Duffy's Tavern

Duffy's Tavern is an American radio situation comedy created by and starring Ed Gardner, premiering in 1941 and set in a fictional New York City bar whose unseen owner, Duffy, is never heard, with Gardner's manager character Archie fielding calls and mangling the English language in the show's signature opening telephone routine. The series built its comedy around Archie's malapropisms and the tavern's cast of eccentric regulars rather than a conventional plot, a barroom-centered format distinct from the domestic sitcoms common on radio at the time. Duffy's Tavern ran for more than a decade on American radio and is remembered as one of the more durable and distinctively voiced comedy series of the medium's golden age.