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''Fireball Fun for All'' is an American television comedy-variety program that was broadcast on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
from June 28, 1949 to October 27, 1949.
Hooper Ratings The C. E. Hooper Company was an American company which measured radio and television ratings during the Golden Age of Radio. Founded in 1934 by Claude E. Hooper (1898–1954), the company provided information on the most popular radio shows of the ...
for July 1949 showed the program leading all TV shows with a rating of 46.2.


Format and personnel

Debuting as a summer replacement for ''
Texaco Star Theater ''Texaco Star Theater'' was an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave M ...
'', the program was hosted by the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson and featured
slapstick comedy Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
and
sight gag In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretation ...
s. Viewers saw sights that included
baboon Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ...
s, beautiful girls, collapsing stages, explosions, leopard men,
midget Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a medical term like "dwarfism", a medical condition with a number of ca ...
s, and wild costumes. The show was based on the duo's "extravaganza that made them world-famous", '' Hellzapoppin.'' Regulars on the program were Ole Olsen, Chick Johnson, Bill Hayes, Marty May,
June Johnson June Rozelle Johnson (May 28, 1918 – July 14, 1987) was an American film actress from 1936 to 1941 who appeared in Western films and serials. She made 14 films including three in which she was the female lead alongside The Three Mesquiteers. ...
, J. C. Olsen, and The Buick Belles. Al Goodman's orchestra initially provided music. In July that group was replaced by Charles Sanford's orchestra. The premiere episode had a mobile TV unit stationed outside the theater, with announcer May greeting celebrities as they arrived for the broadcast.


Critical reception

''Fireball'' brought many elements of ''Hellzapoppin'' to TV. In the process of doing so, media historian Hal Erickson wrote, "the traditions of the 'standard' variety program were blown to pieces". In his book ''"From Beautiful Downtown Burbank": A Critical History of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, 1968-1973'', Erickson described the opening sequence of one episode:
An attractive singing ensemble, suddenly enveloped by smoke, begins screaming as the stage trembles earthquake-style. When the smoke clears, the curtain rises (carrying a struggling chorus girl with it) to reveal a brick wall, which in turn is smashed down by Olsen and Johnson, who shout belligerently "All right — who locked the front door?
Erickson attributed the program's lack of success to Olsen and Johnson's failure to adapt their comedy style to the constraints of television receivers of that era. He wrote that Milton Berle "learned early on to scale his performance down to television level without losing any of his essential raw energy" but Olsen and Johnson did not do so. Will Jones, writing in the '' Minneapolis Morning Tribune'' after having seen a kinescope of the first episode of the show, commented, "Milton Berle now has a television rival". He added, however, "And there's some question how long they'll be able to hold the pace," noting that so much activity was packed into the hour-long show that it seemed more like a half-hour. A review in ''Radio and Television Best'' magazine noted a change in the program after the first two episodes, which "consisted of nothing but brash pie-in-the-face kind of stuff" that kept the reviewer "annoyed to chagrin". The third broadcast, however, was described as better organized with improved performances, including a dance team, a tumbling trio, and a medley by the program's singers.


Production

''Fireball Fun for All'' was broadcast from the Center Theatre in New York City. Ezra Stone produced and directed. Eddie Cline was assistant director for the last five episodes. Don Walker orchestrated the music. Dave Gould was choreographer for four weeks. The program used five cameras and was sponsored by General Motors.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fireball Fun for All 1949 American television series debuts 1949 American television series endings 1940s American comedy television series 1940s American variety television series NBC original programming Television shows filmed in New York City