The tramp's influence on television.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: Entertainment - Charlie Chaplin's "The Tramp"

CHARLIE CHAPLIN is the greatest comedy auteur in cinema history. His ability to write, direct, perform, produce, and compose the music for one groundbreaking picture after another is unprecedented. "The Gold Rush" (1925), the film by which he wanted to be remembered, is called The Chaplin Picture, from hallmark scenes like the dance of the dinner rolls, to dining on his cooked boot one starving Thanksgiving. Then again, "City Lights" (1931), with the haunting conclusion--in which the once-blind flower girl discovers her dream benefactor is Charlie the Tramp--often runs a close second.

Though not quite in this Chaplin pantheon of two, his celebrated "Modern Times" (1936), which bravely addresses the Great Depression (a rarity among 1930s comedians), arguably is his funniest film. Moreover, its inspired sketches make this movie his most cannibalized by other comedians. Indeed, three of television's iconic figures (Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, and Dick Van Dyke) have character-defining material drawn directly from "Modern Tunes."

First, in the "I Love Lucy" episode "Job Switching" (broadcast Sept. 15, 1952), Lucy and Ethel (Vivian Vance) find themselves working at a candy factory in which they wrap chocolates on a conveyor belt They soon are so inept at keeping up with the speeding conveyer they are stuffing the candy in their blouses, chef hats, mouths, and so on. Funny as the sketch is--one of Ball's most famous--the viewer is reminded of Chaplin's similar "Modern Tunes" conveyor-belt dilemma in which he must screw nuts on machine parts whizzing past him at an ever increasing speed. Indeed, it results in one of his most famous images--being swallowed by the machine, the perfect subtextual metaphor for the overwhelming modern age.

As for Skelton, one of the first movie stars to embrace fully the small screen on a weekly basis, he largely was influenced by Chaplin's Tramp. Fittingly, this TV Chaplin wannabee's most memorable of many characters was Freddie the Freeloader. Not surprisingly, Freddie's pivotal sketch, frequently repeated near Christmas during Skelton's long-running series (1951-71), was another classic bit drawn from "Modern Times." In both cases, Charlie and Freddie feel they should take a stress break by letting the penal system briefly care for them by committing a petty crime. The infraction involves going to a restaurant and consuming the most gigantic of meals-for which the duo obviously cannot pay. Be sides getting a free...