Editing Fibber McGee and Molly (section)

==From ''Smackout'' to Wistful Vista==
[[File:Weems fibber molly 1937edited.jpg|thumb|240px|left|''Fibber McGee and Molly'' with [[Ted Weems]] and his Orchestra broadcasting from Chicago in 1937.]]
If ''Smackout'' proved the Jordan-Quinn union's viability, their next creation proved their most enduring. Amplifying Luke Grey's tall talesmanship to Midwestern braggadocio, Quinn developed ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' with Jim as the foible-prone Fibber and Marian playing his patient, common sense, honey-natured wife. In its earliest incarnation, ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' put focus on Fibber's tall tales and extended monologues. During these earliest episodes of the series, Molly had a pronounced [[Irish English|Irish]] [[dialect comedy|dialect]]. while Fibber's voice was somewhat higher and more cartoonish; both of the Jordans eventually switched to more realistic, Americanized dialects closer to their own natural tones over the course of the late 1930s as the series evolved into the more familiar domestic sitcom format. The show premiered on NBC April 16, 1935, and though it took three seasons to become an irrevocable hit, it became the country's top-rated radio series.<ref name=Star/> In 1935, Jim Jordan won the [[Burlington Liars' Club]] championship with a story about catching an elusive rat.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.burlingtonhistory.org/ |title=Burlington Historical Society |access-date=2019-08-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102232602/http://burlingtonhistory.org/ |archive-date=2019-01-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Existing in a kind of Neverland where money never came in, schemes never stayed out for very long, yet no one living or visiting went wanting, 79 Wistful Vista (the McGees' address from show No. 20, August 1935 onward) became the home Depression-exhausted Americans visited to remind themselves that they were not the only ones finding cheer in the middle of struggle and doing their best not to make it overt. The McGees won their house in a raffle from Mr. Hagglemeyer's Wistful Vista Development Company, with lottery ticket #131,313, happened upon by chance while on a pleasure drive in their car. With blowhard McGee wavering between mundane tasks and hare-brained schemes (like digging an oil well in the back yard), antagonizing as many people as possible, and patient Molly indulging his foibles and providing loving support, not to mention a tireless parade of neighbors and friends in and out of the quiet home, ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' built its audience steadily, but once it found the full volume of that audience in 1940, they rarely let go of it.<ref name=Air/>

Marian Jordan took a protracted absence from the show from November 1937 to April 1939 to deal with a lifelong battle with [[alcoholism]], although this was attributed to "fatigue" in public statements at the time.<ref name=Time/> The show was retitled '''''Fibber McGee and Company''''' during this interregnum, with scripts cleverly working around Molly's absence (Fibber making a speech at a convention, etc.). Comedian [[ZaSu Pitts]] appeared on the ''Fibber McGee and Company'' show, as did singer [[Donald Novis]].

While his wife was ill, Jim Jordan had been closing his radio shows by saying "Goodnight, Molly." In early 1938, the [[Federal Communications Commission]] ordered him to stop, claiming it violated a rule about [[fourth wall|using public airwaves for personal communications]]. After a few weeks' deliberation, the Commission found that no regulations had been broken, because Molly was a fictional character. Jordan then resumed using the "Goodnight, Molly" signoff.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTQyWDY2OQ%3D%3D/%24T2eC16hHJHEE9ny2tlWWBQl9HYBzWQ~~60_57.JPG?rt=nc|title=Goodnight, Molly|publisher=WLS Radio Stand By magazine|page=5|date=April 9, 1938|access-date=December 24, 2014|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224202907/http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTQyWDY2OQ%3D%3D/%24T2eC16hHJHEE9ny2tlWWBQl9HYBzWQ~~60_57.JPG?rt=nc|archive-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref> In January 1939, the show moved from NBC Chicago to the new [[The Burbank Studios#History|West Coast Radio City]] in Hollywood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/jordans/fmmchicago.html|title=Fibber McGee & Molly with downloadable audio files|author=Samuels, Rich|publisher=Samuels, Rich|access-date=25 April 2010|archive-date=September 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091059/http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/jordans/fmmchicago.html|url-status=live}}</ref>