The Mike Douglas Show with guests Moby Grape

The Mike Douglas Show from 1971. Forgotten actress Lois Hunt is sitting on panel before the set by psych-rockers Moby Grape. Douglas introduces them as The Moby Grapes and also accidentaly cuts them off prematurely. The group featured the Jefferson Airplane's original drummer Skip Spence, who we see here good and blurry. The band broke up not long after this appearance.

The Colgate Comedy Hour with guest Buddy Rich - The Jerry Lewis Telethon with guest KISS

Drumming legend Buddy Rich and Jerry Lewis battle it out in 1955 on this episode of Martin & Lewis' Colgate Comedy Hour.

Looking at this site you might guess that I'm some kind of crazed KISS fantatic. Nothing could be further from the truth. There just happens to be a lot of footage on the internet of KISS in classic showbiz environs. Here is KISS making a brief plea on the 1979 Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy!

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson: Stump the Band (1975)

A nice couple minutes of "stump the band," from a 1975 episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Eventually Carson and the crew would only do this segment when they had a guest cancel at the last minute.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - Late Night with David Letterman - with guest Albert Brooks - Footage Offline 6/06/08

Here we have a pair of Albert Brooks appearances. One on Late Night with David Letterman in 1985 and the other on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1991. Albert Brooks, brother of Super Dave Osborne, was also the son of Parkyarkarkus, a comedic character on the old Eddie Cantor radio show.

Follow this link to listen to some of his classic comedy LP, Comedy Minus One on The Generation Exploitation Podcast.

Albert Brooks' real name is Albert Einstein, Super Dave Osborne's real name is Bob Einstein, and their father's real name was Harry Einstein. Probably the craziest thing about Albert and Bob's show business father was his death. He died in the greatest old timey showbiz way imaginable. In 1958 he succumbed to a heart attack at a Friar's Club Roast of Lucille Ball. He sat at the dais next to Milton Berle and collapsed into Berle's lap. Now that's showbiz, baby.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - Commercial Break with Ed McMahon

It seems so long since Johnny, Ed, and Doc graced the airwaves that I'm sure many have forgotten that Ed McMahon used to perform the sponsor's ads right from the set. If Carson Productions has its way, you'll never know it, since they seem devoted to taking a hatchet to all the classic episodes and releasing them on DVD edited to bits. They should really take a look at the success SHOUT! Factory has had with their Dick Cavett and Tom Snyder sets that leave each episode at its full length, in the same format they originally aired, blemishes and all. Johnny Carson's estate has full control over all aspects of these shows with the exception of some musical rights so this shouldn't be a problem. Okay, enough ranting, here's Ed talking about Kellogg's.

You Bet Your Life with guest Lord Buckley (1956)

This was one of the first things I ever saw on YouTube and its still one of the greatest. Cult-icon Lord Buckley, the eccentric, aristocratic sounding, beatnik-jazz comedian appears as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime match-up. Lord Buckley was such an underground figure during his day that he could appear as a game show contestant named Richard Buckley and nobody, spare Groucho, would recognize him as anybody of note. He does a good job at the game too and you just know he needed that prize money. From October 11, 1956. 



This footage is apparently from a show called Club 7, presumably a local New York program from the early fifties. The MC gives Buckley a condescending introduction, "a rather frequent guest here on Club 7 and only because you seem to like him so much..." 



Buckley smoked pot in public, wandered around nude at parties, and had a rivalry with Lenny Bruce vying for the title of "the jazz musician's favorite comedian." His most famous routine is his hippified scat telling of "The Nazz," as in the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Here's a short clip of that routine from a 1960 performance at The Gate of Horn, Chicago:

The New Price Is Right - Pitch Film

The Price is Right first debuted on television in 1956. It lasted until 1965 and had been very popular during its initial run. In 1972, Mark Goodson had a plan to bring a primetime version of the show to CBS to be titled The New Price is Right. In order to sell his idea, he put together this pitch film. Goodson succeeded and the show became what it is today. However, watching this film, I don't know how anybody could have been sold on it. Looks pretty fucking boring if you ask me.

$20,000 Pyramid with guest David Letterman

Keeping with the Letterman in the seventies theme, here's David on two separate episodes of Dick Clark's $20,000 Pyramid. Two segments from episodes in 1978 and 1979. On the first clip we see him once again with all-purpose celebrity game show contestant Joanne Worley. Check the comments section for helpful details courtesy a friendly reader.

Another clip from a different episode, notice David's striking resemblance to Quentin Tarantino:

The Riddlers with host David Letterman (1977)

As previously mentioned, after moving to Los Angeles and working on his stand-up act every night of the week, David Letterman's next big goal was to break into television. Most stand-up comedians will jump at the chance to do absolutely anything on television when they're first starting out and Letterman was no different. In 1977, while game shows like Let's Make a Deal, The Match Game, and Hollywood Squares were still drawing ratings as high as anything else in the television world - new game shows were constantly being churned out.

As we will see in this pilot episode for The Riddlers, the panel features many stock game show faces. Joanne Worley and Joyce Bulifant were appearing on things like this all the time. History has proven that Robert Urich has done nothing but appear on panels or occasionally host shows with names like "World's Greatest Magic Tricks" during sweeps. Michael McKean probably had the most street cred at the time due to his work on Laverne and Shirley. The opening music we hear is the same tune once heard on the National Lampoon comedy LP That's Not Funny! That's Sick! in which Bill Murray played a clueless game show contestant. This pilot was never turned into a series.

"...will be competing against these five dance instructors..." Bet you didn't see that coming!