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Re: The Danny Kaye Show.
The only clips I got to see of this great (but neglected) 1960s sketch comedy / variety series were on a CBS 75th anniversary special. Judging by those few sketches, portions of Kaye's monologes, and some of his songs, videotapes of all 4 seasons were preserved in original videotape form. The first 2 years were in black & white. This was also the first regular series for comedian Harvey Korman, who had played a doctor in an early episode of The Donna Reed Show in 1958. Oddly enough that's missing from the Internet Movie Database! Once The Danny Kaye Show was cancelled in 1967, Harvey immediately found work on The Carol Burnett Show right across the hall at CBS Television City and he stayed with that for 10 years.
I recently came across some Mp3 files of both versions of Danny's unsuccesful radio comedy-variety series from 1945 and 1946. The first season of that only had about 12 episodes, and featured some clever writing and a first-rate supporting cast including Eve Arden and Lionel Stander. The second season was even more short-lived and seemed like a waste in comparison, as the writing fell apart with a different supporting cast.
Of course TV is better that radio in must cases (except for the TV version of "Radio's outstanding theater of thrills....SUSPENSE"), and I don't know why The Danny Kaye Show can't see the light of DVDay. Kaye's humor was as much visual as audible, and that's why Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and Milton Berle did better on TV than in radio (even though Berle was the only one of those comedians who did poorly on radio, even though his show was quite funny).
A release of Danny Kaye can't do any worse than The Jackie Gleason Show (a.k.a. "The Color Honeymooners") that came out last year, although we would all rather see full seasons per set rather than partials.
Last edited by Jeff# : 07-10-2007 at 12:19 AM.
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