Best & Worst Classic Variety Shows Ever On TV

[Ultimajock]

...in a class of its own was The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show. Chuck was no better at aping Sullivan as he was at aping Ted Mack on The Gong Show, but the talent line-up he attracted was easily as good as an average Sullivan installment, or any of Barris' Operation: Entertainment productions (the latter also making my best list)...

 

[Braves2005]

I always enjoyed Carol Burnett and they were actually better during the 1970's when Tim Conway was guesting and later he became a regular and then Vicki and The Family segments. Very funny stuff indeed.

When I was a kid, I always watched Hee Haw and Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters Show. Hee Haw was always funny and Barbara and her sisters Louise and Irlene were great, be it music, comedy, etc. they did it all.

Can't believe no one mentioned Donny and Marie yet. That was a great show as well.

One show that I would like to see besides Dean Martin's show on DVD would be Jim Nabors' variety show from 1969 to 1971. Was that show any good?

I would definitely call The Lawrence Welk Show a variety show since they sang and played music from all genres.

 

[bpatrick]

I have been watching "The Johnny Cash Show" on DVD, definitely on the best list. I don't remember it too much but Jimmy Dean had a show too. Seems like that was pretty good.

Cash's show was one of the best musically-oriented variety shows; Not much sketch comedy that I remember, and a really eclectic mix of musical guests from country, rock, pop, and folk circles. Jimmy Dean's show was pretty good; As a little kid, my favorite part was when he and Rowlf (from the Muppets, of course) would bust each other's chops.

How about the Richard Pyror Show and Dick Van Dyke's attempt?......

They both got raw deals from NBC, but for different reasons.

As far as Toni Tennille, I think she does pop standards concerts with a lot of orchestras these days.

Remember the name of the sketch comedy troupe on Cosell's show? "The Prime Time Players"...Yeah, that name does sound familiar...That show was an attempt to recreate the Sullivan ambience by using a host who wasn't an actual performer. An even worse attempt at that sort of show happened a few years later; "Live And In Person", hosted by a fellow named Sandy Gallin, who was Dolly Parton's manager at the time. THAT...was some bad TV.

And did you know that Bill Murray was one of Cosell's "Prime Time Players"?

Van Dyke's NBC show actually won an Emmy in 1977 and was canceled around the same time. Shortly afterward he replaced Harvey Korman on "The Carol Burnett Show". I'm sure he was trying to help out a friend, but he never seemed comfortable in the role of second banana, and he left the show around Christmas 1977. Richard Pryor's show was doomed the moment NBC placed it at 8 PM (ET) (thinking they had another Flip Wilson, perhaps?). Pryor was certainly capable of doing family-friendly material, if you remember some of his routines on '60s variety shows or his role as Gus Gorman in "Superman III," but that's not what he was about in the '70s; NBC should have realized this and put him on at 10, but even then I recall his having frequent clashes with his writers, so the show probably never had a chance.

Dolly Parton had a good syndicated show in the '70s: simple, uncluttered musical format. Her show with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris is a classic example of how to do straight music (just like some of Judy Garland's shows where she performed either solo or with Barbra Streisand and/or Liza Minnelli). Her '80s show on ABC is forgettable; unlike Barbara Mandrell, she couldn't do it all.

Another show I'd put among the worst was "Dick Clark's Live Wednesday" on NBC in 1978. Yet another attempt to duplicate Sullivan, Clark's show became a joke because--to emphasize that it was live--there was always some daredevil stunt.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Speaking of Richard Pryor one of the funniest sketches I ever saw was Pryor as the bartender with Star Wars characters as patrons. The looks he gave some of these aliens was funny enough, but his comment to one of them, which I can't repeat because he uses the "N" word, still has me chuckling.

I think the network censors were scared that Pryor might revert to some of his nightclub routines on his show; which actually would have made the program even more entertaining.

Kind of ironic that Archie Bunker (Carrol O'Connor) could get away with name-calling on "All in the Family" but yet Pryor's comments had to be censored.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Add Flip Wilson to the best and Tony Orlando to the worst.

The skits, music, clothing and everything else was so cheezy on Orlando. It was like watching a cheap college production......and not very funny either.

Everything...and I do mean EVERYTHING....about Tony Orlando is/was so cheesy, I can scarcely stand it when
I see actual yellow ribbons displayed by people who have loved ones in the military. Can't help thinking "how
in the world did that sappy song from my childhood ever become a national tradition?"

