What are the best early 1948-60 TV Comedy Series?

2-21-08 | Bender2

[Bender2]

What are your favorite TV variety and situation comedy series from 1948-1960? I am old enough to remember most of them!

[mware]

Not sure when Carol Burnett’s show started but I loved when Tim Conway got Harvey Corman to start laughing during a skit.

[Inyo-Mono]

From the ‘50s James Garner as Bart Maverick in “Maverick.” In the era of Western series domination of TV, Maverick stood out as a funny satire.

[Inyo-Mono]

“The Steve Allen Show” (NBC 1956)

And the incarnation through the early 60s. Funniest stuff I've ever seen! I was even on the show in 1963 when I was 13, "Man on the Street" segment.

[444Flyer]

Alright. I know that you asked for TV Comedy Series but could you have a little wiggle room for a great comedy radio series that went through 1951? After all folks were still listening to radio until they got to be the lucky one on the block. I think my folks had a record...ya know...an LP (We just lost the 30 and under crowd!) with this famous couple on it.

Blanche and John...THE BICKERSONS (featuring “The Purple Heart Girl” Frances Langford):

http://www.freeotrshows.com/otr/b/Bickersons.html

[BuffaloJack]

Sargent Bilko

[444Flyer]

From www.museum.tv The Steve Allen Show.

“Probably the best remembered character was the nervous Mr. Morrison portrayed by Don Knotts. Often Morrison’s initials were related to his occupation. On one segment he was introduced as “K.B.” Morrison whose job in a munitions factory was to place the pins in hand grenades. When asked what the initials stood for, Knotts replied, “Kaa Boom!”

“HI HO STEVERINO!”

(By the way Mr. Mono I couldn’t be more jealous that you were on that show with the Master of ad-lib and improvisation. What a great story that must be!);)

[gogeo]

Have to admit I had “impure thoughts” about the Beaver’s mom. Barbara Billingsly was a babe-o-rama! She was only in her 30’s when that was shot...seemed older (in a good way)...

Ah yes, the first double entendre TV to slip past the censors...

"Gee, Ward, you were a little rough on the Beaver last night, weren't you?"

[PennsylvaniaMom]

No one, nothing, no way, no how EVER beats LUCY!!! Genius. Some of her shows are still being 're-written.' The candy assembly line is the funniest EVER; with VitaMeatVegiMin close behind.

[exit82]

Actually, many series made the switch to color from 1965 to 1966. The Batman series started in 1966 and was all color.
So was Combat by that time.

We got our color TV in mid 1964. Bonanza and Walt Disney’s WWOC was in color then. Many series were in B&W. But by 1966, very few were not in color.

[exit82]

HAd the same reaction to “Invaders from Mars”(1953). As a kid, it scared the bejeebers out of me. I was delighted to see it again about ten years ago by accident—sat down and watched it all the way through.

[exit82]

1928 Porter. I even had the model kit of the car in the show. It was my favorite model car.

[Inyo-Mono]

In 1963 I was 13 and my brother was 11. We were standing outside of Allen’s theater with our parents waiting to get in to see his show. A TV camera suddenly appeared from the doors and aimed at us with the lights on. Then it swung to some other folks standing nearby. They picked an older guy near us and invited him to come into the theater.

When we watched the tape delayed program later that night, we see could ourselves on TV with Allen making comments about what “dumb” looking kids we were (LOL, our 5 seconds of fame) and the guy they picked out of the crowd was made up to like like Hitler and he was placed in the audience as a “special guest.” Wish there were VCRs back then so we could have taped a copy of the air!

[Bender2]

Re: With all due respect, that's not a well written article. The paragraphs are pretty much single sentences strung together, and the writer has no real feel for the history. Case in point, (and where I stopped reading): In 1956, a company called Ampex Corporation began using a Quadruplex videotape recorder and in 1958, they produced a color version.

OMG! Paragraphs made up... of single sentences strung together! What is the world coming to?

