|
Lum and Abner
was a gentle and humorous serial set in a fictional
Arkansas town on the edge of the Ouachita Mountiains.
The main building in town was the general store and
post office. There was a blacksmith shop, a barbership,
the lodge hall, and Luke Spear's Lunch Room. Then there
was the Jot 'Em Down Store, operated by Lum Edwards
and Abner Peabody. The show opened with the lowkey words,
"And now, let's see what's going down in Pine Ridge."
The combination of comedy and soap opera was copied
somewhat from Amos & Andy, but unlike show
was inoffensive to everyone. This was country humor
in the tradition of Uncle Josh, but the characters became
quite developed over time. In 1936 when Lum campaigned
for president and offered campaign buttons to listeners,
the show thought they might need 5,000 buttons. They
received about 250,000 requests. In 1948 the show changed
formats, making more formulatic, reminiscent of what's
happened to many television shows today.
|
