Vaudeville comedian "Senator" Edward Ford claimed he came up with the idea of Can You Top This?, which began as a regional radio program in New York in 1940, then went national when the series left WOR-AM for the NBC network 2 years later. Ford, along with Joe Laurie, Jr., and cartoonist Harry Hirschfield, were the regular panelists, and continued with the first television version, which ran on ABC in the early 50's.
However, there was a similar series, Stop Me If You Heard This One, which launched a year or so earlier, which actually makes Top a bit derivative.
Judge for yourselves, as we listen to a 1942 episode that leads with "Restaurants".
After the ABC-TV series failed, Four Star picked up the rights for a syndicated version that ran in 1970 (previously covered), with Wink Martindale as host/announcer, and Morey Amsterdam (ex-The Dick Van Dyke Show) as not only a panelist, but executive producer as well. However, this version lasted less than a year.
Rating: B.
No comments:
Post a Comment