The Abbott and Costello Show (TV Series) The Actors' Home (1953) User Reviews

Strange As It May Seem

[DKosty123 · 10/10 · 11 October 2010]

The Actors Home is used as the premise for the boys to do one of the more lively renditions of Whose on First. To me, this one has more life than the one in the movie as there seems to be more energy to it.

Bud & Lou are out looking for a job for Lou. This time, Lou starts selling papers on a street corner when an eccentric rich-man comes up & offers Lou money. Then a policeman tell Bud & Lou the man is from the Actors Home & is loony. So Bud tears up the money.

The policeman comes back & tells Bud he is mistaken & that the torn up money is real. Bud loses his mind & is dragged away to the actors home. The premise works well & then the classic routine is used to cap the episode. It is just as funny as always. I'm not sure who paid for the players, but I am sure what this is - funny.

"Who's On First?"

[JordanThomasHall · 8/10 · 12 July 2019]

Lou owes Stinky's bruiser brother $5, and he looks to come up with the money. Hungry, Mr. Bacciagalupe offers to pay Lou 50 cents to watch his ice cream stand while he goes to lunch. When Lou refuses to give Stinky free ice cream, Stinky sabotages his stand by secretly replacing the ice cream with limburger cheese. Lou's next job is selling newspapers on a street corner. J. Peter Stuyvesant (Thurston Hall), a leading philanthropist, gives Lou two $500 bills after he makes up a story of selling papers to put his mother through college. Soon two men come up to the man and haul him back to the retired actor's home, explaining that the retired eccentric actor played millionaire parts for so long he began to hand out phony money. Bud tears the money up. One of the men (Allen Jenkins) returns to clarify that the man was legitimate and only bore a resemblance to the one they were talking about. Bud loses his mind and the men haul him off to the retired actors home. He sends Lou a note to come to the home and help put on a show for the retired actors. Bud and Lou perform their legendary "Who's On First?" routine.

This is the classic "Who's On First?" routine, also seen in their film "The Naughty Nineties". The hilarious, iconic bit is the obvious highlight of the episode, constructed to set up the ending sketch.