In the early 1930s, George Burns and Gracie Allen were enjoying moderate success with their new television show, but they weren't drawing in the audiences like they wanted to. They needed some way to get people interested in the show. The solution came, improbably enough, from one of Gracie's scatterbrained comedy routines. George knew that one way to get the comedic juices flowing was to ask Gracie about her brother, George. Gracie was a master at weaving dizzyingly tall tales about her brother, who was actually an accountant at an oil company. Burns hit upon the idea of starting a search for George, as if he were missing. It became a running gag line on their show, and even carried over into other popular shows. Gracie would pop up unexpectedly on some other star's show, telling people t…