The Gong Show - Mork and Mindy - The Jacksons - with guest David Letterman

Like any struggling or aspiring comedian in the nineteen seventies, David Letterman was taking any television gig he could get while appearing in the evenings as an unknown at The Comedy Store and other clubs out and around Hollywood.

It wasn't until one of the most influential comedy agents in the business, Jack Rollins, took him on as a client that things started happening. Letterman appeared on episodes of Mork and Mindy, The Gong Show, The Jacksons and several game shows. His appearance on Mary Tyler Moore's variety program Mary has been mocked on his talk show several times over the course of the last twenty years. He even competed on an edition of The Battle of The Network Stars! I haven't seen that footage so I'm not sure what event he participated in.

The most embarrassing program David appeared on was probably The Starland Vocal Band Show, a short lived variety program that revolved around the group who had the one-hit wonder, Afternoon Delight. Apparently Letterman was even a staff writer for that relic.

As a judge on a 1976 episode of The Gong Show:

David Letterman's hero was Steve Allen. Many of Letterman's most famous bits, not to mention the whole stylistic aspect of his show, are completely derivative of Steve Allen's work. So it must have been a huge thrill for Letterman when he appeared on this episode of Mork and Mindy alongside former Tonight Show with Steve Allen regular, Tom Poston.

Letterman on an episode of The Jackson Five comedy-variety program, The Jacksons. One of the few times you'll hear David playing to canned laughter:

Kraft Music Hall: The Woody Allen Comedy Show

This sought after special was part of the weekly Kraft Music Hall which by this point had changed its format drastically from the way it was during the infancy of television and in radio.

In the late sixties and early seventies the long running KMH had a different host each week (as opposed to a permanent Bing Crosby or Perry Como). Depending on who the host was the line-up and format of the show would change. The Woody Allen Comedy Special featured a strange array of guests cavorting with Woody Allen including The Fifth Dimension, Candace Bergen, Tony Randall, Jamie Farr, and as we will see in these two clips - an interview with the Reverend Billy Graham. You can download the entire special here for a price. Word has it that Allen has been embarassed about this special for several years, in particular his opening monologue at the start. I don't have footage of that part to post, but I've seen it before and, believe me, it is extremely funny - nothing to be embarassed about. Other one-time hosts of this incarnation of KMH included Milton Berle, John Davidson, Dolly Parton, Roy Rogers, Bobby Darin, and Rock Hudson.

Part Two:

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour with guest Steve Martin

Steve Martin appeared several times as various ambiguous characters on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He was a staff writer along with Mason "Classical Gas" Williams, Rob "Meathead" Reiner, Bob "Super Dave Osborne" Einstein, Lorenzo "Carlton the Doorman" Music, and Murray "You Can't Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You" Roman. 

The Mike Douglas Show with guests The Turtles

The sound is kinda muddy on this one, but I guess that's what we've come to expect from our bootleg internet gems. After profiling Frank Zappa on The New Steve Allen Show, why it's only natural to watch his future Mother members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman in The Turtles on another classic talk show. Here they perform Eleanor.

Turtles - Mike Douglas Show 1968
Uploaded by DwightFrye

The Tomorrow Show with guests KISS --- The Mike Douglas Show with guest Gene Simmons

KISS makes an appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Its so great that Shout! Factory has taken to releasing some of these complete shows on DVD.

Part Two:

What's more fun than seeing Gene Simmons walk out to that groovy 70s showbiz music as the walls part? Nothing.

The New Steve Allen Show - with guest Frank Zappa

September 20th, 2007: This footage has been posted, removed, posted, removed, posted and removed every other month. Seems to be offline for the time being - keep checking in - it will probably return soon. You can't keep a good clip down!.

This footage had been written and speculated about for many years in various books and articles about Frank Zappa but next to nobody had seen it until the YouTube age came along. By 1963 Steve Allen had abandoned the show he essentially created, The Tonight Show. He went on to host several different incarnations of the same show more or less. Names included Tonight, The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show, and this clip from The New Steve Allen Show - which after two years would change its name to The Steve Allen Show. I find it funny how part one has been viewed by over thirty thousand people, but part two's viewership drops off by a good twelve thousand. Well, Zappa ain't for everyone, even clean shaven.

The Merv Griffin Show - Guest Stars REVEEN & THOR

Reveen, with that crazy voice of his, was always hard to take seriously. His series of hammy hypnotism LPs are hypnotic in their silliness only. Here he is at The Tropicana Hotel on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show.




A tour de force of entertainment is how this commercial describes Reveen. Unfortunately the quality of the clip is very poor as someone filmed it off their TV with a camcorder. I guess they were trying to bring back the concept of Kinescopes.




Well, we've watched Australian illusionist Reveen who was a popular act all across Canada for three decades. Now here is rock act Thor on another episode of The Merv Griffin Show filmed in Vegas. I love how he is introduced as John Thor (but Reveen was not introduced as Peter Reveen). I mention Canada, because Thor now lives in Vancouver. He makes occasional in-concert appearances with Nardwuar the Human Serviette and also once gave me a ride home.