The Colgate Comedy Hour
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The Colgate Comedy Hour was an American musical variety television show that ran on the NBC network from November 1950 to December 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and light entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Gordon MacRae.
In a format devised by Cantor, the weekly show was proposed to be hosted by four comedians in a four weekly rotation and to provide competition for Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town on CBS.
It was heavily backed by its sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet to the tune of $3 million in the first year, and the 8:00 pm Sunday evening format show was a spectacular success, particularly for Cantor and the Martin-Lewis, Abbott-Costello duos.
Cantor suffered a heart attack after a Colgate Comedy Hour Show in September 1952. By the fourth season, the sponsor was providing $6 million, but the performers were finding difficulty in providing fresh material and ratings were starting to decline. Cantor had become too ill to continue in the hosting role.
During the 1954-55 season, the show changed its name to the Colgate Variety Hour to reflect a move away from pure comedy. A number of the earlier hosts left and the show shifted towards mini-musicals, starring hosts such as Ethel Merman and Frank Sinatra.
However, ratings continued to slide while The Ed Sullivan Show got stronger. The final show was aired as a Christmas special on 25 December 1955 with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians choral ensemble. It was replaced the following season with the NBC Comedy Hour, hosted by Leo Durocher.
In November 1967, NBC broadcsast a special Colgate Comedy Hour Revival with guests Nanette Fabray, Kaye Ballard, Edie Adams, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Phyllis Diller, Bob Newhart, Nipsey Russell, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, none of whom had performed in the original show.
[edit] Color
The episode broadcast on 22 November 1953, hosted by Donald O'Connor, was the very first color television broadcast in the final NTSC color system still used in the U.S. today.
