Difference between revisions of "The Jimmy Durante Show"
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Revision as of 18:21, August 27, 2020
The Jimmy Durante Show is a 51-episode half-hour comedy/variety show television program presented live on NBC from October 2, 1954, to June 23, 1956.
Production background
Several guest stars on the program later developed successful show business careers of their own. Jimmy Durante's long nose, piano, and broken vocabulary were the mainstays of the program, which aired at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays. In the first 1954-1955 season, Durante (1893-1980) alternated with The Donald O'Connor Show, both sponsored by Texaco. [1]
After his starring role on the NBC situation comedy Dear Phoebe ended and before he garnered the lead in the NBC drama The Thin Man, Peter Lawford (1923-1984), a brother-in-law of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was a Durante regular, having appeared in six episodes from 1955 to 1956. Dancer Eddie Jackson (1896–1980), a Durante partner along with Lou Clayton from their vaudeville days, appeared four times on the series. Pianist Jules Buffano and drummer Jack Roth, former Durante associates, also guest starred on the program. He also had singers known as The Durante Girls.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
In the first season, Durante followed The Imogene Coca Show, which premiered on the same night on the NBC Saturday schedule. His competition was My Favorite Husband on CBS and Saturday evening boxing on ABC. In its second season, Durante faced opposition from the new CBS situation comedy, It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige (born 1922) as a young widow with two female roommates. Paige's attempt at network television failed after twenty-six weeks. Coincidentally, Bob Schiller (1918-2017) was the principal writer on both the Durante and Paige series.[1][2]
Certain Durante episodes ran on NBC as a 1957 summer replacement series. With his 1954 debut, Durante took over the second half of the Your Show of Shows time slot. In 1957, Caesar's Hour, another version of the Sid Caesar program, moved into the time slot that Durante vacated.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Jimmy Durante Show. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on August 27, 2020.
- ↑ 1955-1956 United States network television prime-time schedule in Alex McNeil's Total Television.