Gracie Explains the News

Bill Goodwin (announcer): It’s morning in the Burns’ home and Gracie, the house wife, has cleared away the breakfast dishes. Now Gracie, the newspaper columnist, is ready to clear away the problems of the world.

Gracie: My the paper is full of news this morning. I hardly know which item to explain to the readers of my column.

George: You explain the news to them?

Gracie: Oh, yes. Everyone doesn’t have my uncanny grasp of world affairs. I’m not the average person, George.

George: That I’ve known for years.

Gracie’s Accident (III)

Scripts for this episode:

• Walk, Don’t Run

Burns and Allen Show: Harry’s Secretary (III)

Burns and Allen Show: Harry’s Secretary (II)

Bill Goodwin

From moviefone

It is misleading to label film-actor Bill Goodwin as a “former radio announcer,” since he never truly left announcing. Signed on the basis of his radio credentials to a Paramount movie contract in 1942, Goodwin seldom rose above “hero’s best friend” roles, though he was allowed to play the nominal hero in the Universal scarefest House of Horrors (1946). The biggest movie success with which Goodwin was associated was The Jolson Story (1946), in which he played Al Jolson’s (fictional) agent Tom Baron; he repeated the characterization in the 1949 sequel, Jolson Sings Again. Even while pursuing his film career, Goodwin remained a familiar radio presence. For many years, he was the announcer on The Burns and Allen Show, his fictional persona being that of a skirt-chasing bachelor. He remained with Burns and Allen during their first season on television, leaving the series in 1951 to host his own local New York TV program. Later, Goodwin emceed the 1955 summer-replacement quiz show Penny to a Million, and in 1956 he was the announcer for the first prime-time network cartoon series, Gerald McBoing Boing. Bill Goodwin died of a heart attack in 1958 at the age of 47. – Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide