"Early Stars of Prime Time"

[Maxwell]

Okay, I'm guessing as to the title, but it was a show I saw the last 20 minutes of on our local PBS station (WTTW, Chicago). It was shows from 7:00-8:00 tonight (Saturday). The documentary focused on Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Milton Berle. It featured interviews in the portion I saw with Skelton, Hope, Berle, Donald O'Connor (representing the Colgate Comedy Hour), Steve Allen, Buddy Ebsen, and Chicago's Bruce Dumont (nephew, iirc, of the founder of the TV network and the head of Chicago's Museum of Broadcasting).

The show seemed to have focused on these performers because of their success in vaudeville, radio, and television. I saw footage of Jack with the Marquis Chimps and with Bing Crosby and George Burns.

You might want to look for it in your area. It seemed pretty good from what I saw.

[LLeff]

You might want to look for it in your area. It seemed pretty good from what I saw.

It's a really fabulous show that spends the right amount of time talking about early TV performers' roots in vaudeville and radio. A significant amount dedicated to Jack. Highly, highly recommended.

[DerekVOF]

Is the name correct? I've been looking for it on my local schedule and on the PBS.org website, and haven't been able to find it

[Maxwell]

Is the name correct? I've been looking for it on my local schedule and on the PBS.org website, and haven't been able to find it

I won't swear to the exact title as I only saw the last 20 minutes, but I believe "stars" and "prime time" were in the title. I only wish I'd checked my local listings before 7:40 Saturday night.

[shimp scrampi]

The show's called Pioneers of Primetime. I think you caught a rerun Max, because I remember promos for this many months back and was kicking myself that I didn't catch it. So, depending on where you live, it may not be showing up in your PBS listings.

[Maxwell]

The show's called Pioneers of Primetime. I think you caught a rerun Max, because I remember promos for this many months back and was kicking myself that I didn't catch it. So, depending on where you live, it may not be showing up in your PBS listings.

Yeah, our PBS station tends to use Saturday nights to show lots of reruns (including PBS pledge week specials and BBC series like Keeping Up Appearances, the Vicar of Dibley, and As Time Goes By) or old movies.

Thanks for the title correction. For the record I caught the end of the radio part and caught all of the TV portion that followed.

One thing that everything I've read indicates they got wrong. They talked about Ed Wynn's successful radio career and how that caused him to move into TV where his material was used up so that in two years his show (winner of the first Emmy for a live program) was gone.

From what I've read Wynn was through in radio by 1935 and went through all kinds of personal problems (at least depression, perhaps alcoholism) before he re-emerged on TV. Of course he reinvented himself with the help of Keenan in the television broadcast of Requiem for a Heavyweight. He turned out to be a pretty darned good actor.

I've heard a few of his Texaco Firechief shows, and the format is not all that different Jack Benny's early shows: Opening dialogue with Graham MacNamee, interaction during the commercial, a sketch, and "letters from listeners." However, the format in 1935 was exactly the same as in 1932. Only the orchestra was different (Eddie Duchin instead of Don Voorhees.)

So maybe the move by the big stars who lasted into sitcom was a pretty good move to sustain their popularity.