On number 6 the audio was SO bad, your brain has to strain to decipher the words they are saying, because you only hear a tiny fraction of the bandwidth. Only the vowels are decipherable. A lot of the quips are lost because of that. Taking off two stars for it. Fred Allen: he's wonderful and his humor is never ill-natured. He does do the a Chinese detective, obviously a parody of Mr Moto that is such a scream. You might feel left out of some of the jokes if you are ignorant of American history like the war rationings, housing crisis, and some jokes about other entertainers in that era. Even so, a lot of his humor is very, very funny and in a surreal and very intelligent way, but so funny that you will laugh to yourself over most of them. What a neat guy Fred Allen was. Too bad he passed away so young in life.

If you love "A Prarie Home Companion," you will love the droll wit of Fred Allen and his variety show, and recognize it as a direct ancestor of what Keillor still does so well today. These shows are still great fun, better still when you read and understand a little more about Allen and the show:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen#.22It.27s_Town_Hall_Tonight.21.22