Early Television Variety Shows Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Garry Moore was a radio and television personality who was one of the most popular television hosts of his time. In various formats, time slots, and competition, he was a fixture from 1940s to the mid '70s. During much of his time he had a man that was his announcer, pitchman, straight man and general second banana. Do you remember his name?

Answer: Durward Kirby

Garry Moore was everywhere. He was a panelist on game shows and hosted the television versions of "I've Got a Secret" and "To Tell the Truth". He hosted the "Garry Moore Show" which began as a thirty minute late afternoon program and later became a full hour in prime time.

Durward Kirby was a multi-talented man who could do about anything in entertainment. He was much under-rated as a comedian. He could get hit with a pie in the face and emerge later convincingly to sell you the camera he was hawking.

In 1967, "The Garry Moore Show" was cancelled because of heavy competition from "Bonanza" on another network. Gary Moore deserves credit also for introducing many new personalities to network television including Don Adams, George Gobel, Carol Burnett, Don Knotts, Lee Goodman, James Kirkwood, Jr. and Jonathan Winters.

2. Although Howard Stern claims to be the "King of All Media", Red Skelton was a star in traveling medicine shows, a circus clown, vaudeville, night clubs, appeared on Broadway, made 38 Hollywood films, and was one of the most popular personalities on radio and television in addition to being a recognized artist. His variety shows were often built around the characters he created. Which of these was not a Skelton character?

Answer: The Poor Soul

Amazingly, "The Red Skelton Show (Hour)" ran from 1951 to 1971. Red's main persona was as a clown and the program was based on his comedy. Live television was difficult for Red because there was not enough time for costume changes so it morphed into a variety show with guests and later was one of the first programs to videotape. The 'Poor Soul" character belonged to Jackie Gleason.

In elementary school a would-be bully and entrepreneur tried to intimidate me into the "Red Skeleton (sic) Club" for fans of Red and weekly dues of 25 cents payable to him. I did not join nor did I know of anyone else who did but I wondered what his grade was in spelling.

A close friend to my mother was also from Vincennes, Indiana and went to school with Red. She said, of course, he was the class clown and used to roll his eyelids back with toothpicks and chase girls around the play yard and was always pulling pranks on the teacher.

3. This dour looking newspaper entertainment columnist was tapped to host a network variety show in 1948 and continued until 1971. He was described by one critic as, "He got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality". Ed Sullivan replied to the critic simply to call her a name. None the less, "Toast of the Town" and later "The Ed Sullivan Show" was one of the highest rated 'must see' weekly staple of audiences. The program consisted of vaudeville and circus acts, singers with current hits, foreign acts, dancers, comedians and sometimes people who were just in the audience such as athletes. Ed became a starmaker and and to be invited for an appearance was regarded as a career break-through as it was for Elvis Presley, The Supremes, the Beatles, and many others. He was also vindictive toward those who crossed him. Of the following, who was not 'banned' from "Ed Sullivan"?

Answer: Ray Charles

Dylan was banned because he insisted on singing his song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues". Jackie Mason was banned for allegedly making an obscene gesture. "The Rolling Stones" were banned because they made it obvious that Sullivan had insisted that lyrics be changed, a thing he frequently did with singers on the program.

Besides the big stars, I remember the guy who spun plates on top of what looked like pool cues and the Russian folk dancers who seemed to float rather than dance around the stage.

Sullivan, to his merit, did book black acts as well as country-western acts, somewhat a break-through at the time. On Elvis' first appearence, he only allowed him to be televised from the hips up; he introduced the "Three Stooges" as the "Ritz Brothers", and introduced "The Supremes" as 'the girls'.

4. From 1948 to 1956, he was 'Mister Television' and everybody's 'uncle'. His variety program was the top program for era, often capturing 80% of the viewing audience. It was probably the first of 'must-see' TV shows. He showed up on screen in outrages costumes, often in drag, quipped sometimes bad jokes or puns, and kept a spirited hour going that people talked about the next day. Who was this dominant comedian from the Golden Age of television?

Answer: Milton Berle

Berle made many claims about his life, some verifiable, some iffy. His first appearance on film was in a "Perils of Pauline" serial. Some of his silent film claims can not be documented. Radio opened up his success in show business after many years in vaudeville. Berle claimed, because the popularity of of his program, to have sold more televisions than anyone else.

But another comedian quipped "Yes, he did. I sold mine; my uncle sold his". He also made a claim that he had a torrid love affair with Aimee Semple McPherson, the famous evangelist. Whatever the claims, Berle was funny.

5. "The Colgate Comedy Hour"(1950-1955) introduced a format that held it in the top ten television rating for four of its five years. Top notch comedians would alternate each week giving each latitude to develop material with less time pressure than a weekly live commitment. Who was not tapped as a 'regular' on this variety program?

Answer: Jack Benny

Other hosts included Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, and Ben Blue. Live TV was stressful. Eddie Cantor had a heart attack after one of his performances but did return later. Sometimes actors like Burt Lancaster and Gordon MacRae hosted.

Heavy competition for the time slot found Ed Sullivan the winner. A revival of the show during the 1957-1958 season found Durante and O'Connor alternating.

