What a way to get ready for going to school Monday than to relax, homework done, and enjoy the laughs and entertainment by watching the Sunday night television lineup--a real parade of laugh-inducers, of some of the best programs the "Golden Age of Television" had to offer.
I'm sure there will be hordes who will disagree, but a good head start was the late afternoon program, "Omnibus." Presented by the suave, distinguished Alistair Cooke is probably what turned me into a bit of an anglophile. Omnibus had an unmistakable British intellectual quality about it...relaxed, quiet, clearly without hype and loud music bits, of history and what-not pieces of information, which I have since forgotten, but they must have been good enough for my younger brother and I to be near regulars. Cooke was class--pure class.
I have no clear recall of the order or networks the following were programs were on, but "The Jack Benny Show," which used as his theme song, "Love in Bloom" while a violin, one of Jack's major props, came on screen, was an early show on CBS. Interestingly, being an old-time radio listener and Benny fan, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" was his radio show theme. If only we had comedians today who could really make people laugh without using innuendo, off-color remarks or just plain ridicule and meanness. Jack's long-time characters--Rochester, Dennis Day, Don Wilson-- were some of the funniest on the show. The not-so-regulars such as Mel Blanc, or the guy who would often approach Benny at places like a bookie and whisper to Jack, "Hey! Bud! Bud! Come-ere a minute!" and than man who would suddenly turn to Jack with a loud, "Yeeeessssss!" when Jack approached him to ask a question were not in long scenes but sure could be program lighlights. It's a tribute to Jack Benny that he was able to keep his cast on so many years intact. It has been written in bios on him that he was a very decent, no stage-hogging gentleman. Who else would have given such show time for a black man, Rochester, who in his character was smarter than Jack?
Disney was good kid variety, discussed in this column last month. "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was another one of the early Sunday night staples. As rogers60.com webmaster, Ed Mauget, wrote in this Telemem series a few months ago, when Hitch would announce a commercial, with his wry wit, this was one of the best parts of the show...very unusual in the more hard-hitting commercialism of the 50s.
The premier hour-long shows, as I recall both on competing networks at 8 pm, were "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS and "The Steve Allen Show" on NBC.
Ol' stiff, straight-faced Sullivan was a bit of entertainment himself because he was so untelegenic. Even when he would regularly introduce an act by saying, "And now for the little ones at home..." he seemed like a grumpy uncle or stern grandpa, barely able to smile. The only time he seemed to show any level of excitement was when he was about to introduce one of his premier guests, such as Elvis, The Beatles, or any act that would cause an audience filled with obviously, overly loud, screaming teenage girls. You may recall that Ed kept to the standards of the time when Elvis "the Pelvis" was not to be televised from the waist down, by Ed's personal orders, as being indecent.
Remember one of the oft-appearing Sullivan guests, undoubtedly requested by popular demand, Senor Wences and his REAL hand puppet? It was just his fist, painted with a face that he used for his puppet. It never failed to get laughs, and the audience was always waiting to hear it, the puppet's answer or remark to Wences, "S'alright." That became one of the national expressions of that era as much as "Sorry about that," was in the mid 60s.
There are times in our lives when what we saw or heard stick in our memories forever, such as the Kennedy Assassination, the space shuttle disaster, 911...things where the whole nation saw and heard. And so it is when the Beatles, on their first visit to the US in February, 1964, were on Sullivan's show. I don't recall exactly what he said in his introduction, but I still have the vision of him yelling after a few words, " And here they are, direct from England--The BEATLES!" as he swept his arm toward them. They opened with "I wanna hold your hand." (Or was it "Hard Day's Night?") I look at clips today of their controversial haircuts and they look so ordinary, but in the age of the flattop, it was long hair, alright.
Steve Allen is probably the funniest wit ever to have his own television show. Another Steve-- Martin-- might be a close second, but Allen's witticisms were more sophisticated, having at times a bit of a bite, a superb use of words to make his humor really funny. He would tinkle at the piano, being multi-talented. I think part of the most memorable of his show was the segment when he would do the man-on-the-street interviews. Three of the best character actors on TV would have a routine that even being the same night-after-Sunday-night would get howls of laughter. Two of the three went on to years of television after the Allen show left the air. One of the two was the recently late Don Knotts, who is better known as Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show. Knotts' character on the Allen show was the exceptionally nervous man who could usually only answer Allen's questions with a burst of "No!" as he looked like he really wanting to chew into his fingernails. The other long-timer on TV was Tom Poston, who appeared as a seemingly inebriated working stiff in coveralls. He always seemed confused by the questions, sort of slurringly answering them. Louie Nye, who I never saw again after Allen's show ended would introduce himself with that salesman smile, wearing a dapper straw hat, and saying, " Hi, I'm Gordon Hathaway from Manhattan." It's hard to say which of them was the favorite or funniest character.
It's impossible for me to write about these memories without smiling, just picturing them. I may be off in some of my memories in this, but not doubt about it, I have no doubt about it, I remember Sunday night in our school years was a real entertainment topper!
- Wyatt Newman