Phil Is Directed to Fire His Band
RCA decides to cut costs by eliminating Phil's orchestra, leaving Phil with the painful task of telling his own musicians that they are being fired.
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show turns two real entertainment personalities into exaggerated radio versions of themselves. Harris plays the boastful bandleader who is forever overestimating his own cleverness, while Alice Faye supplies the steadier voice at home. Family life, music, money and show business all become part of the same comic household.
NBC comedy/situation-comedy and music vehicle starring fictionalized versions of Phil Harris and Alice Faye with a recurring family, band and supporting cast.
The run breaks into several distinct periods: Fitch Bandwagon: Phil Harris-Alice Faye era (September 29, 1946 to May 23, 1948) on NBC Radio Network, Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show: Rexall era (October 3, 1948 to June 4, 1950) on NBC Radio Network, and Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show: RCA era (October 1, 1950 to June 18, 1954) on NBC Radio Network.
Names that turn up again and again in the surviving run include Elliott Lewis (performer), Phil Harris (performer), Alice Faye (performer), Bill Forman (announcer), Walter Tetley (performer), Anne Whitfield (performer), and Jeanine Roos (performer).
Across its run, the surviving broadcasts are tied to NBC Radio Network, Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, and Armed Forces Radio Service.
The stories often return to music, bands and performance, family and domestic life, money, shopping and household finances, radio work and broadcasting, pets and animals, and travel and vacation.
The show also sits in a wider radio history that includes Postwar domestic and family situation comedy, Commercial sponsorship in network radio comedy, and Hollywood celebrity adapted to radio domestic comedy.
If you are following the same actors and creative circles, related programs worth opening next include Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Directors Playhouse, The Railroad Hour, The Whistler, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
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RCA decides to cut costs by eliminating Phil's orchestra, leaving Phil with the painful task of telling his own musicians that they are being fired.
Phil and Frankie hide beneath the house to escape Alice's spring cleaning, only for a neighbor searching for her lost dog to mistake the noises under the floor for her…
Phil and Alice proudly watch their daughters appear on a television variety show, only to see the nervous girls forget details about their famous father and struggle through their performance.
After Phil and Frankie lose their money at the racetrack, their search for more betting cash is interrupted when Julius goes missing and the situation becomes far more serious.
After their contract is renewed, Phil and Alice arrange a surprise thank-you party for sponsor Mr. Scott, but even the tribute song written for him threatens to insult the guest…
Returning from a long personal-appearance tour, Phil discovers that the supposedly empty Harris home has become something very different while the family was away.
After the neighborhood goes days without mail, Phil and Elliot become entangled in the mystery of the missing deliveries while Elliot's habit of using the Harris address complicates the investigation.
After his television debut, Phil becomes unbearably convinced he is a glamorous screen star, turning breakfast and family life into an exaggerated display of celebrity vanity.
Little Alice prepares for her first dance and first date, while an overprotective Phil reacts badly to her makeup, party dress, and the realization that his daughter is growing up.
Phyllis's mangled history homework pushes Phil into civic-minded action, and he becomes involved in an effort to encourage people to vote.
Alice plans a belated surprise costume party for Phil, while Elliot lures him out of the house with a fake Navy reunion so the celebration can be prepared in secret.
When Alice secretly plans to buy an antique shop with Willie's help, Phil and Elliot eavesdrop and decide they can prove themselves the better businessmen.
Phil secretly plans to use his scarce USC-UCLA football tickets with Elliot while dodging a shopping trip Alice expects him to take, forcing him into an increasingly shaky cover story.
After Elliot's poker game leaves Phil with no memory of the previous night, Alice's questions force Phil and Elliot into increasingly desperate attempts to reconstruct what happened.
Phil and Alice learn from the newspaper that Julius has been jailed on suspicion of theft, sending the household into a frantic effort to understand what happened and help him.
A misunderstanding over Christmas gifts convinces Phil that Mr. Scott wants an elephant, so Phil proudly arrives with a full-sized live one as his present.
Phil reluctantly plays Santa for a women's club party, endures merciless teasing from the children, then regains his enthusiasm when one little boy sincerely believes he is the real Santa.
Phil wants a quiet New Year's Eve at home, but Alice secretly invites fifty guests and tries to keep him from filling the house with his own rowdy musician friends.
Phil resolves to become a devoted husband and drags Alice into his idea of a perfect day, but she and Elliot scare him out of a duck-hunting trip by making…
When Elliot accidentally breaks the garbage disposal after Sunday dinner, Phil insists he can repair the kitchen sink himself and turns a minor problem into a household repair disaster.
Phil's attempt to paint a grand self-portrait feeds his artistic vanity before the episode turns to the costly romantic misunderstanding behind the celebrated eight-hundred-dollar kiss.
Phil arrives at an RCA Victor board meeting convinced his technical genius is needed for the new television line, only to learn the company has a very different kind of…
Under the influence of supposed cousin Andrew Fast Horse, Phil fully embraces a new identity as 'Phil Fast Horse,' imposing his imagined Mohican customs on an increasingly exasperated family.
Phil's belief that he is the last Mohican becomes dangerous when a rival tribal brave arrives to finish an ancient feud, forcing Phil into increasingly desperate disguises and escape schemes.
Phil believes a supposed Mohican ancestry entitles him to free tuition and whiskey at Dartmouth, but his enthusiasm collapses when Alice exposes the birth-certificate scheme as another swindle.
Fresh from one investment swindle, Phil immediately lets Elliot tempt him with a four-dimensional camera whose eccentric inventor stages a demonstration in which the audience supposedly sees actors all around…
Phil secretly saves enough money to surprise Alice with a mink cape, but Elliot's racetrack temptation and a hurried visit to the furrier set up a costly mix-up.
While cleaning his cluttered desk, Phil finds a mysterious phone number among Alice's old papers and convinces himself it may connect her to a dangerous gang leader.
Needing a substitute while he travels, Phil tries to pass Julius off as a talented replacement through lip-syncing, but the sponsor instead selects two unknowns whose stage names turn out…
Phil returns furious after learning Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis have substituted for him, then launches into schemes to protect his own radio job from the successful comedy team.
Phil forgets to buy Easter-egg dye and improvises his own solution, turning the family's holiday egg coloring into another misguided Harris experiment.
Phyllis joins a children's homemaking club and becomes eager to practice first aid on Phil, who desperately tries to avoid becoming her unwilling patient.
Willie announces a sudden engagement to Chloe, whose sharp interest in the family's wealth convinces Phil and Alice she is a fortune hunter and sends them plotting to break up…
In this AFRS version, Willie announces his engagement to Chloe, and her immediate interest in the family's valuables convinces Phil and Alice to stage elaborate deceptions meant to expose her…
Phil, Alice, Elliot, and Julius tour Tijuana, where a persistent mariachi band shadows them and openly mocks Phil's singing while refusing to leave the group alone.
Elliot wins two tickets to the Orient and invites Phil along, immediately tempting Phil with a free overseas adventure that Alice may not be eager to approve.
Phil forgets Mother's Day until the last possible moment and scrambles to find Alice a suitable gift after arriving home with nothing but his dirty laundry.
When the children want a swimming pool, Phil and Elliot try to save money with a cheaper do-it-yourself solution that quickly becomes another Harris household misadventure.
Phil's terror of the dentist backfires when a demonstration for Alice reveals that he needs an extraction too, leaving both Phil and Elliot trapped in dental chairs and tormented by…
Protective gangster Grogan decides Elliot must marry his sister after a bad blind date, while a terrified Elliot tries to escape both the romance and Grogan's pressure.
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