Remembering The Unmistakable, Comical Frank Nelson

If you’ve watched every single episode of “I Love Lucy” – as I am sure most of you have – you fondly remember this guy. Radio and television personality Frank Nelson. “EEEYesssssss!!!” He spent most of his 75 years making people laugh with his cutting sarcasm and a voice you could never miss – not even in a crowd.

He always knew how to startle some poor soul in a department store and get them falling all over themselves. Nelson was also a terrific voice artist who did cartoon voiceovers. In “The Flintstones,” he played himself among Hanna-Barbera characters.

We remember Nelson most as “Freddie Filmore” – a fictious game show host who managed to beat Lucy at her own game. Who could forget “Females Are Fabulous” and the crazy antics of Nelson and the poor slobs who wound up on his show, Lucy among them, who wound up drowned with a seltzer bottle while Ricky stood there in a raincoat and sang. In one episode, Nelson was a police sergeant on the desk with Lucy and Ethyl under arrest as Pick Pocket Pearl and Sticky Fingers Sal. It was a hysterical scene with the two ladies struggling to prove their identities. In the end, Lucy got the best of him – a rare moment in Frank Nelson television.

Nelson got his start in radio in the 1920s and, later on, moved into television and movies. In 1929, Nelson found his way to Hollywood and worked in local radio broadcasts where his distinctive trademark voice hammered the airwaves. His first big break was a sitcom that aired in 1932-33 starring Groucho and Chico Marx.

His career spiraled from there.

Nelson hooked up with Jack Benny during the 1940s and 1950s where he polished his craft. He would do various roles typically as an antagonistic character in a service capacity and greet Benny with his trademark “EEEYeeeeeeeeesssss?!” Audiences fell apart. These two guys would get into it, with Nelson doing what he did best with insulting one-liners. He drove Benny crazy who would respond with, “Now cut that out!!!”

Nelson continued to be a mainstay on television and movie screens for decades before he began to fade away in the 1970s. Impossible to believe Nelson could ever fade away. He would surface in sitcoms and even commercials including McDonald’s. In due course, Nelson’s health began to deteriorate into the 1980s. He lost his battle with cancer and passed in 1986.

Nelson continues to appear posthumously on television screens around the world, reminding us of his comic genius and ability to befuddle people decades later.