So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948) User Reviews

So You Want to Be on the Radio was a much better Joe McDoakes short than my previous one

[tavm · 7/10 · 30 January 2009]

Having previously seen So You Want to Be a Detective on YouTube and thinking it was only slightly funny, I found this other Joe McDoakes comedy short in the Related Videos section and found this one a little better. In this one, McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are called to a radio quiz show in which Joe gets splashed with water or hit with pie on face every time his wife answers question wrong. (and how can she get any right when one of them asks to name all first 32 U.S. presidents!) They do get some consolation prizes among which is some tickets for another quiz show in which the host is so obvious about some clues, McDoakes seems a sure winner except...oh, watch the short. I think I liked this one better because there was more consistency in plot and characterization during the proceedings. And the way things twist at the turn of a dime was also very amusing. So on that note, I recommend So You Want to Be on the Radio.

Madcap....and I liked that.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 3 October 2012]

In this installment of the Joe McDoakes series (starring George O'Hanlon), Joe and his wife (Phyllis Coates) are amazingly lucky. During the short course of the film, they appear on three separate radio quiz shows! I could say more about what happens next, but I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you if they won or not or what they won--just watch it and see.

As the short played on Turner Classic Movies, my wife commented about how silly the film was--and I would agree. It was ridiculous--but also quite funny in a brainless, madcap way. My only negative comment is that in one portion, Joe is being tormented to the delight of the audience at the radio show. BUT, as they never describe what's happening, the people listening to the show at how would have no idea whatsoever what's occurring. This, oddly, is a relatively common cliché in movies involving radio--and is seen in other films such as "The Great American Broadcast".

TV game shows got their start on radio

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 1 July 2021]

Long before television and its plethora of game and quiz shows, radio had such shows. This 1948 short by Warner Brothers is a very good and funny spoof of the quiz and game shows that aired over radio before TV squeezed them out. Made in the series of Joe McDoakes, "So you want to," or "Behind the 8-ball" format, it stars George O'Hanlon in one of his many short comic roles. Phyllis Coates plays his wife, Alice; Fred Kelsey plays Senator Backtrack, and Jack Perrin plays the radio official.

One of the shows Joe tries to get on is called, "Aren't People Ridiculous." Joe says to Alice, "We can be as ridiculous as anyone else. Maybe even more so." The last show they get on is called "Double Up or Drop Dead."

What a great parody - years before some popular TV shows that would last for decades. And what laughs this provided. Here are the subjects from the blackboard on Double Up or Drop Dead. 1 - Mid Victorian Literature; 2 - Abyssinian Statesmen; 3 - Nuclear Fission; 4 - Einstein's Relativity; 5 - Social Habits of the Aborigines; 6 - Dynamic Tension; 7 - Girls; 8 - Protracted Physics.

This is a nice 10-minute short for some good laughs.

Two McDoakes shorts

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar nominated short with Joe McDoakes as he plays a husband who wishes he could get on a radio game show but once he does get there he wishes he didn't. I know these "So You Want to Be..." shorts are pretty popular but the four I've seen really haven't worked. They're mildly entertaining but they really don't contain too many laughs for me.

So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar nominated short shows the down side of trying to become a big movie star. There really aren't too many laughs here but lead Joe McDoakes is fun to watch. Ronald Reagon has a small cameo.

Well, Not Exactly Subtle..............

[redryan64 · 6/10 · 9 February 2016]

..............BUT THEN AGAIN, none are examples of that virtue. But we must consider both the genre, the sub-genre and the purpose for which the comedies were intended. We also should factor in the general successes of episodes, the longevity of the series and the recognition attributed to its star by the movie going audience.

WE MUST NEVER make any "Apples to Oranges" comparisons, lest we prejudice the chance of any objectivity.

IN ACTUALITY, ONE of these JOE Mc DOAKES comedies is a one reel, short cut to laughs; designed to be easily added to any theatre's programming. Having just half of the running time of the usual comedy short, this flexibility of schedule manipulation renders it both an advantageous addition and yet heavy on the comic material in regards to the laughs per minute of film footage ratio. That's a criteria term that we just coined. (That means 'made up', Schultz!)

AS IS THE usual case, this short takes a close look at certain universally recognized human foibles. In this particular it is a tendency for us to substitute certain truly unimportant or artificial cultural phenomena in our way of life for that which is truly important and uncontrollable.

GOOD EXAMPLES OF these surrogate activities are professional sports, the daily newspapers' gossip columns and popular broadcast programming; be it on Radio or Television. Any psychologist, even among those ranked as being "amateurs", will agree that these areas of endeavor provide us with harmless substitution for that which is truly serious.

AS AN EXAMPLE please allow us to offer the following. If my Baseball Team (in this case being the Chicago White Sox) does not win the Pennant and has an otherwise horrendous season, life will still go on.

SO AS WE join Joe & Alice Mc Doakes (George Hanlon and Phyllis Coates), we find that they are ardent fans of radio quiz shows. Like so many of us, they seek diversion from the daily rat race by way of entering program related contests by submitting their telephone number in show related call in contests. As would be the case for anyone, they listen faithfully; both hoping and praying for successful fulfillment.

