And a really big hand for...

[cd637299]

What goes around comes around. Walter Cronkite did a 50s show called "You Are There," which dramatized historical events as though they were being covered by live TV ("Douglas Edwards is standing by outside the Roman Senate where Julius Caesar is expected to arrive. Doug ...")

Can you imagine that show today? "We've just received a tweet from Thomas Jefferson..."

+1 !

cd

 

[bpatrick]

If a joke bombed, Carson might throw in a quick line like "All Aboard
for Salt Lake City," and somehow the audience would laugh.

Sullivan, despite his continuing dislike for Jack Paar, did get Paar's
daughter a ticket to see the Beatles.

 

[cd637299]

If a joke bombed, Carson might throw in a quick line like "All Aboard
for Salt Lake City," and somehow the audience would laugh.

Sullivan, despite his continuing dislike for Jack Paar, did get Paar's
daughter a ticket to see the Beatles.

It hit me after I posted----nobody did the "Tea for Two"-step like Johnny!

A relative told me once about a time during the 2nd segment of Johnny's show that he was reading some quips that the staff wrote, usually a take-off from a magazine article (like tips on saving money---most of you know the segment, where Ed McMahon says "there it is---EVERYTHING you want to know about saving money" etc.). In this one instance, every line bombed, and Johnny said "I'll try this one more here...."---IT bombed, so Johnny simply pulled out his lighter and set fire to the page!

cd

 

[BD Sullivan]

Berle signed a 30-year contract with NBC in the early fifties that both sides came to regret. The network never again had Berle at his peak, yet had to pay him a nice chunk of change every year. Berle chafed at the restrictions that prevented him from doing other things. Finally, in the mid-60's, the two adjusted the deal that gave Berle more freedom elsewhere and reduced the money NBC owed.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Milton Berle And The 30-Year Contract (Was: Re: And a really big hand for...)

(Milton) Berle signed a 30-year contract with NBC in the early fifties that both sides came to regret. The network never again had Berle at his peak, yet had to pay him a nice chunk of change every year. Berle chafed at the restrictions that prevented him from doing other things. Finally, in the mid-60's, the two adjusted the deal that gave Berle more freedom elsewhere and reduced the money NBC owed.

It was in 1966, so Berle could make a TV "comeback" as emcee of a Friday-night comedy/variety show (since NBC apparently wasn't interested in using Berle in such a show at the time).

Although it was part of a Friday-night ABC schedule that many in and out of the industry thought would make ABC dominant on Fridays (despite being one of three "new" shows---the others being "Green Hornet" and "Time Tunnel", along with the returning "Twelve O'Clock High"). "Green Hornet" was produced by the same people who produced the smash-hit "Batman"; "Time Tunnel" was produced by Irwin Allen who had two hit shows ("Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" and "Lost In Space"); Berle was still a big name in TV; and "Twelve O'Clock High" had been quite successful and was entering its third season.

But by January, Berle and "Twelve O'Clock" were gone. While "Green Hornet" and "Time Tunnel" lasted the season, neither was renewed for a second year.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

If a joke bombed, Carson might throw in a quick line like "All Aboard
for Salt Lake City," and somehow the audience would laugh.

That and, "Attention K-Mart Shoppers".

 

[joeybabe25]

Johnny once made a joke that included Lincoln's assasination. The joke bombed and Carson's comeback was "too soon".

He was the master (with tribute to Paar who I love).

Joe

 

[Ultimajock]

Walter Cronkite recounted in a documentary, how the CBS Evening News did a news story from Britain about this hot rock group from the cellars of Liverpool. As the credits were still running (as Uncle Walter lit his pipe on air), the hotline rang in the newsroom. It was Ed (who, of course, had the number). Wanting information on "those kids." CBS News' London correspondent provided contact information, and Ed booked the Beatles.

...actually, Sullivan had already booked The Beatles but did so on the strength of their fans' reaction when the band returned to London from their October 1963 Scandinavian tour (Ed and Sylvia Sullivan were boarding a plane for New York at an adjacent gate). Sullivan wanted additional details on this act he'd booked a month earlier, and assumed Cronkite could provide it...

 

[Ultimajock]

If a joke bombed, Carson might throw in a quick line like "All Aboard
for Salt Lake City," and somehow the audience would laugh.

Sullivan, despite his continuing dislike for Jack Paar, did get Paar's
daughter a ticket to see the Beatles.

It hit me after I posted----nobody did the "Tea for Two"-step like Johnny!

A relative told me once about a time during the 2nd segment of Johnny's show that he was reading some quips that the staff wrote, usually a take-off from a magazine article (like tips on saving money---most of you know the segment, where Ed McMahon says "there it is---EVERYTHING you want to know about saving money" etc.). In this one instance, every line bombed, and Johnny said "I'll try this one more here...."---IT bombed, so Johnny simply pulled out his lighter and set fire to the page!

...Carson then pulled his wastebasket out from behind the desk, put it on top of the desk and dropped the burning paper into it -- forgetting that the wastebasket was plastic, and the fire melted the wastebasket to the surface of the desk! ...

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

every line bombed... so Johnny simply pulled out his lighter and set fire to the page!

...Carson then pulled his wastebasket out from behind the desk, put it on top of the desk and dropped the burning paper into it -- forgetting that the wastebasket was plastic, and the fire melted the wastebasket to the surface of the desk! ...

You gotta love sight gags. Carson could very well have been the inspiration for Gallagher's schtick. Obviously, comedy has evolved since the days of the comparatively harmless pie-in-the-face routines.

 

[ixnay]

Re: Milton Berle And The 30-Year Contract (Was: Re: And a really big hand for...)

(B)y January, Berle and "Twelve O'Clock" were gone. While "Green Hornet" and "Time Tunnel" lasted the season, neither was renewed for a second year.

Although Berle did find temporary employment in the fall of '67 in a guest villain turn on Batman, seducing Gotham City's hippies as Louie the Lilac.

Fast forward - WAY forward - to the time of the original Beverly Hills 90210 and recall Berle's guest appearance as a resident of a retirement home at which Steve (Ian Ziering) was "volunteering" (part of his community service sentence [for what, I don't recall]).

ixnay

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Berle played several dramatic roles, all with surprising depth and acclaim. I remember reading somewhere how his name got kicked around for a possible role in The Sunshine Boys, the Movie adaption, though Neil Simon and the rest of the production staff balked.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

OOOOPS!

 

[BD Sullivan]

Re: Milton Berle And The 30-Year Contract (Was: Re: And a really big hand for...)

(B)y January, Berle and "Twelve O'Clock" were gone. While "Green Hornet" and "Time Tunnel" lasted the season, neither was renewed for a second year.

Although Berle did find temporary employment in the fall of '67 in a guest villain turn on Batman, seducing Gotham City's hippies as Louie the Lilac.

He had made a cameo on the show as a prison guard (in a Ma Parker episode) the year before, which was a subtle plug for his ABC variety show.

 

[joeybabe25]

Irving Benson, who was the heckler on the 1966-67 show is still alive at the age of 99!