The NBC Comedy Hour

The NBC Comedy Hour was a comedy show that ran on NBC in the first half of 1956, intended to be a replacement for The Colgate Comedy Hour.

The NBC Comedy Hour
Jonathan Winters, a host of
The NBC Comedy Hour (1956)
GenreTelevision comedy
Directed byHerbert Kenwith[1]
Presented byLeo Durocher; Gale Storm; various
StarringJonathan Winters, Gale Storm, Pat Sheehan,[2] Stubby Kaye, Shecky Greene, Stan Freberg, and Hy Averback
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes18
Production
Running time60 minutes
Production companyNBC[1]
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseJanuary 8 (1956-01-08) –
June 10, 1956 (1956-06-10)
Related

Leo Durocher hosted the show in January, and Gale Storm from February until April 8; from April 22 on, hosts were called in per episode. Comic Jonathan Winters was a more frequent face than any of the hosts; he appeared in 17 of the 18 episodes. Stan Freberg was also a guest 6 times. Topical comedian Mort Sahl's network debut was on the Comedy Hour. A group of acting chimpanzees named The Marquis Chimps performed parodies of movies in 3 episodes.

The show was a critical and ratings failure: Variety stated "A more poorly conceived, routined and paced outing would be difficult to imagine."[3] It was cancelled in June, having already been pre-empted 4 times in 5 months.[3] It was succeeded by The Steve Allen Show, whose reputation became a marked contrast to that of The NBC Comedy Hour. The Paley Center for Media has several episodes of the series in their archives.

References
  1. The NBC Comedy Hour at IMDb. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  2. Clemens, Samuel (2020). Pat: A Biography of Hollywood's Blonde Starlet. Sequoia Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0578682822.
  3. "The NBC Comedy Hour". Classic TV Info. Jim Davidson. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2010-01-29.


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