The Red Skelton Show. At the end of each episode of his television show in the 50’s, Red Skelton would sign off with “Good night and God bless.”
Red Skelton had this to say about his popular character Freddy the Freeloader:
“I get asked all the time; Where did you get the idea for Freddie the Freeloader, and who is Freddie really?
Well, I guess you might say that Freddie the Freeloader is a little bit of you, and a little bit of me, a little bit of all of us, you know.
He’s found out what love means. He knows the value of time. He knows that time is a glutton. We say we don’t have time to do this or do that. There’s plenty of time. The trick is to apply it. The greatest disease in the world today is procrastination.
And Freddie knows about all these things. And so do you.
He doesn’t ask anybody to provide for him, because it would be taken away from you. He doesn’t ask for equal rights if it’s going to give up some of yours.
And he knows one thing ... that patriotism is more powerful than guns.
He’s nice to everybody because he was taught that man is made in God’s image. He’s never met God in person and the next fella just might be Him.
I would say that Freddie is a little bit of all of us.”