Sunday, April 16, 2017

Comedy Tonight (TV)

(1970)
Starring
Robert Klein, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, MacIntrye Dixon, Judy Graubart, Marty Barris. Robert Merrill, Jerry Lacy
IMDB Entry

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In changed TV comedy, creating a frenetic style filled with oddball (and frankly dumb) jokes.  In a year, this was the way to go.* And, at the time, instead of reruns for variety shows, the networks ran summer replacement series.  Comedy Tonight was one of the best.

The show was hosted by Robert Klein and was a series of skits** using a cast of very talented comic actors.  The show’s theme, of course, was Stephen Sondheim’s song of the same name and the show would start with the case singing it, then breaking off in the middle for short skits or blackout gags before returning to it.

The show attempted to be topical.  Not in politics, but in various things in society that were open to satire:  soap operas, commercials,  talk shows, and the like. A subject was chosen, and there would be a series of gags – some quick, some a little more developed – on the theme. 

Not much is available about the show, but a couple of things remain vivid to me, even now.

  • For a segment on advertising:  This was the time when cigarette commercials were going off the air, and Winston was going out with a campaign “What do you want?  Good grammar or good taste?”***  Klein replied, “With Madison Avenue, you’re lucky to get either.”
  • For a segment on talk shows:  Big star (obviously modeled on Judy Garland) is on a talk show.  The host asks her to sing “The Trolley Song.”  She declines, saying she’s not ready, she hasn’t rehearsed it, she hadn’t expected it, etc. The host finally gets her to give in so she goes to the stage, puts on a tailcoat and hat, and the band starts playing the music, which she sings while doing an elaborate dance routine.

Not much of the show remains; as you can see the IMDB entry is sparse.  There were only about a half dozen shows, all in the summer when the audience is low.  But Madeline Kahn and Peter Boyle became major names in movies and TV, and Robert Klein is considered one of the deans of standup comedy.  Several of the lesser-known names still had long careers, both on stage and in TV.

Still, it was a fine show that seems to have been completely lost.  Too bad.

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*Even when it was a mistake. Dean Martin’s Comedy World, a summer replacement series of 1974, had the wonderful idea of showing comedians around the world.  They tried to ape Laugh-In with short bits of a joke or two.  The problem is that a comedian on stage had a routine that built up in the telling and taking two or three jokes out of context didn’t work at all. The show was the US debut of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with a couple of very short bits. Oddly, one of the sketches shown used the phrase “naughty bits.” The censors bleeped out the words (maybe the first example of what Jimmy Fallon uses as his “Unnecesary Censorship” videos).  Why the show just didn’t pick another Monty Python sketch is inexplicable.

**Similar in some ways to Monty Python, though shorter and less silly.

***For the younger folk, Winston’s slogan for  years was “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” When it was first used “like” was considered grammatically incorrect (it was supposed to be “as”), but the usage is now unobjectionable.  However, that didn’t keep people from the time from kvetching about how bad the error was.

9 comments:

David Pinto said...

I'm glad you mentioned Dean Martin’s Comedy World. It was my introduction to Monty Python, and I was very happy when I later found it on PBS. It was also the first time I saw Andy Kaufman do Might Mouse, and I nearly fell off my chair.

Unknown said...

Not that it matters ...

Jimmy Kimmel is the one who does "Unnecessary Censorship".
(He's the one with the beard.)

I do remember Dean Martin's Comedy World.
... or as I like to call it, Greg Garrison Never Throws Anything Away.
When Garrison took the Golddiggers to London in 1970, apparently he struck deals with many GB TV companies for use of their stray comedians.
One of those deals was with Marty Feldman, who got his first US notice on the Golddiggers summer show,; he taped a handful of original things, but mainly it was Feldman's BBC stuff that got the notice.
Garrison made a new deal with Feldman for a US-GB co-production that crashed and burned almost on takeoff.
Much of this material found its way into Comedy World; it marked the belated introduction to American audiences of the great Spike Milligan.
Garrison also picked up bits and pieces of Morecambe and Wise, and the Two Ronnies, but they tended to get lost in the shuffle ...

Gary R. said...

I've always been a Robert Klein fan and remember "Comedy Tonight" was a must-see for me in 1970. I was never crazy about "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and appreciated the more intelligent humor of the Klein show. I also remember another summer comedy-variety show from that year called "Happy Days" (not to be confused with the later sitcom), which paid tribute to 1930s & '40s pop culture in the form of sketches, blackouts and musical numbers. Among its regulars were Louis Nye, Chuck McCann, and the two-and-only Bob & Ray.

Lacey said...

I could have sworn John Byner was on this show as I remember watching it in the summer and being sad it was a "summer replacement."

Craig D said...

Just thought about COMEDY TONIGHT this past weekend. Fond memories of Robert Klein doing his "OUR GANG" bit and, of course, the theme song.

I really miss summer replacement shows...

Tbone Mankini said...

Comedy Tonight featured the great Jerry Lacy,coming off a series of ads with his Bogie impression AND the stage version of PLAY IT AGAIN SAM.. which he reprised in the movie...

Anonymous said...

Curios to know if anyone remembers Dave Frishberg appearing on this show to sing "Van Lingle Mungo"?

Anonymous said...

I recall an episode of Comedy Tonight in 1970 where there were parodies of celebrity talk shows. There were about three different talk shows with different hosts, but the same guests just traded off between the shows - a guest would say they had to leave, walk off one show, and then instantly appear on one of the other shows as a new guest. It was very funny, and I remember Madelaine Kahn particularly. I think the show was making fun of celebrities who would regularly appear on the Mike Douglas Show, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, etc.

Joseph Barmess said...

"omedy Tonight", the 1970's "summer replcement" tv show was where I first remember seeing George Carlin as Al Sleet "The Hippy Dippy Weatherman". Lots of young comedians who were getting their starts in show business. Believe it only played for one or two years.

On another subject, does anyone remember the TV peoduction of Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" with Art Carney playing the "Stage Manager"? That was the first play I ever remember seeing dealing with death and I still remember it to this day. I believe it would have been on approximately 1958 and I would love to see that production again.