Wayne and Shuster:The Radio Years Now Available on CD

Wayne and Shuster, who won international acclaim for their distinctive gentle satiric sketches, were the founding fathers of English Canadian comedy. Appearing fairly regularly on CBC radio and television from the 1940s until Wayne's death in 1990, they helped to pave the way for such successful Canadian acts as the Royal Canadian Air Farce and Kids in the Hall.

They made a record-setting 67 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and edited versions of their many specials for CBC TV were highly popular in U.S. syndication. Over the years, they also made frequent appearances on the BBC and won numerous awards, including the illustrious Silver Rose of Montreux.

In 1942 they left the CBC to join the infantry and were soon writing and performing for the big Army Show. They toured military bases across Canada and later, when the show was split into smaller units, took the Invasion Review into Normandy after D-Day. Later they wrote a 52-week series for veterans and spent six weeks entertaining the Commonwealth Division in Korea.

In 1946 they returned to CBC Radio on the Wayne and Shuster
Show, broadcast live at 9:30 P.M. Thursdays. It was one of the few Canadian programs to compete successfully against American imports. Among their radio creations were the undefeated Mimico Mice who competed against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Legendary radio sports announcer Foster Hewitt did the play by play using the names of real Leaf players, but only Wayne and Shuster played for the Mice.

Although they began appearing as guests on various American TV programs as early as 1950, their biggest television success came in 1958 when Ed Sullivan, whose ratings had slipped, invited them to appear on his Sunday night variety show. He insisted that they stick to the kind of comedy they were doing in Canada and gave them a one-year contract with complete freedom to decide on the length, frequency, content, sets, and supporting cast of all their sketches. Jack Gould of the New York Times described them as "the harbingers of literate slapstick." Sullivan, who became very fond of them both personally and professionally, said they were his biggest hit in ten years. In fact, his ratings shot up whenever they performed and their contract was renewed again and again. So too was their CBC contract.

1962 and 1963 they were ranked as the best comedy team in America in polls by Motion Picture Daily and Television Today. Fearing over-exposure, they avoided doing a weekly show for CBC TV, and instead contracted for a certain number of hour-long specials each year. Their style, which consisted of a mixture of slapstick, pantomime, and groan-inducing jokes, depended heavily, at times excessively, on sets and props. Many or their early sketches were take-offs on classic situations, such as putting Shakespearean blank verse into the mouths of baseball players. In their first appearance on Ed Sullivan, Wayne played a Roman detective investigating the murder of Julius Caesar in "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga." His use of "martinus" as the singular of "martini" quickly became a catchphrase (some New York bars began advertising "Martinus Specials"), as did the line "I told him, 'Julie, don't go'," uttered several times by Caesar's wife. Even Marshall McLuhan complimented them on their word games. Although Shuster tended to play the straight man, both played a variety of characters. In general, their comedy was literate, middle-brow, and up-beat.