946
LAST BROADCAST: June 18th 1954
SPONSORS: Fitch Shampoo, Rexall
CAST: Phil Harris, Alice Faye, Elliott Lewis, Walter Tetley, Jeanine Roose, Anne Whitfield, Robert North, John Hubbard, Gale Gordon, Frank Nelson, Sheldon Leonard, the Sportsmen Quartet
ORCHESTRA: Walter Scharf
ANNOUNCERS: Bill Forman
PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS: Paul Phillips
WRITERS: Ray Singer, Dick Chevillat, Ed James, Ray Bremner, Al Schwartz, Frank Gold
THEMES: Sunday, Rose Room, It’s a Big Wide Wonderful World
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show – 1948-1954
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