[Mark Y]

Can someone tell me a little about this show? ("The Comedy Shop," later called "Norm Crosby's The Comedy Shop")

I watched it on WFLD-Channel 32 in Chicago, which used to carry it on Saturday nights from 1978 into the early 1980s. Comedy Central also reran it briefly in the early 1990s. I'm thinking it ran two seasons in first-run, but possibly three ???

Anyway, some of the shows are on DVD, but you'd never know it. I saw this set in the stores and passed it by a number of times, not realizing what it was. It's called "The World's Greatest Stand-Up Comedy Collection," with no reference to "The Comedy Shop" on the outer packaging (though the name is used on the individual DVD menus). The description on the box goes on and on about how this is the greatest single collection of stand-up comedy you'll ever find anywhere, and lists a bunch of comedians by name, mentioning that for certain performers, their first television appearances are included, and the whole thing is hosted by Norm Crosby. It wasn't until I accidentally stumbled upon some reviews of this set online that I knew what it was...because people were COMPLAINING that they'd been misled and didn't realize this was a collection of old episodes of "The Comedy Shop." Sounds like really poor marketing here...people who took it at face value were disappointed, and someone (like me) who was interested in "The Comedy Shop" itself had no idea it was available!

Anyway, what I'd like to find somewhere is some kind of episode guide or at least some way of identifying the shows. This set definitely is not complete, and the shows that are there appear to have been randomly sequenced. (I can recognize shows from different seasons because the openings are a little different and the second season shows use the name "Norm Crosby's The Comedy Shop" as opposed to "The Comedy Shop.") Some of the shows have their closing credits faded down early, the shows have the comedians' names superimposed when they first come out (which is not how they originally aired) and most of the shows are slugged with a generic "Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop" intro title). Some of them look OK, some look like they've suffered some pretty bad tape damage in places. (It kind of has a "bootleg" feel to it, but I read an article on line that said Crosby himself was involved in the promotion of this set when it was released. There's no info about who owns the shows, or who they were licensed from.) There is one episode where there are references to it being the first show, or a very early one, and it's on a later disc...stuff like that is frustrating to me because it makes it difficult to catalog this stuff in any useful way.

The show was originally syndicated by JWT...which also used to distribute a five-minute nightly syndicated series called "Take Five With Stiller And Meara," featuring the husband and wife team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (possibly best known today as Ben Stiller's parents). WFLD used to run this after the Three Stooges, around midnight on weeknights. I'd love to see this again...anyone know if those shows are around anywhere, or who would own them?