The Big Show (TV series)

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For the professional wrestler see Big Show

The Big Show was an American comedy-variety-musical television series produced and broadcast by NBC for several months in 1980.

The series aimed to revitalize the moribund variety television genre, which had been in a downward spiral since the cancellations of the Ed Sullivan Show and the Carol Burnett Show several years earlier. The Big Show took its title seriously, using a huge stage set (complete with a live audience and a swimming pool) and filling a 90-minute time-slot (one of the only variety programs in American television history to run this length), with at least one two-hour instalment broadcast.

Although the first broadcast received high ratings, poor reviews and low ratings of succeeding episodes resulted in the program being cancelled after only a few months. The series nonetheless was nominated for six Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Costume Design.

Regular performers included Joe Baker, Graham Chapman (of Monty Python), Mimi Kennedy and Pamela Myers. Guest hosts included Steve Allen, Nell Carter, David Copperfield, Dorothy Hamill, Geoffrey Holder, Gary Coleman, and Sid Caesar.