 

[FreddyE1977]

...aw, lay off the Bay City Rollers. All they were was a bunch of Scottish teenagers

a point people in Bay City, Michigan spent tons of money on expensive PR firms to get across
to the general public! ;D

 

[azumanga]

Richard Pryor's show was doomed the moment NBC placed it at 8 PM (ET)... Pryor was certainly capable of doing family-friendly material, if you remember some of his routines on '60s variety shows or his role as Gus Gorman in "Superman III," but that's not what he was about in the '70s...

In 1984 (I think), Richard Pryor had a Saturday morning show on CBS, "Pryor's Place". By then, after films such as "Superman III" and "The Toy", Pryor established himself with one who can safely pander to the kiddies just as well as pandering with the grown-ups. However, many stations pre-empted "Pryor's Place" -- while some bumpedcit due to conflicts with college football, there were reports of some stations pre-empting the show solely due to Pryor's reputation as a risque comedian.

...aw, lay off the Bay City Rollers. All they were was a bunch of Scottish teenagers

a point people in Bay City, Michigan spent tons of money on expensive PR firms to get across
to the general public! ;D

However, growing up in Bay City, I did recall a business downtown near the 7th Street Bridge painting a mural on one of its walls featuring the group. To be honest, being young at the time, even I was fooled into believing that the Bay City Rollers came from Michigan, not Scotland.

 

[jwk1979]

One show that I would like to see besides Dean Martin's show on DVD would be Jim Nabors' variety show from 1969 to 1971. Was that show any good?

I've seen a few skits from the Jim Nabors Show on YouTube and the retro tv website TVPARTY.COM and from what I've seen, Jim Nabors was basically playing the Gomer Pyle character in the schetches, but with different names. From what I could tell, it was standard TV variety schetches from the time.

I remember the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour that started out as a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers and would then replace it on Sunday night the next season. Even though it had comedy schetches, they were just generic characters and not recurring ones like most of the other variety shows.

 

[jwk1979]

Totally forgotten now since its not even on their Wikipedia page but about 20 years ago the Captain & Tennille were very much involved in the then-popular heavy metal rock scene. No they never did record a metal version of "The Way I Want To Touch You" but rather they did own a recording studio which was very popular among that crowd back in those days and if memory serves the studio was called "Rumbo". I believe AC/DC, Metallica, Judas Priest and a number of others had done recordings there. I do remember checking about Hit Parader magazine back when I was "Gulp" a metal head and there was a photo of some band whose name I had long since forgot ( not hard to do )..right beside The Captain & Tennile, and Daryl still had his captain's hat on too.

Toni Tennille also provided the female voice over on Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album in 1979. Her's is the voice you hear on side three when a female and the main character go back to the hotel and she asks such questions as "Do you wanna take a bath?" and "Are all these your guitars?".

 

[KeithE4]

In the 70's after Sonny and Cher were a hit, it seemed like the networks wanted to do variety shows with who knows how many one hit wonders, most of which bombed.

Sonny's and Cher's separate shows both bombed. Cher's was mediocre and Sonny's was bad. But even after they got back together professionally post-divorce, it just wasn't the same.

 

[Kurt Toy]

I would categorize this in the worst category, but Don Knotts had a variety show which didn't make it.

However I would categorize the Howard Cosell Show, or what ever it was called, as one of the worst variety shows on TV. Cosell tried to be another Ed Sullivan. He came across more like Mr. Ed.

Ah, yes - Sa-tur-day Night Live With Hah-Wahd Co-Sell. Not only was the show awful in general, but in keeping with his lame attempt to be Ed Sullivan and importing British rock acts, he foisted The Bay City Rollers on an unsuspecting American public. At least Sullivan gave us the Beatles, the Stones, and the Dave Clark 5.

Not to mention that a late night sketch comedy show that debuted on another network not long after Cosell's disaster took to the air, had to call itself NBC's Saturday Night at the outset, not renaming itself Saturday Night Live until over a year had passed since the Cosell show ended.

But among the best, I'd count Steve Allen's 1956-61 NBC variety show which helped make the likes of Louis Nye, Don Knotts and Tom Poston famous . . .

If British comedy/variety shows counted for best and worst, let me submit The Benny Hill Show in both categories - best up to the 1970's, worst in the '80's.

