''The Hank McCune Show'' is an American television
sitcom. Filmed without a studio audience, the series is notable for being the first television program to incorporate a
laugh track.
The series began as a local Los Angeles program in 1949.
NBC placed it on its national
primetime
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
schedule at the start of the 1950–51 season. It debuted at 7:00pm Eastern Time on September 9 and was cancelled three months later. It was briefly resurrected as a syndicated program in 1953–54, but without a laugh track.
["Production," ''Broadcasting Telecasting'', p. 37, http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1954/1954-01-04-BC.pdf]
Overview
The premise foreshadowed that of ''
The Larry Sanders Show'' in that it contained a show within a show. Former radio comedian McCune portrayed a television variety show host named after himself, and each week the character managed to blunder his way into a variety of comic predicaments.
The supporting cast included
Larry Keating,
Charles Maxwell,
Frank Nelson, and
Florence Bates.
See also
*
1950-51 United States network television schedule
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe cond ...
References
External links
*
1950 American television series debuts
1950 American television series endings
1950s American sitcoms
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
NBC original programming
Television series about television
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