Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Steve Allen Christmas Show featuring Bill Dana, The Smothers Brothers and Buck Henry (1961)




And Tim Conway before he changed his name from Tom to Tim.

3 comments:

Jonathan F. King said...

Yeomanlike work by the all-Jewish writing staff of Dana, Persky, and Denoff...

Kevin K. said...

Not sure they could get away with the shoot-out bit today.

Tim Lones said...

This is supposedly a true story-Tim Conway and Pal Ernie Anderson moved form KYW-TV Cleveland to WJW-TV in 1961, with Ernie hosting a movie show on WJW in the mornings called Ernie's Place and Tim acting as his "Director" though he had never been a director in his life. They had to have a veteran Channel 8 staff person make sure things were done right. Tim eventually joined Ernie in skits between movie breaks and they developed a following. Rose Marie came through Cleveland on a Dick Van Dyke Show promotional tour and saw film of Ernie and Tim together and saw potential in Tim (known as Tom still) and recommended him to Steve Allen..Tim would go do some Steve Allen Show bits, then return to Cleveland..Early 1962,,McHale's Navy opportunity comes along. Tim isn't sure he wants to make a clean break from Cleveland to Hollywood, so talks to the WJW-TV Manager or Program Director seeking advice..The guy says to him..Look, thia ia a great opportunity. You are crazy if you don't go..In fact, if you don't go, youre fired!