THIS IS WHERE the typical humor of Writer/Director Richard Bare and (uncredited)Writer & Star George O'Hanlon vigorously kick into high gear. Their wildly exaggerated lampoon of such popular game show and audience participation types as PEOPLE ARE FUNNY, DOUBLE OR NOTHING and TRUTH OR CONSEQUENES are presented in rapid succession. All are easily recognizable and quite enjoyable and (in spite of some others' opinions) very funny.

WHEN WE CONSIDER the evaluation and in the reviewing of this or any other subject, we must consider the particular film's classification. Ergo, both GONE WITH THE WIND and the 3 Stooges' PUNCH DRUNKS may receive high marks; but that's because they're not in competition with each other.

THEN AGAIN, ON a truly serious and sobering note, it is the likes of these simple. little and non-pretentious snippets of film that are most revealing in human frailties; such as greed, selfishness and lack of charity toward others, or neighbors in the Fellowship of Man.

ALTHOUGH WE DID enjoy this installment, it was definitely not one of the best in the series. Gee, this means that the production team was only human! (Is this allowed in Hollywood, good buddy Schultz?)

Before there was "Who Wants to be a Millionaire . . . "

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 8 February 2014]

. . . before "Fear Factor," before "The Amazing Race," before "Let's Make a Deal," before "The $64,000 Question," before "American Gladiator," before "Survivor," before "Truth or Consequences" and before "Deal or No Deal" there were "Aren't People Ridiculous?" and "Double up or Drop Dead"--and BOTH WERE SPOOFS OF EVEN EARLIER "REALITY SHOWS"!! Contained in this 11-minute short of the "Joe McDoakes series," SO YOU WANT TO BE ON RADIO, George O'Hanlon as the title character makes his own amazing race to the Hollywood radio station originating "Double up or Drop Dead," when his wife refuses to hang up on his mother-in-law on their home's only land line, despite the radio show broadcasting that a call to Joe is in progress. Once he gets there, things do not exactly turn out for the best, and his fleet footwork brings in a lot less loot than he got for the Fear Factor-type abuse he suffered in "Aren't People Ridiculous?" However, this short is much funnier than SO YOU WANT TO BE A DETECTIVE, another of the more accessible offerings in this series.

Aren't People Ridiculous?

[wes-connors · 8/10 · 20 February 2011]

This episode of the Warner Bros. series "(Behind the 8-Ball with) Joe McDoakes" will be recognizable to most viewers as strongly resembling an "I Love Lucy" TV script (featuring guest Frank Nelson). "Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio", "The Quiz Show" and "Females Are Fabulous" should ring a bell. Like a lot of early television workers, Lucy's writers borrowed vociferously from her older radio show, and other sources. While this short doesn't feature Lucille Ball, it's still pretty funny - especially the scenes with George O'Hanlon (as George O'Hanlon) and those fast-talking radio quiz-masters.

******** So You Want to Be on the Radio (11/6/48) Richard Bare ~ George O'Hanlon, Phyllis Coates, Clifton Young

Hopelessly silly satire on radio and quiz shows during the '40s...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 14 February 2008]

What passed for humor in the '40s is quite different than today's silliness and nowhere is this more evident than in some of these Joe McDoake comedy shorts that people thought were so hilariously funny in the '40s.

This one attempts to spoof a couple who are crazy about radio quiz shows and get called frequently to participate in them. McDoake (GEORGE O'HANLON) makes a fool of himself over and over again, failing even to answer simple questions like "Who wrote 'The Last of the Mohicans' by James Fenimore Cooper?", and fluffing the answer while his exasperated wife can't believe how dumb he is. Very funny, sure.

O'Hanlon is reasonably okay as a comedian but the script is so foolish, it's sometimes painful to watch. These sort of comedy shorts drew chuckles in the '40s as fillers between double features, but everything about the radio era is so dated today that it all seems even worse than it is. Can't give this a good recommendation, even to nostalgia buffs.

Back in the 1900s, media contests were not always as practical . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 28 July 2015]

. . . as today's offerings, with their call-in contestant prize packages, SO YOU WANT TO BE ON THE RADIO documents. A case in point is the popular nightly show highlighted here, called "The Sneezing Man Program." Many of the items presented to the Champion Sneezers were not particularly useful. What can a person do with an "over-aged destroyer" propped up in their back yard? It might prove a popular novelty as a kids' clubhouse for the first week, and the neighbor tykes could help you consume your two box cars' worth of Hawaiian pineapples (another prize component) at your Captain's Table. But after the first few days, your destroyer's doomed to become just an "attractive nuisance," demanding 750 gallons of paint for each semi-annual treatment. The steam locomotive would most likely be in the same boat as your obsolete warship, and you'd have to possess a pretty spacious lawn to accommodate the 40 miles of track awarded with it. The 10,000 gallons of "fresh swimming pool water" might not be enough to float your boat, especially if you do not have a swim pool to begin with. The copper steam boiler would have a much higher scrap value today than in 1948, so I guess you could just keep THAT around for the grandkids. Presumably the Empire State Building and Schenectady, NY, would remain where they are, and you--as their new owner--could just relax and wait for the rent checks to roll in. Having your $2 million in cash accompanied by a bank vault is one of the few helpful aspects of this prize package--who can REALLY trust their neighbors? I think I'd use half that money to add five or ten stories to the height of my front turret, thereby increasing the value of the "gold-plated elevator shaft" thrown in as the final Sneezing Man prize component.