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Home , Imogene Coca

60 YEARS OF PROGRAMING

The class of TV clowns (l-r): Lucy, Ethel and R'cky ham it up; your comedy team of comedy teams, and Imogene Coca; in top hat and tails (or white gloves and organdy), was Mr. Tuesday Night and everybody's "Mr. Television."

which didn't survive television's first de- sitcom of TV's youth. Begun in 1951, animal acts and stand -up comics) would cade (it folded after the 1954 -55 season). the show would pioneer camera and stag- capture the interest of American viewers But among its contributions was the me- ing techniques, as well as syndication from 1948 to 1971 on CBS. dium's first sitcom, Mary Kay and John- deals. It would also establish One show CBS was high on from the ny, which debuted in 1947. DuMont is as one of the medium's first stars. (Desi outset was The Arthur Godfrey Show, also credited with the first dramatic TV Amaz, whose Cuban accent made his which debuted in 1949 as Arthur Godfrey serial (soap opera), Faraway Hill in appearance on the show a hard sell to & Friends. It was once said he went into 1946. The program lasted two months, CBS, was both a fine straight man and more American homes than the milkman. but its descendents have entertained mil- Among the other early stars of TV vari- lions. ety were Garry Moore (whose show In fact, two of the longest -running launched the career of , daytime soaps-CBS's The Guiding among others), "Lonesome" George Light (1952) and ABC's General Hospi- Gobel, and TV's renaissance man, Steve tal (1963) - continue to go at it head to Allen, whose lineup of "street" men in- head. Faraway Hill may have been ahead cluded Tom Poston, Don Knotts, Louis of its time as a prime time soap (it aired Nye and Bill Dana. at 9 p.m.). In 1964, Peyton Place was Another of the medium's stars was launched by ABC, where it thrived two also a CBS property (the network domi- nights a week for five seasons. A decade nated the prime time season for decades). later, Dallas spawned a new generation Veteran film, radio and come- of prime time soaps that included spin-off dian got his own show in Knots Landing, Dynasty and Falcon 1952 and became a fixture on the net- Crest. work for almost 20 years. His blowhard As with drama, early TV comedy was bus driver with a heart of gold, Ralph essentially an adaptation of another form: Kramden, together with the guileless and the burlesque -variety show. The earliest goofy sewer worker Ed Norton (Art Car- star of the genre was Milton Berle, who ney), may have been the medium's defin- quickly became known as "Mr. Televi- itive comedy team. The duo later provid- sion," and the show he hosted, Texaco A trademark pose: preparing ed the models for TV's first animated Star Theatre, an institution on Tuesday to give viewers another really big 'shew' prime time show, ABC's The Flint - nights on NBC. (Berle won the first stones, a look at life in the Stone Age Emmy for "outstanding kinescope per- shrewd businessman whose behind -the- town of Bedrock. sonality" in 1949.) scenes talents were extremely valuable, if Westerns ride the TV range Another standout, Your Show of less visible.) If Lucy was TV's first love, Shows, starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Ozzie and Harriet were its first family, The networks were not the only ones in Coca, and provided a launching pad for paving the way for a host of domestic the business of distributing programing the writing talents of , sitcoms and half -hour comedies of all nationally. Frederic Ziv transferred his Woody Allen and Neil Simon. Two de- types that would come to dominate the radio transcription talents to TV syndica- cades later, the comedy /variety genre medium. tion, and in 1950 began distributing the was still going strong, with The Carol first -run Cisco Kid to stations. The series is Burnett Show, The Show, Variety Ge spice of Ill was filmed in color, which helped make The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour For general interest variety entertain- it a syndicated property whose longevity, and Rowan and Martin's Laugh -In. ment, (formerly, if not popularity, rivals that of I Love One comedian who toyed with the Toast of the Town) was the "really big Lucy. Ziv TV's other first -mn properties forms of television comedy was Ernie shew." A former newspaper columnist, of the 1950's included Sea Hunt and Kovacs, who reveled in special effects Sullivan had a wooden delivery that was Highway Patrol. Also among syndica- and send -ups of TV shows and commer- the object of much parody, but he also tion's earliest and longest -running shows cials. had a talent for knowing what events was Death Valley Days (1952 -70), pro- If DuMont's Mary Kay and Johnny (from the Bolshoi Ballet to the Beatles, duced by Gene Autry. was the first sitcom, I Love Lucy was the with a liberal dollop of plate spinners, Although Cisco had been around in

30 60th Anniversary Dec 9 1991 Broadcasting