They Had Their Own TV Show?

Tools    





There was nothin obscure about the Danny Thomas show. He was a huge star and his show was quite popular. In fact, there is a bit of a tribute to him in the character of the character of Danny Stevens, a Jewish comic with his own TV show (though Danny Thomas was actually an Armenian Catholic) played by Hank Azaria in the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. As a sidenote the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is excellent.
Agreed. I just started getting carried away with the list.

Same goes for Jerry Lewis & Danny Kaye (neither are obscure), but I do know there were some people here who never knew Danny Kaye had his own show the last time he was mentioned.

P.S. I was a big fan of Make Room for Daddy (a.k.a. The Danny Thomas Show). An obscure piece of trivia is that the Andy Griffith show was a spin-off from an episode of the Danny Thomas Show where "Danny Williams" finds himself in a rural, backwater town with an odd sheriff.



There was nothin obscure about the Danny Thomas show. He was a huge star and his show was quite popular.
The Andy Griffith Show was a direct spinoff of Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show. I remember having my mind blown when I randomly came across an episode (on TV Land I think) where Danny Thomas is traveling or touring in the South and he runs afoul of this folksy type of sheriff and his little son. The Andy Griffith Show was a Danny Thomas production as was The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl (starring his daughter Marlo) and The Mod Squad.

EDIT: Woops, didn't see Captain Steel's post. My bad.



I really wish some of these nostalgia or comedy stations would air old episodes of The Dean Martin Show in the middle of the night instead of infomercials!
I remember The Golddiggers playing a big role in jump starting my puberty.



And whenever someone brings up odd variety shows I always think of Pink Lady and Jeff. They were a Japanese singing duo and he was a standup comedian that some might have caught on David Letterman. It only aired a few weeks before being axed.




And whenever someone brings up odd variety shows I always think of Pink Lady and Jeff. They were a Japanese singing duo and he was a standup comedian that some might have caught on David Letterman. It only aired a few weeks before being axed.

Totally! Glad you mentioned it.
I was excited for it (you know... two beautiful Japanese girls).
It was awful - trying to be a Donny & Marie meets Tony Orlando & Dawn (hey, there's another one for the list).
So cringe-worthy (yet it had the two cute Asian girls and their original Japanese music was kinda catchy!) but the gimmick of the girls' broken English & mispronunciations wore thin pretty quickly. I always wondered if they'd paired Pink Lady up with someone other than Jeff Altman, if the show would've had a better chance since they were nice to look at, but Jeff was just so corny.



The Alan Young Show 1950 - 1953 (variety)
The Loretta Young Show 1953 - 1961 (drama anthology)
The New Loretta Young Show 1962 - 1963 (sit-com / drama)
The Danny Thomas Show 1953 - 1965 (sit-com: originally titled "Make Room For Daddy")
The Jack Carson Show 1954 - 1955 (variety)
The Jerry Lewis Show 1957 - 1984 (variety: there were actually 4 separate shows & 1 special that bore this title, not including the yearly MDA Telethons!)
The Betty Hutton Show 1959 - 1960 (sit-com)
The Dick Powell Theatre 1961 - 1963 (drama anthology)
The Dick Emery Show 1963 - 1981 (comedy sketch show)
The Danny Kaye Show 1969 - 1967 (variety) .
Those were good ones. The big ones in the '50s were The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (5 years), The George Gobel Show (5 years), The Jack Benny Program (15 years), The Ed Sullivan Show (13 years), The Jackie Gleason Show (5 years), The Milton Berle Show (8 years), and The Red Skelton Show (20 years).

My personal favorites for humor were Jack Benny and George Gobel. But the most diverse was The Ed Sullivan Show.

I wish they'd bring back variety or sketch shows. The last best were The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour, and The Carol Burnett Show.





At the time this show was on, I didn't have a clue who Paul Sand was.



Again, when Funny Face premiered on CBS, I didn't have a clue who Sandy Duncan was.



