Made during the early years of the movie musical, this exuberant revue was one of the most extravagant, eclectic, and technically ambitious Hollywood productions of its day. Starring the bandleader Paul Whiteman, then widely celebrated as the King of Jazz, the film drew from Broadway variety shows to present a spectacular array of sketches, performances by such acts as the Rhythm Boys (featuring a young Bing Crosby), and orchestral numbers—all lavishly staged by veteran theater director John Murray Anderson.
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier travel down memory lane to see what life was like back in the 1920s. Harry Belafonte introduces this musical, written by poet and playwright Langston Hughes, which pays tribute to Harlem in the 1920's. Sidney Poitier provides commentary on the era throughout the program, and George Kirby and Nipsey Russell portray various Harlem characters. Program highlights include: Gloria Lynne singing "Good Ol' Wagon"; Brownie McGhee singing "Let the Deal Go Down"; Diahann Carroll singing "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"; Sammy Davis, Jr., singing and tap dancing to "Doin' the New Low Down"; Joe Williams singing "Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning"; and Duke Ellington performing "Sophisticated Lady" with a sextet.
Mitzi Gaynor welcomes guests George Hamilton & Phil Harris (The Jungle Book) for a sparkling hour of music, comedy and dance. Songs performed include "Everybody Loves My Baby," "Gentle on My Mind," "Pretty," and "Love Is Blue." Mitzi & George parody classic movies on the late-late show, George playing Cary Grant to Mitzi's Rosalind Russell, Rock Hudson to her Doris Day, and Glenn Ford to her Rita Hayworth.
A pre-Monty Python mockumentary, written by and presented by John Cleese, that provides tips on learning how to irritate people.
A Woody Allen special for CBS, in 1969.
Mitzi Gaynor opens her second special with a dazzling performance of "Let Go." Additional songs include "Poor Papa," and "What'll I Do." She welcomes guest star Ross Martin (The Wild, Wild, West) for a musical-comedy spoof of Gone with the Wind. Other comedy skits include Mitzi as "The Kid" describing a school recital, and as a Hungarian Gypsy performing "Those Were the Days."
The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians is a 1970 American animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. After the Christmas special Frosty the Snowman (1969), it was Rankin/Bass' second hand-drawn animated work to be outsourced to Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production in Tokyo, Japan. The show aired on ABC on April 7, 1970 before the airing of that year's Oscars. It was a tribute to early vaudeville, and featured animated reworkings of various famous comedians' acts.
A series of short comedy sketches featuring the topic of sex. They include: a French governess who paints her breasts; a couple having sex on the Candid Camera TV show; Little Lord Fauntleroy exploring a female body; a 'great white hunter' captured by African women; a female spy trying to decode a secret password; and two exotic dancers experimenting with a new 'dance'.
A collection of Monty Python's Flying Circus skits from the first two seasons of their British TV series.
Based on the controversial off-Broadway musical comedy revue, "Oh! Calcutta!" is a series of musical numbers about sex and sexual mores. Most of the skits feature one or more performers in a state of undress, simulating sex, or both. The show sparked considerable controversy at the time because it featured extended scenes of total nudity, both male and female. The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille, itself a pun on "O quel cul t'as!" French for "What an arse you have!".
Adapted from the stage production of the same name, 'Basically Black' is a sketch comedy TV pilot that aired in 1973, and due to the provocative racial content, ABC never produced another episode. It stands as a historical milestone, the first television program and stage play completely created and written by Aboriginal Australians.
Mitzi Gaynor and guests Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore Show), Jerry Orbach (Chicago), Suzanne Pleshette (Bob Newhart Show) and Jane Withers in music, dance and comedy vignettes celebrating housewives. Songs include "Married," "I Can Cook, Too," and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life." The cast also attend a party performing "The Little Things We Do Together" from Stephen Sondheim's Company.
A series of loosely connected skits that spoof news programs, commercials, porno films, kung-fu films, disaster films, blaxploitation films, spy films, mafia films, and the fear that somebody is watching you on the other side of the TV.
Some unknown source has interrupted all television transmissions around the world. In place of the regular broadcasts, a lineup of extremely tasteless programs and commercials have been substituted. Included in the mix are such show as The Shitheads, The Charles Whitman Invitational, and commercials for a number of improbable products.
Steve Martin's first network special for NBC offers part concert footage (shot at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles) and part sketch comedy.
Amnesty decided not to present a benefit show in 1978 in order to consider how to make better use of the performing talent so favourably disposed to assist it in raising funds. Peter Luff left Amnesty in 1978 and the organisation's new fund-raising officer, Peter Walker, was deputed to work with Lewis on reconfiguring the show to raise more money and greater awareness of Amnesty. Lewis proposed to Cleese that in addition to the comedy performances the show should feature some contemporary rock musicians. Cleese delegated this responsibility to Lewis who recruited Who guitarist Pete Townshend to perform, as well as New Wave singer-songwriter Tom Robinson.
Steve Martin's second NBC special was made up entirely of sketches. Highlights include: Marty Robbins' "El Paso" with monkeys; "The Death Of Socrates"; and "Bizarre Oddities Of The World."
Steve Martin's third NBC special serves as a salute to 1970s television commercials. Taking shots at everything from "Suzy Chapstick" to Palmolive to advertising agencies, this special showcased Martin's genius for physical comedy.
A TV Special consisting of various sketches with the titular comedian and fellow comics in guest appearances.