6. "Show of Shows" was innovative in that it ran 90 minutes rather than the more standard 60. It introduced Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and the much underrated Howard Morris as stars. Although NBC disposed of many of the kinescopes, enough survived to give the essence of the show. It later continued as the "Sid Caesar Show", reduced to sixty minutes. It was strong on satire and particularly movie parodies. In addition to the talented cast, there was an equally talented staff of writers. Who among these was not at one time a member of the writing staff?

Answer: Johnny Carson

Carl Reiner was also a writer and a cast member. Larry Gelbart was closely associated with the show. Imogene Coca was one of first successful female comedy performers. All of the cast members went on to successful careers in show business. Reiner used his experience on the show to create "The Dick Van Dyke Show", and Mel Brooks in turn created "The Producers" and "Blazing Saddles". Neil Simon turned to the stage with his plays which later became films, including " Barefoot in the Park", "The Odd Couple", "Chapter Two", "I Ought to Be in Pictures", "Brighton Beach Memoirs", "Biloxi Blues", and "The Goodbye Girl". Larry Gelbart created "M.A.S.H.". Sid Caesar went on to films and guest appearances. Johnny Carson did write for the "Red Skelton Show".

7. From 1959 to 1968, NBC made a serious attempt to make television less of a 'wasteland' and more of a cultural medium. This variety program featured serious classical music, dancers, and singers, It had been proceeded by a popular radio series with a similar format. What was the name of this popular series?

Answer: The Bell Telephone Hour

The Bell Telephone Company was the sole sponsor of the series. It was one of the first programs to be telecast in color. It was a 'niche' audience but a sweet diversion from the comedy laden variety shows. Many artists appeared on the program such as Eileen Farrell, Mahalia Jackson, Benny Goodman, Nelson Eddy, Jos� Iturbi, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Yehudi Menuhin, and Rudolf Nureyev.

The series won two Emmys and was nominated seven times.

8. CBS cancelled "The Gary Moore Show" because, they thought, it appealed to only geriatric viewers, and it wanted a program that would appeal to younger hipper viewers. CBS got more than they bargained for with "Smothers Brothers Show". Not only were the brothers young and hip, they fostered perhaps the most controversial variety program of all time. What reason did CBS give for cancelling the program?

Answer: Failure to deliver video tapes at least 14 days before airing

CBS required this program to be submitted in advance for censorship reasons. Local CBS stations were already deleting words and skits as they thought it might offend audiences. It was the height of the Vietnam Era and students and people were in the streets protesting the war while others clamored for civil rights. The Smothers Brothers reflected what was going on in the United States. They exceeded the boundaries of prime time TV entertainment at the time.

Here are just a few incidents:

They booked Pete Seegar after he was blacklisted in the 1950s. Pete sang "Waist Deep in the Muddy", a protest song deeply critical of the President and the Vietnam War.

CBS deleted the Harry Belafonte song "Lord, Don't Stop the Carnival" which was critical of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Devout Christians were offended by David Steinberg's monologue about Moses and the Burning Bush.

Through no fault of the Brothers, too much explosive was placed in Keith Moon's drum that was supposed to have a mild change as the end to The Who appearance, resulting in flying debris and attributing to Moon's hearing loss.

9. "Hee Haw" ran from 1968-1971 on CBS and then went into syndication for the next twenty years, becoming one of the most successful syndicated programs ever. It featured country/western music and some of the corniest jokes ever, often using a corn field as a back drop. Popular country artists appeared on the program. Do you remember the names of the co-hosts?

Answer: Buck Owens and Roy Clark

The show was modeled after "Laugh In". The cast was assembled and worked night and day for two straight weeks to produce a year's worth of television. Skilled splicers pieced the show together. Guests were filmed separately and dropped into a program segment.

Buck Owens Band was the house band in the early years. Who can ever forget Buck's hit song "Ain't It Amazing Gracie"?

Roy Clark was a master guitar player and hit the pop charts in 1969 with "Yesterday When I Was Young".

10. "The Carol Burnett Show" ran from 1967 to 1978. It ranks as the most honored variety show, winning twenty-five prime time Emmys over its course. The show relied often on parodies of films and television programs and featured a troupe of versatile actors including Carol, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vickie Lawrence. Who generally played the handsome leading man in many of the skits, or was the narrator?

Answer: Lyle Waggoner

"The Carol Burnett Show" completed 278 programs. Skits included "As the Stomach Turns", a satire on the soap opera "As the World Turns", and "Went with the Wind", a parody of "Gone With the Wind". Although the program was video taped in advance, Carol generally had a spot where she talked to the audience and answered questions. And of course there was the song Carol sang at the end of the show:

"I'm so glad we had this time together
Just to have a laugh or sing a song
Seems we just get started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say, "So long"."

There were also the characters that the stars developed. Carol often was the over-acting heroine of skits and Lawrence developed the 'Mama' character into her own sitcom. Conway was the 'old man' and Mr.Tudball. Korman's versatility made him the perfect foil for other cast members.

One skit I remember had Conway working a refreshment stand. Korman ordered a vanilla milk shake. After a tedious time, Conway gave the shake to Korman who took one sip and spit it out and screamed at Conway. Conway explained that he accidentally used mashed potatoes instead of vanilla ice cream.

Source: Author Rehaberpro

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor guitargoddess before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Modern television provides only rare glimpses of the classic variety program. Here are a few that either dominated or were influential in television history.

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