The NBC Comedy Hour
The NBC Comedy Hour | |
---|---|
Genre | Television comedy |
Directed by | Herbert Kenwith[1] |
Presented by | Leo Durocher; Gale Storm; various |
Starring | Jonathan Winters |
Country of origin | USA |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1[2] |
No. of episodes | 18[2] |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | NBC[1] |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | January 8[2] – June 10, 1956[2] |
The NBC Comedy Hour was a comedy show that ran on NBC in the first half of 1956, intended to be a replacement for The Colgate Comedy Hour.[2]
Leo Durocher hosted the show in January, and Gale Storm from February until April 8; from April 22 on, hosts were called in per episode. Comic Jonathan Winters was a more frequent face than any of the hosts; he appeared in 17 of the 18 episodes. Stan Freberg was also a guest 6 times. Topical comedian Mort Saul's network debut was on the Comedy Hour. A group of acting chimpanzees named The Marquee Chimps performed parodies of movies in 3 episodes.[2]
The show was a critical and ratings failure:[2] Variety stated "A more poorly conceived, routined and paced outing would be difficult to imagine."[3] It was cancelled in June, having already been pre-empted 4 times in 5 months.[2][3] It was succeeded by The Steve Allen Show, whose reputation became a marked contrast to that of The NBC Comedy Hour.[2]
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