Jack Benny - March 11, 1945 - How Jack Found Rochester

This episode tells the story, in flashback, of how Jack and Rochester met, when Rochester was driving a taxi for Amos and Andy's cab company.

You can trace much of the course of race relations in the mid-20th century by watching the character of Rochester Van Jones, played masterfully by Eddie Anderson. When Anderson joined the show in 1937, much of the humor around Rochester was based on old racial stereotypes. By the time of this episode, and until the end of the TV series in 1965, the stereotypes were no longer referred to. While Rochester was still ostensibly Benny's valet, they were equals in every other way, and Rochester often got the better of Benny, of course. The show was pioneering in this regard, as it was very unusual to depict a person of color "talking back" to his boss. Also, Anderson was the first black regular on a national radio show.