Burns and Allen

Start with: The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (CBS, 1950 to 1958) The original template for the patient straight man and the partner whose logic runs on its own track. George Burns and Gracie Allen met in 1922, married in 1926 and carried the act from vaudeville to radio and then television. George fed the lines and let Gracie's reasoning tie itself into knots he never quite managed to untangle, and the joke was always that she sounded completely sure of herself. The sitcom is the easiest way in: George steps out of the story to talk to the audience while Gracie keeps the plot spinning. It ended when Gracie retired in 1958.