Before Jeff Goldblum became a star in the 1980s after The Big Chill, Into the Night, and The Fly the character actor got a co-starring role on a short-lived off-beat detective comedy from Stephen J. Cannell ("The Rockford Files") called "Tenspeed & Brownshoe" (1980) with Ben Vereen.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



Michael Keaton starred in two sitcoms before Night Shift and Mr. Mom launched him as a movie star. The first was "Working Stiffs" (1979) where he co-starred with Jim Belushi as a pair of scheming janitor brothers with bigger plans. Allan Arbus (the sympathetic shrink from "MASH") and Lorna Patterson (Airplane!, "Private Benjamin") were in support. It only aired four episodes before cancellation.



Keaton's second sitcom as the star was "Report to Murphy" (1982), which aired only six episodes. Keaton played a parole officer and they were going for a "Barney Miller" type vibe. Donnelly Rhodes (Dutch on "Soap") and Olivia Cole ("Roots") lead the supporting cast.




The list of celebrities who were awarded a lead role in any kind of TV show would be nearly endless (just about every TV series that existed starred somebody) - and one might argue that landing a leading role or having a show's very existence built around an actor would pretty much make them a celebrity, but this thread is dedicated to shows that were specifically named for the celebrity themselves (whether they appeared as themselves on the show, hosted it or played a differently named character within a show that carried their "real" acting name as or within the title.)



The previously mentioned George Gobel Show is a perfect example of the irony featured in this thread.

It just seemed like in the 50's & 60's they'd give almost anybody their own show and there were so many of these variety shows hosted by a celebrity that the public virtually lost track of them all (another irony is that a genre that was so dominant is now almost non-existent on American television). So was George Gobel "just anybody"?

Well, he was foremost a humorist & comedian, an actor and dabbled in singing & music.

How many people here today have even HEARD of George Gobel? I only know of him for having appeared on the Hollywood Squares when I was a kid, but outside of that I have no memory of seeing him on TV or in any movies (although he appeared in both, mostly before my time).

He was never a superstar but known mostly during his heyday for the very variety show that bore his name.



I second that Ten Speed and Brown Shoe entry. I didn't know this could include non variety shows so I'll go with Grand Slam with Paul Rodriguez and John (Dukes of Hazzard) Schneider. They played bounty hunters working for competing bail bondsmen who end up teaming up. I watched it for the novelty factor. It didn't last very long and ran for 8 episodes in early 1990.



EDIT: Woops again

... but this thread is dedicated to shows that were specifically named for the celebrity themselves (whether they appeared as themselves on the show, hosted it or played a differently named character within a show that carried their "real" acting name as or within the title.)



The previously mentioned George Gobel Show is a perfect example of the irony featured in this thread.

It just seemed like in the 50's & 60's they'd give almost anybody their own show and there were so many of these variety shows hosted by a celebrity that the public virtually lost track of them all (another irony is that a genre that was so dominant is now almost non-existent on American television). So was George Gobel "just anybody"?

Well, he was foremost a humorist & comedian, an actor and dabbled in singing & music.

How many people here today have even HEARD of George Gobel? I only know of him for having appeared on the Hollywood Squares when I was a kid, but outside of that I have no memory of seeing him on TV or in any movies (although he appeared in both, mostly before my time).

He was never a superstar but known mostly during his heyday for the very variety show that bore his name.
I know who George Gobel was. I found him funny. He was on every other talk show when I was a kid in the sixties.



Exactly. If we mentioned every TV show that featured an actor, then we'd basically be listing almost every show that ever existed (except maybe for some anthology series, documentaries, news programs or cartoons where the voices used were unknown).



Eh, I was going mostly by the thread title. They had their own show? Really? Bizarre combinations. Like a Japanese singing duo and a little known standup comic. Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum? Paul Rodriguez and John Schneider? But I see your point. And to get back on topic how about The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show? It was on in '74 I think.




Eh, I was going mostly by the thread title. They had their own show? Really? Bizarre combinations. Like a Japanese singing duo and a little known standup comic. Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum? Paul Rodriguez and John Schneider? But I see your point. And to get back on topic how about The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show? It was on in '74 I think.

I use to watch that when I was a kid...didn't really like it though...the Sonny & Cher tv show was much better.