Yet the 1988 book TV TURKEYS by Kevin Allman called Cosell's show "The Other Saturday Night Live" without mentioning the fact that NBC's SNL wasn't called that.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Deviating from the main subject for a moment someone mentioned Tom Poston. I for one could never understand why this person was considered funny. There were, and still are, far better comedians on TV than Tom Poston (RIP).

Meanwhile back on topic, I believe Ed Wynn once had a variety show that bombed big time.
The problem was that a number of these comedians came from vaudeville. While traveling from city to city they would take the bits that were funny and keep them, while discarding the jokes, or bits that were not. Once they got on TV and used up their funny material, they were stuck; unless their team of writers could come up with something better.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Bob Hope's Christmas specials. They were great; especially during the Vietnam War as a morale booster for our troops.

 

[BRNout]

So, nobody here has actually listed The Ed Sullivan Show as one of the best? Or is that a given?

I have to agree with Carol Burnett, Sonny & Cher and Dean Martin belonging on the best list; Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson do too. Another one that slipped into the discussion and which should absolutely be on the "best" list is The Muppet Show. Hey, it had comedy bits, musical numbers and guests - so it counts!

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (or whatever it was called) was just horrible as were many other 70's variety shows that are probably too numerous to count!

 

[bpatrick]

Meanwhile back on topic, I believe Ed Wynn once had a variety show that bombed big time.
The problem was that a number of these comedians came from vaudeville. While traveling from city to city they would take the bits that were funny and keep them, while discarding the jokes, or bits that were not. Once they got on TV and used up their funny material, they were stuck; unless their team of writers could come up with something better.

Danny Thomas tried a variety show before "Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show"; he was one of a group of rotating hosts on NBC's "All Star Revue" in the early '50s. He made essentially the same observation you did about vaudeville and nightclub comedians' problems on television: "TV is for idiots! You work years building routines, do them once, and they're through. Next thing you know, you are too!" Thomas must have realized that the sitcom was better for the long haul, since his better-known show lasted 11 years.

Ed Wynn was hampered by two things. His show originated in LA and was seen live on the West Coast but, being before the national coaxial hookup (his show debuted in 1949), the East Coast had to settle for poor-quality kinescopes (Alan Young had the same problem with his CBS variety show from the same era). Also, Wynn couldn't persuade many then-current names to try their hand at a television guest shot; he did have Lucy and Desi (before "I Love Lucy"), but he relied mainly on acts like the Three Stooges and Buster Keaton, classic comedy which, unfortunately for the Eastern half of the country, was almost impossible to see.

Wynn did try a forgettable sitcom in 1958 where he played guardian to his two orphaned granddaughters, but in his later years was better known as a dramatic actor, starting with "Playhouse 90"'s 1956 presentation of "Requiem For A Heavyweight".

 

[Markieo]

I would categorize this in the worst category, but Don Knotts had a variety show which didn't make it.

However I would categorize the Howard Cosell Show, or what ever it was called, as one of the worst variety shows on TV. Cosell tried to be another Ed Sullivan. He came across more like Mr. Ed.

Ah, yes - Sa-tur-day Night Live With Hah-Wahd Co-Sell. Not only was the show awful in general, but in keeping with his lame attempt to be Ed Sullivan and importing British rock acts, he foisted The Bay City Rollers on an unsuspecting American public. At least Sullivan gave us the Beatles, the Stones, and the Dave Clark 5.

Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali singing "Frendship" on SNLWHC...made Mrs. Miller look like Julie Andrews!

AS for The Captain and Tennille, they had a recurring sketch on their show called "The Bionic Watermelon". That was the best part of the show!

 

[landtuna]

Deviating from the main subject for a moment someone mentioned Tom Poston. I for one could never understand why this person was considered funny. There were, and still are, far better comedians on TV than Tom Poston (RIP).

Like the comedy of Buster Keaton, Tom Poston's main appeal was his deadpan persona. I've never heard him praised as one of the best comedians but he was very funny as a member of an ensemble. In what must have been one of his last performances he showed he hadn't lost any of his old ability as the ticket/rental car agent at a snowed-in airport in "Home Improvement".

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Bob Hope's Christmas specials. They were great; especially during the Vietnam War as a morale booster for our troops.

As one of those troops I can tell you anything that delayed one's participation in the war was greatly appreciated. That said, and taking nothing away from Hope's many trips overseas in three wars, he wasn't the star headliner. He always brought some beautiful babes with him and judging from the reactions of the guys near me they were better for morale than Hope.

