The series began with So You Want to Give Up Smoking, produced by Bare to teach his students at the University of Southern California the fundamentals of filmmaking.
They also resembled the Smith shorts in their focus on actual, everyday problems (such as smoking cessation, eye care and coping with allergies) in an instructional but humorous way.
The action was now played strictly for laughs, with many familiar character actors such as Fritz Feld, Ralph Sanford, Philip Van Zandt, Fred Kelsey and Leo White frequently appearing.
Semiregular actors included Clifton Young and later Del Moore as Joe's loudmouthed pal Homer, Rodney Bell as dumb Marvin and Ted Stanhope as an all-purpose authority figure.
Warner Bros. contract player Jane Harker costarred as Joe's wife Alice in eight comedies, beginning with So You Want to Play the Horses in 1946 and ending with So You Want to Build a House in 1948.
In the late 1940s, the series won three consecutive Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Short Subject, One-reel for So You Want to Be in Pictures (1947), So You Want to Be on the Radio (1948) and So You Think You're Not Guilty (1949).