Saturday, July 7, 2007

The Dean Martin Variety Show with guests galore! - Footage Offline - 09/13/09

I don't know if I've ever seen one single sketch with so many cameos! Petula Clark belts out the Burt Bacharach tune, Call Me, and look at the who's who of celebrities that answer!

This sketch comes from The Dean Martin Variety Show Volume One, disc three, DVD compilation.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

The Dick Cavett Show with guest Gloria Swanson (1970)

Janis Joplin sits on the panel looking on at the lovely Gloria Swanson, the hottest senior citizen you ever did see.

What's My Line?

What's My Line? Through the ages.


Buddy Hackett, a guest panelist:



Mystery guest - Salvador Dali:

Mystery guest - Jack Benny:

Jerry Lewis, a guest panelist:

Permanent panelist Dorothy Kilgaren passed away days before this episode was taped:



Final episode of the show's initial incarnation:

And into the seventies the panel asks, "Are you a war criminal or are you planning on becoming one in the next several years?"

The opposition:

It's time to play... What's My Utensil?

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

The Ed Sullivan Show with guests Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and The Ames Brothers (1957) - Footage Offline 3/12/08

Lucy and Desi recreate their sitcom personas for this sketch tailored specifically for a Sullivan appearance. The TV critics of the day could not, for the life of them, figure out how Ed Sullivan could seem so casual and relaxed when he was playing himself in a sketch but be so wooden when he was himself. It's a whole lot of fun seeing Ed out of his element.




Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guest John Denver (1974)

Now I am no John Denver fan - but I love any old footage of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! You can wait until this video loads fully and then cut to the five minute mark for the interview if you can't stomach the music.

The Mike Douglas Show with guest Frank Zappa (1974)

This footage has been on YouTube forever, but perhaps someone out there hasn't seen it yet. It's too bad Zappa is so unresponsive in this interview, I guess he hadn't mastered his television persona yet (as a disastarous stint hosting Saturday Night Live later proved). Eventually he would make incredible arguments on television on more serious panel shows as in this oft-viewed clip on Crossfire or this debate moderated by Charlie Rose or my all-time favorite, this incongruous booking on a Joan Lunden mother's day special - part one & part two!

Minnie Pearl

The number one comedy star of the Grand Ole Opry.


Sunday, July 1, 2007

On Location: Redd Foxx (1978) - Footage Offline - 09/11/10



Early on HBO wasn't granting stand-up specials to the up and comers, they were handing them out to the fully established and the old. Pat Cooper, Totie Fields, Norm Crosby, Buddy Hackett and here ... Redd Foxx.