Listen to the two LPs pictured here, in their entirety, both recorded live at the legendary Sands Hotel, by clicking here. Friday, November 30, 2007
Allen & Rossi Live on Vinyl! (1963-64)
Listen to the two LPs pictured here, in their entirety, both recorded live at the legendary Sands Hotel, by clicking here. 
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Mel Tolkin 1913-2007
Tolkin's writing career spanned the gamut of American television. Watch Tolkin talk about that career in detail over here.
Shelley Berman at Home
Go here and watch some footage of Shelley Berman at home, from an upcoming documentary named Compass.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Charlie Rose with guest Mort Sahl (1994)
You need to skip to the final twenty minutes of this episode of Charlie Rose to watch an interview with Mort Sahl. Sahl sadly endorses Alexander Haig and Henry Kissenger(!) in this segment. Overall, it really isn't that great of an interview, but Sahl footage on the internet is very limited.
The Spirit is Willing (1967) - Footage Offline - 2/28/08
Shock gimmick master William Castle made a handful of horror-comedies in the nineteen sixties including a remake of The Old Dark House starring Tom Poston and this film starring Sid Caesar. Great character actors appear like John Astin, Jesse White, Harvey Lembeck, Nestor Paiva and Doodles Weaver. Not only did the star of The Addams Family, Astin, appear, but Vic Mizzy, best known for composing the theme song to that sitcom, did the soundtrack of this film.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966)
Marty Allen is alive and well, still performing stand-up, primarily on the cruise ship circuit, making a decent, if not rather anonymous, living. At the height of his fame as part of the comedy team of Allen & Rossi and their string of comedy LPs and appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (including the episode that had The Beatles play the program for the first time) the boys made this awful film. That's Nancy Sinatra singing the title theme.
The Dick Cavett Show (1969)
An opening from an early version of The Dick Cavett Show - not sure if it's from his 1968-69 daytime show or the first of his primetime shows.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Mike Douglas Show with guests Andy Kaufman, Robert Goulet and Carol Channing (1977)
This picture depicts a magazine article called Nervous Laughter. A good desciption of this fine selection.
Watch in the clip below and realize that the whole set starts spinning with ridiculous speed and the whole panel keeps a straight face as it happens. The motorized 1970s talk show set - I'm surprised Conan has never got around to doing a take-off gag based on the idea.
Password Plus with guest host Bill Cullen and panelist Bill Anderson (1979)
Cool Super Password word.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Colgate Comedy Hour (1953) ) - Footage Offline - 05/23/09
Will Jordan always insisted that he invented the Ed Sullivan impression and that anybody else who did Ed was just doing an impression of Will Jordan doing an impression of Ed Sullivan. He also states that those people are assholes. However, as we will see in this footage, it may very well have been Jerry Lewis who invented the Sullivan impression. The Ed Sullivan Show had previously been known as The Toast of the Town, hence the name given to this satire with Martin & Lewis.
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guest host David Letterman (1979)
Handwhistler Ben Brenner is the guest in this segment. After David gives it a try, an annoying between monologue joke gimmick was born. Much like David's "Hey, hey, kids," the ol' hand whistle he does here became a regular staple whenever he felt like it on Late Night with David Letterman.
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