The Ernie Kovacs Show
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The Ernie Kovacs Show
''The Ernie Kovacs Show'' was an American comedy show hosted by comedian Ernie Kovacs, first shown in Philadelphia during the early 1950s, then nationally. The show appeared in many versions and formats, including daytime, prime-time, late-night, talk show, comedy, and as a summer replacement series. ''The Ernie Kovacs Show'' was one of only six TV shows broadcast on all four U.S. television networks during the Golden Age of Television, the others being ''The Original Amateur Hour'', ''Pantomime Quiz'', ''Down You Go'', ''The Arthur Murray Party'', and ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''. CBS From April 21, 1952, to January 15, 1954, Kovacs had a daytime show under the name ''Kovacs Unlimited'' airing Monday through Friday at 8:30 am ET on CBS Television. From December 30, 1952, to April 14, 1953, CBS aired the one-hour ''The Ernie Kovacs Show'' on Tuesday evenings at 8pm ET. DuMont From April 12, 1954, to April 7, 1955, he also had a late night television talk show on the DuMont Telev ...
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Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses w ...
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Daytime Television
Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning daypart typically dedicated to morning shows, and preceding the evening dayparts that eventually lead into prime time. The majority of daytime programming is typically targeted towards women (and in particular, housewives). Historically, soap operas, talk shows, and game shows have been fixtures of daytime programming, although daytime soap operas have seen declines in North America due to changing audiences and viewing habits. This type of daytime programming is typically aired on weekdays; weekend daytime programming is often very different and more varied in nature, and usually focuses more on sports broadcasts. Target audience and demographics For most intents and purposes, the traditional target audience of daytime television program ...
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Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people and its successor, ''Caesar's Hour'' (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. ''Your Show of Shows'' and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978) and its sequel ''Grease 2'' (1982) and appeared in the films ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), ''Silent Movie'' (1976), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), ''Cannonball Run II'' (1984), and ''Vegas Vacation'' (1997). Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, ...
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Caesar's Hour
''Caesar's Hour'' is a live, hour-long American sketch-comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair, and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers such as Joan Crawford and Peggy Lee. Widely considered a continuation of Caesar's earlier programs, the '' Admiral Broadway Revue'' and ''Your Show of Shows'', ''Caesar's Hour'' included most of the same writers and actors, with the notable addition of Larry Gelbart (who went on to co-create the ''M*A*S*H'' TV series with Gene Reynolds) in the latter show. Nanette Fabray replaced Imogene Coca, who opted to star in her own TV series in 1954, ''The Imogene Coca Show''. ''Caesar's Hour'' expanded on the format of ''Your Show of Shows'' with many sketches running a half-hour or more, including musical parodies such as "There's No Business" and "Towers Trot", and genre parodies such as "B ...
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CBS Television
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainment Group division of Paramount Global. Its headquarters is at the CBS Building in New York City. It has major production facilities and operations at the CBS Broadcast Center and the headquarters of owner Paramount Global at One Astor Plaza (both also in that city) and Television City and the CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles. It is also sometimes referred to as the Eye Network in reference to the company's trademark symbol which has been in use since 1951. It has also been called the Tiffany Network which alludes to the perceived high quality of its programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in the former Tiffany and Company Building in Ne ...
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Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of ''Tom Corbett—Space Cadet'' stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, and other media in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Corbett, Astro, and Roger Manning (originally; later, T.J. Thistle), cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkrooms, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser ''Polaris'', and on alien worlds, both within the Solar System and in orbit around nearby stars. Origin Joseph Greene of Grosset & Dunlap developed ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'', inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein novel ''Space Cadet'' (1948) but based on his own prior work. Greene had submitted a radio script for "Tom Ranger" and the "Space Cadets" on January 16, 1946, but it remained unperformed when Heinlein's novel was published. Greene then reworked his radio script into a script for a dail ...
