The Steve Allen Show with guests Jonathan Winters and Phil Harris (1960)

The Nat King Cole Show with guest Ella Fitzgerald (1957)

The first network variety program to star an African-American was the short-lived, but very popular, Nat King Cole Show. (Amos n' Andy and Belulah were the first TV shows to star African-American actors)To make up for its many airings of The Comic View, BET re-ran the show during its formative years. Wish they would show more early television featuring Black showbiz pioneers. Ella had just come out with the LP pictured above when she made this appearance. This show was cancelled when NBC buckled to pressure from racist advertisers appeasing their racist Southern clientele and their demands. After the cancellation, Nat King Cole remarked, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

Car 54 Where Are You? (1962)

Joe E. Ross' "Ooh, ooh!" finally gets on the nerves of Fred Gwynne in this episode. I'll be posting the prostitute obsessed Joe E. Ross' comedy record, released on the notorious Laff Records label, in a few weeks.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guest Don Rickles (1987)

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guests Mel Brooks and Crosby, Stills & Nash (1988) - Footage Offline 4/16/08

Johnny Carson Sings on stage with The Rat Pack (1965)

Check it out over here!

The George Gobel Show (1956)

George Gobel is another one of those grand old stars who is today better known for his guest appearances on talk and game shows rather than the act that made him famous in the first place. Gobel was a great stand-up comic with a unique style that is on display on this episode of The George Gobel Show.

The Newlywed Game (1978)

Unlike most old gameshow footage on the internet, this was not taped off the Game Show Network. This is an entire episode including the original commercials as it aired on Los Angeles' KTLA in the late seventies. Bob Eubanks really phones it in.

The Dean Martin Show with guests Allan Sherman and Vic Damone (1965) - Footage Offline

Kliph Nesteroff presents Here's Milt Kamen!

This is the 1961 LP Here's Milt Kamen! from Capitol Records. Mel Brooks produced this album and it's his voice you'll hear at the very start saying, "And now... Milt... Kamen." Groucho Marx sounded his praises on the back cover liner notes.

Maybe one day I'll write about Milt, but for now here's the facts you should know. Kamen was beloved by Groucho, Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. Author Bruce Jay Friedman says Kamen was his favorite stand-up comic. Same goes for Jules Feiffer. For a while Kamen dated CIA operative turned television executive Raysa Bonow. The legend goes that Carl Reiner discovered Milt Kamen and Milt Kamen discovered Woody Allen. Herb Sanford, a producer on The Garry Moore Show wrote in his memoir Ladies and Gentlemen The Garry Moore Show, "Milt played in the Philharmonic and in pit orchestras in Broadway shows. As he sat in the pit and listened to the jokes on stage, he began developing some ideas of his own and veered into television. Milt's comedy bits were far out. One of those he did with us was, one might say, science fiction. It dealt with a giant tomato that attacked an entire town. It ended happily, the victorious tomato "spritzing" a giant Bloody Mary."

Jack Carter remembers Kamen in the days of the Sid Caesar program. "Kamen, the guy who did the run-through of those sketches was also a musician," says Carter.  "He was a french horn player - Milt. And he was really the one that ad-libbed the sketches and set it up. He would do the dress rehearsal and Sid would save [himself] for the show. But Sid got plenty of shtick from this guy."

 
Now, enjoy the LP in its entirety - there are no Vietnam gags, but it's still fun: Here's Milt Kamen!

What's the Law (1967)

Well, what the f*ck is this!? A game show hosted by brilliant radio satirist and former I've Got a Secret panelist Henry Morgan. I researched pretty heavily for a magazine article about Henry Morgan that I wrote last summer, but I never came across any informaiton about a show called What's the Law? Obviously it's a rare, unaired, pilot and it isn't difficult to see why it never got picked up. It moves at a snail's pace. Regardless, this is still super cool. I love the internet.

The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Variety Show (1954) 2/15/08

It's ridiculous how many different names the exact same show had, but it never lets you down. And it's another full episode.