 

[Stanislav]

In the 70's after Sonny and Cher were a hit, it seemed like the networks wanted to do variety shows with who knows how many one hit wonders, most of which bombed.

Sonny's and Cher's separate shows both bombed. Cher's was mediocre and Sonny's was bad. But even after they got back together professionally post-divorce, it just wasn't the same.

The original S&C was pretty good...I tended to tune in primarily because I liked the "Vamp" numbers in which both appeared simultaneously in multiple roles at the end. I think it was the first time I saw a show attempt multiple chromakey overlays that looked pretty decent.

Who would have thought back then that Cher would become a respected movie actress, and Sonny a respected Congressman? (Though a lousy skier...;D...what, still too soon?)

 

[Stanislav]

Ed Wynn was hampered by two things. His show originated in LA and was seen live on the West Coast but, being before the national coaxial hookup (his show debuted in 1949), the East Coast had to settle for poor-quality kinescopes (Alan Young had the same problem with his CBS variety show from the same era). Also, Wynn couldn't persuade many then-current names to try their hand at a television guest shot; he did have Lucy and Desi (before "I Love Lucy"), but he relied mainly on acts like the Three Stooges and Buster Keaton, classic comedy which, unfortunately for the Eastern half of the country, was almost impossible to see.

He also appeared in the classic Twilight Zone episode "One for the Angels."

Somewhere, I have a copy of the Wynn show on which the Stooges were guests. Some funny moments (they are allegedly CBS execs who have come to retool Ed's show), but Stooge slapstick falls flat without their Columbia Foley artists adding the appropriate SFX.

I do recall a great line of Ed's at the end of the show, when he thanks the Stooges for appearing, and adds, "Any resemblance between the Stooges and the actual executives is purely.....mailicious." ;D

 

[bpatrick]

Even with the murky kinescopes I have to believe "The
Ed Wynn Show" is a treasure trove of old-fashioned,
knockabout, vaudeville-style comedy we don't see anymore.
If any other episodes have been preserved, I'd like to know
about them.

A note, too, about Milton Berle: much of the reason for his
popularity in the '40s and '50s is because he came along when
television was like inventing the wheel: nobody knew yet where
it was going, but compared to the travelogues and cooking shows
that dominated early television, Berle (along with Ed Sullivan, whose
mannerisms were savaged from the very beginning) represented big-time
entertainment to the owners of the earliest sets.

Jump to 1966. He's doing the same thing, basically, but he's trying to
appeal to both sides of the generation gap; he'd have Bob Hope one week,
and Paul Revere and the Raiders the next. And one segment of the audience
thinks he was better in the early days; the other thinks he's a comedian whose style
is long out of date (Richard Pryor and George Carlin will soon be pioneering a newer,
raunchier, but somehow more realistic style of comedy).

I've seen only one "Texaco Star Theater" episode but I used to watch his ABC
show on Friday nights. It wasn't terrible, and he tried to be more topical, but
the Smothers Brothers and "Laugh-In" would have shown just how old-fashioned
he really was.

Nevertheless, Uncle Miltie could always make me laugh, and that's all I really care.
God love him.

 

[Stanislav]

A note, too, about Milton Berle: much of the reason for his
popularity in the '40s and '50s is because he came along when
television was like inventing the wheel: nobody knew yet where
it was going, but compared to the travelogues and cooking shows
that dominated early television, Berle (along with Ed Sullivan, whose
mannerisms were savaged from the very beginning) represented big-time
entertainment to the owners of the earliest sets.

I've seen a few of his early shows, and....meh. People like to point out the huge ratings Miltie pulled early on, but they forget a few things. One, in his earliest seasons, in many markets he had little to no competition. Unless you were fortunate enough to live in one of the few multi-channel markets, your choices were Uncle Miltie, or the radio. Second, even though early shows were replete with old vaudeville schtick that predated the wheel, it was brand-new to millions of viewers who had never set foot inside a vaudeville theater. Third, TV was so novel that the actual quality and content of the programming was almost incidental -- it was new, and it was exciting to have moving images -- of anything -- coming right into your living room, where you didn't have to brave the elements, commute, and stand in line for a ticket to see a show -- here it was, free, in your own home, where you could sit in your favorite chair in your bathrobe, stay cool/warm/dry, and be entertained.