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The Arthur Murray Party
''The Arthur Murray Party'' is an American television variety show which ran from July 1950 until September 1960. The show was hosted by famous dancers Arthur Murray, Arthur and Kathryn Murray, and was basically one long advertisement for their chain of dance studios. Each week the couple performed a mystery dance, and the viewer who correctly identified the dance would receive two free lessons at a local studio. ''The Arthur Murray Party'' is notable for being one of the few TV series—the others were ''Down You Go'', ''The Ernie Kovacs Show'', ''Pantomime Quiz'', ''The Original Amateur Hour'', and ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''—broadcast on all four major commercial networks in the 1950s during the Golden Age of Television. It may, in fact, be the only series which had a run on all four networks at least twice. Overview The show was set up like a large party, with Kathryn hosting a variety of guests, from sports stars to actors or musicians. Murray dance studio instructors wou ...
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Down You Go
''Down You Go'' is an American television game show originally broadcast on the DuMont Television Network. The Emmy Award-nominated series ran from 1951 to 1956 as a prime time series primarily hosted by Dr. Bergen Evans. The program aired in eleven different timeslots during its five-year run. ''Down You Go'' is one of only six series — along with ''The Arthur Murray Party'', ''Pantomime Quiz'', ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'', ''The Ernie Kovacs Show'', and ''The Original Amateur Hour'' — shown on all four major television networks of the Golden Age of Television (ABC, NBC, CBS, and DuMont).Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1964). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'' (3rd ed.) p 1045. New York: Ballantine. . Gameplay ''Down You Go'' was similar to " Hangman", with a group of four celebrity panelists who were asked to guess a word or phrase submitted by a home viewer. The host would give a wordplay-laden clue to the panel, who could then ask a question of any s ...
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Pantomime Quiz
''Pantomime Quiz'', initially titled ''Pantomime Quiz Time'' and later ''Stump the Stars'', was an American television game show produced and hosted by Mike Stokey. Running from 1947—1959, it has the distinction of being one of the few television series—along with ''The Arthur Murray Party''; ''Down You Go''; ''The Ernie Kovacs Show'', ''The Original Amateur Hour''; and ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''—to air on all four TV networks in the US during the Golden Age of Television. Overview Based on the parlor game of Charades, ''Pantomime Quiz'' was first broadcast locally in Los Angeles from November 13, 1947, to 1949. In that format, it won an Emmy Award for "Most Popular Television Program" at the first Emmy Awards ceremony. The competition involved two teams of four contestants each (three regulars and one guest). In each round, one member acts out (in mime) a phrase or a name while the other three try to guess it. Each team had five rounds (in some broadcasts there w ...
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The Original Amateur Hour
''The Original Amateur Hour'' is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its master of ceremonies, left the show in 1945 and died the following year. He was ultimately succeeded by Ted Mack, when the show was brought into television in 1948. The show is a progenitor of later, similar programs such as ''Star Search'', ''American Idol'' and '' America's Got Talent''. Format and notable contestants The format was almost always the same. At the beginning of the show, the talent's order of appearance was determined by spinning a wheel. After it was announced how many episodes the current one marked (the final broadcast on CBS being the 1,651st), the wheel was spun. As the wheel spun, the words "Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows" were always intoned. (From the late 1950s forward, the wheel was ...
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Golden Age Of Television
The first Golden Age of Television is an era of television in the Television in the United States, United States marked by its large number of live productions. The period is generally recognized as beginning in 1947 with the first episode of the drama anthology ''Kraft Television Theater''Anthony Slide, ed., ''The Television Industry: A Historical Dictionary'', Greenwood Press, 1991, p. 121. and ending in 1960 with the final episode of ''Playhouse 90'' (although a few Golden Age shows and stars continued into the 1960s). The Golden Age was followed by the network era, wherein television audiences and programming had channel drift, shifted to less critically acclaimed fare, almost all of it taped or filmed. Limitations of early television Prior to 1928, there had been some attempts at television programming using the mechanical television process. One of the first series made specifically for television to have a sustained run was CBS's 1931–1933 murder-mystery series ''The Te ...
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Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses w ...
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