Thirteen one-hour programs, plus extra promos.

"Bob & Ray invented, dreamed up the lines for, and then played, mainly on radio and television, a surrealistic Dickensian repertory company, which chastens the fools of the world with hyperbole, slapstick, parody, verbal nonsense, non sequitur, and sheer wit, all of it clean, subtle and gentle... Bob & Ray's humor turns on their faultless timing and on their infinite sense of the ridiculous. It is also framed by that special sly, dry, wasteless vision of life perfected during the last couple of centuries by middle-class New Englanders..." -- Whitney Balliett, writing in The New Yorker.

Bob [Elliott] & Ray [Goulding], the legendary American humorists, were loved by fans and by fellow humorists, comedians and broadcasters. Every humorist and comedian from 1946 to the present admired and copied Bob & Ray?s material and style. Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno, George Carlin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are fans.

Bob & Ray's 40-year career began 60 years ago, in 1946 at WHDH, Boston. Bob was a disc jockey, and Ray a newscaster. When the Red Sox games were delayed on account of rain, they began to amuse each other to fill the time. Soon they had a daily show of their own, "Matinee with Bob & Ray," an improvised, madcap exercise in controlled chaos. Over their long career, they created more than a hundred characters, all played by Bob or Ray. Wally Ballou, the hapless journalist, Mary McGoon, whose recipe for frozen ginger ale salad, prefigures Martha Stewart; Biff Burns in the sports room, Webly Webster, Barry Campbell, a third rate actor with an ego the size of the universe, Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife whose pals travel the world in search of goofy adventure.

Their humor is subtle, dry, intelligent and clean. Bob & Ray have a keen ear for language, how it is used and misused by the con artists, hucksters and hustlers who populate radio, television and cable.

Bob & Ray routines are timeless and universal. They satirize the same lugubrious soap operas, manic game shows, self-important interviewers, clueless reporters, and semifraudulent commercials, that are still with us today. Hosted by Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding, this series showcases their most beloved characters and sketches. Hide full description

Thirteen one-hour programs, plus extra promos. "Bob & Ray invented, dreamed up the lines for, and then played, mainly on radio and television, a surrealistic Dickensian repertory company, which chastens the fools of the world with hyperbole, slapstick, parody, verbal nonsense, non sequitur, and sheer wit, all of it clean, subtle and gentle... Bob & Ray's humor turns on their faultless timing and on their infinite sense of the ridiculous. It is also framed by that special sly, dry, wasteless vision of life perfected during the last couple of centuries by middle-class New Englanders..." -- Whitney Balliett, writing in The New Yorker. Bob [Elliott] & Ray [Goulding], the legendary American humorists, were loved by fans and by fellow humorists, comedians and broadcasters. Every humorist... Show full description