I listened to a few episodes of
Scattergood Baines (courtesy of
archive.org) and I'm pretty sure
that this show was the model that
Montague is parodying.
Same length of show, same sonorous baritone,
similar contrived situations for Scattergood
to apply his folksy, indirect wisdom,
and extract some poor saphead from a
dilemma of her own making.
I actually liked the few episodes I heard.
How often the parody survives while the
original is flushed down the tubes of time!
Who remembers Marie Coreli, but we all know
Mme. Bovary? Anyone recall any early Spanish
chivalric romances, besides Don Quixote?
The Clouds, Aristophanes' wicked send-up of
that flash-in-the-pan, Socrates.