DYNAMIC DUOS PART 11: GET READY TO SMILE AGAIN

Well, it's late afternoon as we approach the small house halfway up on the next block: the residence of Radio's homefolks Vic and Sade (arguably the most brilliantly-written comedy in the history of old-time radio). Vic & Sade was written by Paul Rhymer and for most of it's run consisted of 15 minute weekday programs sandwiched in between the regular soap operas. But Vic & Sade ain't no soap opera; it's simply the most amazing thing ever heard on old-time radio during the 30's and 40's. The scripts are actually comic literature. Victor R. Gook is the normally perplexed patriarch of the family while his wife Sade tries to keep order between Vic and their precocious son Rush. This is an almost impossible task (especially when Uncle Fletcher stops by to ramble on about something or other -- usually a hankerin' for those peanuts with the chocolate smeared on the outside).

Vic & Sade was actually the first show about nothing -- DECADES before Seinfeld. Entire episodes would literally revolve around a broken seat at the Bijou (pronounced Bye-Joe) Theater or Rush's attempt to collect a fruit jar filled with dirt from every state in the union. One show had the entire town traipsing thru the Gook home because they closed off the alley. Another found Vic inundated with bowls of chicken soup because somehow the rumour got started that Vic was getting sick (he wasn't). The show didn't feature jokes; the humour arose from the absurdist (almost surreal) writing. While swinging on a porch swing one August afternoon, Rush discusses with Sade his new business scheme selling bacon sandwiches: he'll have a pig tied up out back and when a customer orders a bacon sandwich Rush anesthetizes the pig, slices off some bacon, nurses the pig back to health then starts all over again. This saves the expense of having to keep buying pigs. Sade's response? The usual exclamation she makes when someone is talking nonsense: "Oh, ish!"

Rhymer's scripts have actually been published in book form and have been preserved as historic literature. While Vic & Sade takes place in stereotypical small-town America, things are actually quite bizarre. The show was set is such a place in order to turn such notions of smalltown normalcy upside down and reveal that people are just plain nuts -- all over -- in big cities OR small towns. As an obsessive member of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way (Vic's lodge . . . Vic belongs to the "Drowsy Venus" chapter of the lodge), I am the proud owner of quite a huge chunk of Vic & Sade radio broadcasts with which to assault you at a moments notice. So be warned. And always know that whenever you get home from work, dinner will not be ready because the beef punkles aren't cooked enough.