The Abbott and Costello Show
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Abbott and Costello Show | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Directed by | Jean Yarbrough |
| Starring | Bud Abbott Lou Costello Sidney Fields Gordon Jones Joe Besser (1952-53) Hillary Brooke (1952-53) Joe Kirk (1952-53) |
| Theme music composer | Mahlon Merrick {"Toy Soliders"} (1953-54) |
| Composer(s) | Raoul Kraushaar (1952-53) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Pat Costello |
| Producer(s) | Jean Yarbrough |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Production company(s) | T.C.A. Productions, Inc. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndicated/CBS |
| Original run | December 1, 1952 – May 1, 1954 |
The Abbott and Costello Show, a half-hour television sitcom starring the popular comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello that premiered in New York on December 5, 1952[1] and ran until 1954. It is regarded among the most influential comedy programs in history. In 1998 Entertainment Weekly praised the series as one of the "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time." In 2007, Time magazine selected it as one of the "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."
The show was a vehicle to bring the duo's tried and true burlesque routines to television in a format that the team could control. There were none of the musical interludes or love stories that marred most of their feature films. Basically, if a situation or gag was funny, they filmed it without regard to plot, character or continuity. As a result, the show became a valuable record of classic burlesque scenes performed by one of the greatest comedy teams to come out of burlesque.
Lou Costello owned the show, with Bud Abbott working on salary. Contrary to popular belief, the show was not a network program when first introduced, but was sold into syndication to local stations across the country. As a result, it was broadcast on different days and at different times in different cities. In New York, it appeared on the CBS affiliate, WCBS, but was not carried nationally on that network (in the 1953-54 season, it was telecast locally on WNBT, as NBC's New York flagship station was then known). However, most of the episodes were repeated on CBS' Saturday morning schedule during the 1954-55 season.
The supporting cast included Sidney Fields as their landlord; Hillary Brooke as a neighbor and sometime love interest; Gordon Jones as Mike the Cop, a dimwitted foil for the boys; Joe Besser as Stinky, a 40-year-old man dressed in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit; and Joe Kirk (Costello's brother-in-law) as Mr. Bacciagalupe, an Italian immigrant caricature who held a variety of jobs depending upon the requirements of the script. Several episodes featured a pet chimp named "Bingo", who was dressed exactly the same as Costello. Bingo, who was a female chimp, was fired from the show after biting Costello. Brooke, Besser, and Kirk also left the cast after the first season.
The program lasted two seasons (52 episodes) and was directed and produced by Jean Yarbrough. The first season episodes are considered to be far superior to those of the second, which introduced a more traditional (and restrictive) sitcom approach, often featuring "unhappy" endings. Scripts for the first season were written by either Eddie Forman or Sid Fields. Episodes in the second season were written by Jack Townley, Felix Adler or Clyde Bruckman.
The first season episodes were filmed at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City. (The 14.5 acre studio, once known as "The Lot of Fun", was torn down in 1963 and replaced by "Landmark Street," an area of light industrial buildings, businesses, and an automobile dealership, where a plaque marks the studio's former location). The second season was shot at Motion Picture Center Studios, which later became Desilu-Cahuenga Studios, where I Love Lucy as well as the Danny Thomas and Jack Benny shows, were filmed.
Jerry Seinfeld has declared that The Abbott and Costello Show, with its overriding emphasis upon funny situations rather than life lessons, was the inspiration for his own long-running sitcom.
[edit] DVD releases
- Season One: September 5, 2006
- Season Two: October 3, 2006
[edit] References
- ^ Weiner, Ed; Editors of TV Guide (1992). The TV Guide TV Book: 40 Years of the All-Time Greatest Television Facts, Fads, Hits, and History. New York: Harper Collins. pp. 217. ISBN 0-06-096914-8.
