"The Comedian" is a 1957

live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television over the Internet when content or programming is played continuously (not on demand) ...

drama written by

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...

from a novella by

Ernest Lehman Ernest Paul Lehman (December 8, 1915 – July 2, 2005) was an American screenwriter. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Ho ...

, directed by

John Frankenheimer John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1 ...

, and starring

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

Edmond O'Brien Eamon Joseph O'Brien (September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985) was an American actor and film director. His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. O'Brien w ...

Kim Hunter Kim Hunter (born Janet Cole; November 11, 1922 – September 11, 2002) was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' ''A Streetcar N ...

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

and

Constance Ford Constance Ford (born Cornelia M. Ford; July 1, 1923 – February 26, 1993) was an American actress and model. She is best known for her long-running role as Ada Lucas Hobson on the daytime soap opera '' Another World'', which she played from 1 ...

. Rooney's portrayal of a lecherous, vicious comedian who tears down everyone around him was widely praised. The 90-minute drama was part of the anthology series ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...

'' on February 14, 1957.Gould, Jack. "TV Review Mickey Rooney Scores as Bitter Comedian" (''The New York Times'', February 15, 1957)
/ref> The show was captured on

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...

and is available on DVD. Rosenbaum, Jonathan (April 11, 2009)
"THE COMEDIAN (1957)"
/ref>

Opening narration and introduction by Claudette Colbert

"Live — from

Television City Television City, alternatively CBS Television City, is an American television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. Designed by architect William Pereira and Ch ...

in Hollywood — ''Playhouse 90'' — Tonight starring

. On ''Playhouse 90'', to introduce tonight's show, Miss

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

." laudette Colbert stars in the February 21 episode, "One Coat of White". Many installments of ''Playhouse 90'' were introduced by stars of episodes scheduled for the following week. "Good Evening. Tonight, ''Playhouse 90'' presents "The Comedian", the story of a ruthless, but fascinating entertainer. "The Comedian" is the work of two distinguished writers, the author of the original story, Ernest Lehman, who has written the screenplays for such popular motion pictures as ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childre ...

'', '' Somebody Up There Likes Me'' and ''

Executive Suite An executive suite in its most general definition is a collection of offices or rooms—or suite—used by top managers of a business—or executives. Over the years, this general term has taken on a variety of specific meanings. Corporate off ...

''. The adapter,

, whose long list of original television dramas includes the award-winning ''

Patterns A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...

'', ''

Forbidden Area ''Forbidden Area'' is a 1956 Cold War thriller novel by Pat Frank. Its plot involves Soviet sleeper agents intended to sabotage the U.S. war effort, who have been trained by classical conditioning to have an American "cover identity" that they c ...

'' and ''

Requiem for a Heavyweight "Requiem for a Heavyweight" is a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show ''Playhouse 90'' on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey R ...

''. And now, "The Comedian."

Plot summary

Egomaniacal television comedian Sammy Hogarth (Rooney) routinely makes fun of his brother Lester (Tormé) on the air, and is constantly bullying his writers for better material. Lester's wife Julie (Hunter) leaves Lester because of his cowardice. Unscrupulous columnist Ellwell (Bissell) publishes a column hinting at an affair between Sammy and Julie, deepening the humiliation. Chief writer Al Preston (O'Brien), to keep his job, steals material from a writer who died during World War II. Preston is fired after confessing to the theft. Lester slaps Sammy during a performance, but returns to the role of servile brother.

Cast

... Sammy Hogarth *

... Al Preston *

... Julie Hogarth *

... Lester Hogarth *

... Connie *

Whit Bissell Whitner Nutting Bissell (October 25, 1909 – March 5, 1996) was an American character actor. Early life Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell and Helen Nutting Bissell. He was educated at the Allen-S ...

as Elwell *

King Donovan King Donovan (January 25, 1918 – June 30, 1987) was an American film, stage, and television actor, as well as a film and television director. Early years Francis King Donovan was born in Manhattan on January 25, 1918. His parents were vaudev ...

as the Director *

Eddie Ryder Eddie Ryder (January 23, 1923 – March 29, 1997) was an American television and film actor, as well as a writer and television director. Ryder was born in New York City and died in El Paso, Texas. Career Ryder was a veteran of 92 movies and te ...

as Jake *

H. M. Wynant H. M. Wynant (born Chaim Winant; February 12, 1927) is an American film and television actor. Biography Wynant was born in Detroit, Michigan. He made his feature film debut as an Indian in Samuel Fuller's ''Run of the Arrow'' (1957). In the ...

as Sonny *Mike Ross as the Masseur

Production

Rooney was cast in the role after a half-dozen other actors turned down the part. According to Frankenheimer, Mel Tormé was cast as Lester at the suggestion of Edmond O'Brien. Kim Hunter later recalled that during rehearsals Rooney often varied his performance dramatically, so that "no two days were alike," which might create problems during a live broadcast. However, Frankenheimer, then only in his twenties, was able to work with him to extract a memorable performance. Frankenheimer described him as "the most talented man I ever worked with," while also citing his "huge ego problems" and being "terribly temperamental" and "totally unpredictable." Frankenheimer said that Rooney "stunned everybody" by nailing the performance from the very first reading, while other actors were just getting used to the script. The model for the central character has been a subject of much speculation over the years, and has included

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...

Red Buttons Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the 1957 film ''Sayonara''. He was nominated for awards for his acting work i ...

and

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

. The film has parallels to ''

Sweet Smell of Success ''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from t ...

'', also originating from an Ernest Lehman story, with the same milieu and including one of the same characters in both works, columnist Otis Ellwell. It is most likely, however that Berle was the primary model. Lehman wrote a profile of Berle during his days hosting

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 Mi ...

, a time when Berle was notorious for his overbearing, dictatorial style, directing considerable venom at his brother, who worked on the show. The magazine that assigned Lehman considered the profile unprintable, fearing a lawsuit. Lehman then wrote a fictionalized treatment as ''The Comedian.'' Berle's only reaction to the production tends to confirm its origins with Lehman's article. "I wasn't that bad," he was reported to have said.

Critical reaction

In his ''New York Times'' review, TV critic

Jack Gould John Ludlow Gould (February 5, 1914 – May 24, 1993) was an American journalist and critic, who wrote commentary about television. Early life and education Gould was born in New York City into a socially prominent family and attended the Loomis ...

praised the performances, singling out Rooney as "extraordinary." He faulted the "long interludes of rudimentary and melodramatic sub-plots that tended to get in one another's way," but said that the "lasting over-all impression was a most powerful commentary.

Awards

''The Comedian'' won two Emmy Awards. It won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

as Outstanding Single Program of the Year, while Serling received an Emmy for Best Teleplay Writing – One Hour or More. Rooney was nominated for an Emmy, his first. Tormé was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy but the category was cancelled.

References

External links

*
''The Comedian'' at Archive of American Television
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comedian, The (Playhouse 90) 1957 American television episodes 1957 television plays Playhouse 90 (season 1) episodes