An appropriate analogy to describe NBC's Four Star Revue, later retitled All Star Revue, would be that it was television's answer to the children's book, The Little Engine That Could. It was one of the first, along with Colgate Comedy Hour, anthology-style variety shows in that a different host appeared each week, some in a rotating fashion.
That first year had four rotating hosts---Jack Carson, Jimmy Durante, Danny Thomas, and Ed Wynn. In season 2, the network was able to bring in additional hosts to the series, hence the change to All Star Revue, but, as ratings began to fall, after the series shifted from Wednesdays to Saturdays in season 2, it was reduced to a monthly series, to give its former Wednesday partner, Your Show of Shows, a breather. Martha Raye eventually took over the show, which would bear her name for the rest of the run.
From season 2 comes the Ritz Brothers headlining a show that includes a send-up of Dragnet, complete with Jack Webb, who swaps out his monotone narrative voice, showing a flair for comedy that would surface years later when he did skits with Jack Benny and Johnny Carson.
The Dragnet skit is also available on its own, although it appears that copy was the victim of some poor editing. The Ritzes' pantomiming over Webb's narration is worth the price of admission.
No rating.
No comments:
Post a Comment