Joe McDoakes
Joe McDoakes is an American short-film comedy series produced and directed by Richard L. Bare for Warner Bros. A total of 63 black-and-white, live-action, one-reel films were produced and released between 1942 and 1956. The Joe McDoakes shorts are also known as the Behind the Eight Ball series or the So You Want... series. The character's name derives from Joe Doakes, which was a popular American slang term for the average man.
The theme song of the series is "I Know That You Know" by Vincent Youmans from his Broadway musical Oh, Please!, used later in the MGM musical Hit the Deck.
George O'Hanlon, who would later provide the voice of George Jetson in Hanna-Barbera's animated sitcom The Jetsons, starred as the series' title character, Joe McDoakes. These one-reel shorts were written by Bare and O'Hanlon, although Bare usually received sole screen credit as the writer. Art Gilmore served as the narrator through 1948. Gordon Hollingshead, who won five Academy Awards for producing other short subjects for Warner Bros., was also credited as a producer on the series until his death in 1952, although his role on this series was primarily as liaison between the studio and the director.
History
The series began with So You Want to Give Up Smoking, produced by Bare to teach his students at the University of Southern California the fundamentals of filmmaking. It was acquired by Warner Bros. for $2,500 and became the first of a series of short subjects. Only one more short was produced before World War II caused the suspension of the series, but production resumed in 1945 with So You Think You're Allergic.These first three shorts were filmed silent, with narration added in post-production in the manner of the popular Pete Smith shorts produced at MGM from 1931 to 1955. They also resembled the Smith shorts in their focus on actual, everyday problems in an instructional but humorous way.
In 1946, the series began using live sound recording, and the addition of dialogue afforded the films a new dimension. The action was now played strictly for laughs, with many familiar character actors such as Fritz Feld, Ralph Sanford, Philip Van Zandt, Fred Kelsey and Leo White frequently appearing. Semiregular actors included Clifton Young and later Del Moore as Joe's loudmouthed pal Homer, Rodney Bell as dumb Marvin and Ted Stanhope as an all-purpose authority figure. Many of the shorts are domestic comedies in which McDoakes persists in some sort of endeavor, with often disastrous consequences.
Warner Bros. contract player Jane Harker costarred as Joe's wife Alice in eight comedies, beginning with So You Want to Play the Horses in 1946 and ending with So You Want to Build a House in 1948. Screen newcomer Phyllis Coates assumed the role of Alice in So You Want to Be in Politics. Coates had married Bare that same year, and the working relationship would survive their later divorce. Former singing star Jane Frazee assumed the role beginning with So You Want to Be Your Own Boss, but Coates returned in 1956 for the last three installments. While the Alice character appeared in most of the shorts, the actresses playing the role were not credited. In several of the films, Alice does not appear, and in some, Joe is a bachelor, as there is no continuity between installments.
In the late 1940s, the series won three consecutive Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Short Subject, One-reel for So You Want to Be in Pictures, So You Want to Be on the Radio and So You Think You're Not Guilty. For most of the series' run, the shorts were the only live-action comedies offered in 10-minute length, making them attractive for theater owners to include in their programs. The series ran until 1956, when the decline of the studio system brought an end to the production of short subjects by Warner Bros. and most of the other Hollywood studios.
Cast and crew
Appearance credits for uncredited actors may be incomplete or incorrect because of inaccurate sources.Billed cast and crew
- George O'Hanlon - Joe McDoakes
- Art Gilmore - Narrator
- Knox Manning - Narrator
- Richard Bare - Director/Producer
- Gordon Hollingshead - Producer
- Cedric Francis - Producer
Alice McDoakes
- Jane Harker
- Phyllis Coates
- Jane Frazee
Character actors with 10 or more appearances
- Rodney Bell
- Fred Kelsey
- Ted Stanhope
- Clifton Young
Guest cast notable for other roles
- Arthur Q. Bryan, the voice of Elmer Fudd, appeared in So You Want a Model Railroad and So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger and substituted for Art Gilmore as the narrator in So You Want to Be a Policeman.
- George Chandler and Ronald Reagan, both future presidents of the Screen Actors Guild, appeared in the same short, So You Want to Be in Pictures.
- Iron Eyes Cody offered a "scalp" treatment to Joe in So You Want to Keep Your Hair.
- The screen duo of Doris Day and Gordon MacRae had a cameo in So You Want a Television Set.
- Charlie Hall, who served as the foil in many Laurel and Hardy shorts, made his last screen appearance in So You Want to Play the Piano.
- Lyle Talbot, a founding member of SAG, appeared in So You Want to Be Your Own Boss.
- Frank Nelson, frequent guest star on The Jack Benny Program and I Love Lucy, appeared in So You're Going to Have an Operation, So You Want to Be an Actor and So You Want to Know Your Relatives.