Gracie Allen "effortlessly" kept pace with the most famous dancer in films, as many did not know either of them could dance. The legend was born of their vaudeville routine and carried over to both radio and television. As the show wrapped up, Burns would look at Allen and say "Say good night, Gracie", to which she would usually simply reply "Good night." Popular legend has it that Allen would say, "Good night, Gracie." According to George Burns, recordings of their radio and television shows, and several histories of old-time radio (John Dunning's "On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio", for
Goodnight Gracie promises to keep her secret, and the letter ultimately encourages Alex to, occasionally, break the rules, saying, "You never know what might happen." In its original American broadcast, "Goodnight Gracie" was watched by 10.01 million; slightly down by 0.02 from the previous episode. "Goodnight Gracie" received generally positive reviews. Donna Bowman of "The A.V. Club" gave an A- grade to the episode saying that it was one of the best episodes of the entire run. "It was hip to rag on Modern Family when this season started, as is natural for anything so lauded and yet so conventional. Nothing’s changed