New Comedy Showcase

New Comedy Showcase
GenreAnthology series
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes8
Production
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseAugust 1 (1960-08-01) –
September 19, 1960 (1960-09-19)

New Comedy Showcase is an American anthology television series that aired on CBS in the summer of 1960. The 30-minute episodes consisted of unsold television pilots.

Background

By the mid-1950s, the practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year – far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series – had created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired.[1] By 1954, the American television industry had begun to consider the idea of packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer, providing television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them.[1] ABC and NBC pioneered the concept in the summer of 1956, simultaneously premiering G.E. Summer Originals (on ABC) and Sneak Preview (on NBC), but CBS did not air its first two such series, The Comedy Spot and New Comedy Showcase, until the summer of 1960.[1][2]

New Comedy Showcase consisted entirely of unsold pilots for situation comedies. Stars appearing in the series included Leon Ames, Dick Van Dyke and Janis Paige.[1][2]

Broadcast history

New Comedy Showcase ran for eight episodes over the course of eight consecutive weeks in the summer of 1960, airing on CBS from 10:00 to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday evenings.[1][2] It premiered on August 1,[1] and its last episode aired on September 19.[2]

Episodes

No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
1"You're Only Young Twice"Arthur LubinBob Schiller, Norman Tokar, & Bob WeiskopfAugust 1, 1960 (1960-08-01)
An elderly couple decides to take a second honeymoon. Starring George Murphy, Martha Scott, Jane Darwell, Carol Leigh, Jimmy Lydon, Bart Patton, Roger Perry, Sue Randall, and Nancy Valentine.
2"Johnny Come Lately"James V. KernIrving Elinson & Robert O'BrienAugust 8, 1960 (1960-08-08)
A television reporter's search for news gets him in trouble. Starring Jack Carson, Marie Windsor, Richard Reeves, Alvy Moore, Ernest Sarracino, Tracey Morgan, and Barbara Knudsen.
3"They Went Thataway"Robert L. FriendJack Schaefer & Allan SloaneAugust 15, 1960 (1960-08-15)
A man with a reputation as a fearsome gunfighter has never actually shot anyone. Starring James Westerfield, Ron Hagerthy, and Wayne Morris.
4"The Trouble with Richard"Al DecaprioAaron ReubenAugust 22, 1960 (1960-08-22)
An honest but hapless bank teller is in big trouble after he inadvertently adds several zeroes to a cashier's check. Starring Dick Van Dyke, Parker Fennelly, Doro Merande, and Howard Smith.[3]
5"Maggie"Rod AmateauBill ManhoffAugust 29, 1960 (1960-08-29)
When a famous and sophisticated Broadway husband-and-wife acting team moves from Manhattan into a staid old town in suburban Connecticut and tries to fit in, their rambunctious, scatterbrained, but clever and imaginative teenage daughter tries to undermine them with journalists and their new neighbors — including making an effort to convince the elderly woman next door that her hired man is in love with her. Starring Margaret O'Brien, Fay Baker, Leon Ames, Jeanne Tatum, Charles Cantor, Jesslyn Fax, Edwin Bruce, Michael Emmet, and Mona Knox, Narrated by Art Gilmore.
6"Slezak and Son"John RichHoward TeichmanSeptember 5, 1960 (1960-09-05)
Count Von Slezak, a boastful European nobleman whose family's noble lineage became extinct in the 16th century, and his son Leo attempt to parlay his title into a life of nobility in the United States. Their first challenge is to talk a luxurious hotel in New York City into giving them a free room. Starring Walter Slezak, Leo Slezak, Norman Lloyd, and Neva Patterson.
7"Maisie"Edward LudwigWilson Collison & Mary R. McCallSeptember 12, 1960 (1960-09-12)
After she wins the Miss Guided Missile beauty contest, Maisie Ravier, a showgirl born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, must visit a backwater United States Army post to support its recruiting program. Starring Janis Paige, Lin McCarthy, Joe Sawyer, Olive Carey, James Mahoney, Rudy Lee, and Henry Kulky. Based on the character from Wilson Collison's 1935 novel Dark Dame.
8"Waldo"Arthur HiltonSumner Arthur LongSeptember 19, 1960 (1960-09-19)
An anthropologist shares his apartment with his best friend, an intelligent chimpanzee — and he faces a problem when the chimpanzee gets arrested for driving without a license and speeding. Starring Gil Stratton, Emory Parnell, Eleanor Audley, Virginia Welles, Frank Jenks, and Robert Griffin.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "UNSOLD PILOTS ON TELEVISION, 1956–1966". tvobscurities.com. Television Obscurities. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Robert Jay (13 June 2009). "Status of New Comedy Showcase". tvobscurities.com. Television Obscurities. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  3. ^ "TV Program Preview," The Sunday Eagle (Reading, Pennsylvania), August 21, 1960, p. 3.