Duffy's Tavern, an American radio situation comedy (CBS, 1941-1942; NBC-Blue Network, 1942-1944; NBC, 1944-1951), often featured top-name stage and film guest stars but always hooked those around the misadventures, get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment's malaprop-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie, played by the writer/actor who co-created the show, Ed Gardner. The final show on radio was broadcast on December 28, 1951.

In the show's familiar opening, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," either solo on an old-sounding piano or by a larger orchestra, was interrupted by the ring of a telephone and Gardner's New Yorkese accent as he answered, "Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here — oh, hello, Duffy."

Duffy, the owner, was never heard (or seen, when a film based on the show was made in 1945 or when a bid to bring the show to television was tried in 1954). But Archie always was — bantering with Duffy's man-crazy daughter, Miss Duffy (played by several actresses, beginning with Gardner's real-life first wife, Shirley Booth); with Eddie, the waiter/janitor (Eddie Green); and, especially, with Clifton Finnegan (Charlie Cantor), a likeable soul with several screws loose and a knack for falling for every other salesman's scam.

Guest stars

The show featured many high-profile guest stars, including Fred Allen, Mel Allen, Nigel Bruce, Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff, Veronica Lake, Bob Hope, Peter Lorre, Tony Martin, Gene Tierney, Arthur Treacher, Alan Ladd, Marie McDonald and Shelley Winters. As the series progressed, Archie slipped in and out of a variety of quixotic, self-imploding plotlines — from writing an opera to faking a fortune to marry an heiress. Such situations mattered less than did the show's quietly clever depiction of earthbound-but-dreaming New York City life and its individualistic, often bizarre characters.

Duffy's Tavern was Gardner's creation, and he oversaw its writing intently enough, drawing also on his earlier experience as a successful radio director. His directing credits included stints for George Burns and Gracie Allen, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and The Rudy Vallee Hour. Gardner also brought aboard several keen writing talents, including theatric humourist Abe Burrows (the show's co-creator and head writer for its first five years), future M*A*S*H writer Larry Gelbart, and Dick Martin, who later became famous as the co-host of television's groundbreaking Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

Title changes

Early in the show's life, however, its name was changed — first to Duffy and, for four episodes, Duffy's Variety. A staffer for Bristol-Myers -- whose Ipana toothpaste was the show's early sponsor -- persuaded the company's publicity director to demand the name change because the original title promoted "the hobby of drinking" too much for certain sensibilities. Bristol-Myers eventually admitted the staffer had little to go on other than a handful of protesting letters, and -— to the delight of fans who never stopped using the original name, anyway —- the original title was restored permanently. The name change was often subverted by the Armed Forces Radio Network. When the AFRN rebroadcast those episodes for U.S. servicemen during World War II, the announcer referred to Duffy's Tavern.