It's getting to be fun to watch those old The Name's the Same episodes on GSN. It's still a lousy game show and I still wince at some of the phony planted questions. (The other night, the panel had to guess that guest star Joan Alexander was going to display a photo of her new baby. Someone obviously told panelist Audrey Meadows to ask, "Is this something a woman would show off proudly if she'd just gotten engaged?" Ho-ho.) But the program's getting steadily more amusing thanks to the presence of hosts Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding.
For years in this country, every city had a radio station with at least one team of disc jockeys — usually the morning men — doing Bob and Ray. Sometimes, they did actual Bob and Ray material, shamelessly burgled. Other times, they just did funny interviews and soap opera parodies…though it's doubtful that all of them put together were half as funny as the genuine articles. I have about thirty hours of real Bob and Ray radio stuff on CD and it's quite brilliant, in large part thanks to a clever writer named Tom Koch. What Mssrs. Elliott and Goulding did seemed so effortless that a lot of people just assumed they ad-libbed it all. Not so. Most of it came from Mr. Koch, whose byline you may also be familiar with from decades of MAD Magazine. Not long ago, a small but overdue book came out about his career and you can purchase it here.
But to get back to Bob and Ray: Ray is no longer with us, sad to say, but I am reminded by Don Brockway that Bob Elliott will be 82 years old tomorrow. Don further reminds me that loads of vintage Bob and Ray material is available at The Official Bob and Ray Website. Moreover, he says, one can send Bob a Happy Birthday e-mail via that domain. I don't want to post the address exactly because that will cause them to receive a lot of Spam so do this: Address your e-mail to "Bob," then put an "@" sign. Then type "bobandray.com" and you'll have it. Don says all mail sent that way will be forwarded to the Birthday Boy.
I've always loved Bob and Ray. I've always thought they were good but I never realized how good. Not until I saw them actually make The Name's the Same entertaining.