Gadzooks, JoJo! I am soooooo dang sorry... the writer's work did not live up to your impeccably high standards. I did not know I was being graded on Edith H's work, so let me also apologize for the two mistakes in Bruce Fretts' 'Cheer & Jeers' section of last weeks "TV Guide." We all know (and cheered!) Liz Berkley being smoking white hot as Horatios teenage dopplganger's momma and how could Bruce jump on Larry King's discussion of Heath Ledger's widow being an actress? Larry's old and forgetful, so leave him alone! His show keeps the riffraff off FOX and FR.

I am far from an expert on color tv or video tape... yet I seem to recall that Bing Crosby had a lot to do with the evolution of both audio and video tape being developed from captured World War Two German technology.

Since it appears you have a fetish for Ampex, the following is a short excerpt from John T. Mullin: THE MAN WHO PUT BING CROSBY ON TAPE by Peter Hammar:

Starting in the 1947-48 season, [John T.] Mullin became [Bing] Crosby's chief engineer, recording Philco Radio Time on tape, both the dress rehearsal and the "live-to-tape" show. The final mix, transferred to 16-inch ETs for airing, was often an edit of both performances. Mullin's skillful edits created the kind of program pacing that most live radio shows could not achieve. The now-hit Crosby show remained tape-delayed, setting a precedent in broadcast production that remains the norm to this day. Other network radio and recording artists quickly adopted tape to produce their shows and discs, including Burl Ives and Les Paul (who later went on to develop the first multitrack tape recorder). Live broadcasting soon became limited mostly to local disc jockeys spinning the new long-play 33 11/43 and 45 rpm music discs.

MULLIN INSPIRES AMPEX Mullin's two prototype machines proved the feasibility of the new tape technology to Ampex Corporation, a tiny, six-employee company that built small motors and generators for U.S. Navy contracts. Mullin and Palmer assumed that the Army Signal Corps reports from Germany on the Magnetophon would motivate the big U.S. electronics firms to introduce their own professional tape recorders. Strangely, that never happened. Only Col. Richard Ranger of Rangertone in New Jersey tried to build a working prototype of the German technology. Although Ranger later distinguished himself with audiotape decks for motion picture production, his first effort was a failure, opening the door for Ampex. In 1946 in Alabama, J. Herbert Orr-a former major in the Signal Corps-began manufacturing an Fe2O3 (ferric oxide) acetate tape according to a recipe given him by a BASF scientist, but 3M eclipsed his initial products. Orr's Orradio later became Ampex's magnetic tape division, today called Quantegy.

I counted and the first paragraph above has six sentences and the second one has six also!

Guess old Peter Hammar has a knack for writing paragraphs... but I am waiting with nervous tension for your take on old Pete's feel for the work.

[JoJo Gunn]

Look, Brainiac, I didn’t come here to start a fight, but simply to point out that it wasn’t a very good article. The line about Ampex stood out.

That said, if you want me to drum the nose of an adolescent assclown with a fetish for cartoon robot pictures and pathetic attempts at one liners, then let me know.

[444Flyer]

Classic story! LOL!!!

[exit82]

Thanks for those jokes from Hollywood Squares. We watched them all the time. Later we found out that the questions and lines were scripted, but I still remember the anticipation of what would each of the players say to the question asked.

What belly laughs we had! X gets the square!

[Bender2]

Father Mulcahy: [Listening to Frank Burns and Margret O'Houlihan fooling around from the speaker] Is this 'The Bickersons'? I love them.

Duke Forrest: Who?

Father Mulcahy: The Battling Bickersons. I love them.

[Duke gives him a bewildered look]

Margret O'Houlihan: [From speaker to Frank Burns, during sex] Oh, Frank, my lips are hot. Kiss my hot lips!

Yes, 444... I loved Don Ameche and Frances Langford as "The Battling Bickersons."

As I recall Mom and Dad made me listen to the radio... while they had that 'Safe Sex' of the very early 1950s. Fortunately, the did not know of this practice Christmas of 1946, otherwise, I'd not have been born!

[television is just wrong]

hmmm, lets see, Sing along with Mitch, Mr. ED, I love Lucy, Gilligans Island, Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies. (I can still remember the songs that opened those shows.

There are a heck of a lot more too.

[gogeo]

Your commentary is at least as good as the article.

[444Flyer]

See my new tag.:)lol

Thanks for a really fun thread!