Best & Worst Classic Variety Shows Ever On TV

[mleach]

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?)

..and that their daughter Chasity would end up turning into a man.

 

[bpatrick]

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.

I can't argue the point. For example, in 1954 Variety reported that "Death Valley Days" was getting a 57 rating in Charlotte vs. Berle's 1.9. And a year earlier, when Greensboro got its second station, WFMY (CBS primary) had to hand Berle off to WSJS (now WXII) but replaced him with Bishop Sheen (DuMont); my dad still talks about how Bishop Sheen cut into Berle's audience bigtime. And I'm sure that stories like that are typical outside the Northeast.

Eventually, Berle got it from two sides: Phil Silvers on CBS, and the "Cheyenne"/"Wyatt Earp" combo on ABC.

I still say I've seen worse shows than Berle's, however. But in the context of early television, Ed Sullivan found a more workable formula for the long run, since he wasn't dependent on jokes, sketches, and gag writers. And leave us not forget that, although it wasn't an uninterrupted run, Ted Mack was on from 1948 to 1970, only one year less than Sullivan. He, too, depended on a number of different acts and acted as a host rather than a performer.