Neil Simon's play The Sunshine Boys was about two old vaudevillians — a team that had split up and was reuniting for a TV performance. It was based very loosely on the old comedy duo of Smith and Dale.
Joe Smith and Charlie Dale teamed up in 1898 and performed as partners until 1971 when Mr. Dale passed away. They never split up like the characters Simon wrote. (That aspect of The Sunshine Boys parallels the true story of a couple of other comedy teams, most notably Weber and Fields.)
For the play, Simon wrote a sketch which his characters performed — a routine clearly inspired by the classic Smith and Dale sketch, "Doctor Kronkheit and His Only Living Patient." This clip, introduced by Jackie Gleason, is an abbreviated version of the Smith and Dale routine…and in case you're wondering, Smith is the patient and Dale is the doctor. It's from November of 1962…a CBS series called Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine. Thanks to Jim Engel for telling me about this one.
