In the early 1960s, Rat Packer Joey Bishop had a sitcom, playing the talk show host Joey Barnes. His stone-faced manner was played off of by more colorful characters, like his wife (played by Abby Dalton).
The show was pleasant but predictable, except, IMO, for one episode:
Joey’s Lost What-Cha-Ma-Call-It
Joey and his wife have returned from a friend’s wedding. They stayed for the weekend at the Manhattan hotel where the wedding was held.
Once home, they get a phone call from the hotel informing them that they have left an item in their room. But the hotel has a strange rule (in retrospect, a Macguffin): in order to claim the item at the lost-and-found, Joey must be able to identify it.
They look through their luggage, unsuccessfully trying to figure out what the missing item is.
Joey comes up with an idea: he goes back to the hotel, and when the desk clerk is not looking, leaves a $20 bill on the desk. He returns later and says that he’s lost a $20 bill. His plan is that when he goes to the lost-and-found for the $20 bill, he will see the other items in the lost-and-found, and recognize their lost item.
But it backfires: the clerk tells Joey that in order to claim the twenty, he must first give the serial number (another strange, Macguffin rule). Since Joey of course did not make note of the serial number, he is now out a twenty, and the unidentified item.
A frustrated Joey goes home to learn that his wife has remembered what the missing item is: a valise bearing Joey’s initials. The wedding gift was a set of towels, which they had brought in the valise, which explains why they hadn’t noticed that the valise was missing.
Joey returns to the hotel to claim the valise.
The clerk informs him that a man has already claimed it.
“What?”, exclaims Joey. “That’s my valise! It had my initials on it!”
“They were his initials too”, says the clerk. “He’s over there”, says the clerk, pointing to a man with his back turned.
“Well, we’ll see about this!”, declares Joey, who walks over and addresses the man:
“Hey! What’s the idea claiming my valise?!”
The man turns around.
It’s Jack Benny.
The audience laughs and applauds for a long time.
“I claimed the twenty dollar bill too”, grins the world’s stingiest man.
(More laughter)
“What?!”, sputters Joey. “How’d you know the serial number?!”
“I know all the serial numbers!”