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TV Show Mash-Up


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The show (not the spinoff) featured (did not STAR... featured, in most episodes) a ventriloquist who was so good that it caused a technical screw-up during production. Seems the sound guy would point the mike at the dummy, not the ventriloquist, whenever the dummy had a line.

The show featured the first black actor to win an Emmy as best supporting actor in a comedy series. He went on to star in the spinoff, which was named for his character.

According to imdb trivia, my memory may have failed me on my original clue. So I MAY be right, but I may be wrong. If I'm wrong, here's what REALLY happened: 

One of the main characters in this series appears to be shot to death in the cliffhanger finale. We find out in a spinoff series that the character actually is in a coma, but shows up as an apparition who needs to do a good deed to get into heaven. So, if I'm wrong, she was only mostly dead, which is not the same as all dead.

The actor known for that last joke had his big break in the original series.

 

 

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Jessica Tate is shot by South American guerillas in the series finale of Soap.

She later appeared on an episode of Benson as either a ghost (my memory) or some other kind of apparition (imdb's memory) who needed Benson's help to do a good deed to get to heaven (or something).

Robert Guillaume won an emmy for playing Benson on Soap.

Billy Crystal's big break was on Soap as one of the first openly gay characters on a network tv series.

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Originally sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, which supplied all of the vehicles used on the show.  In the closing credits, the star could always be seen driving off in the current year's Ford Mustang.

Of the series that Quinn Martin produced, this series was his longest running of all. It aired nine seasons.

Mark Felt, who later unmasked as the infamous Watergate informant "Deep Throat", served as a Technical Advisor for this show.

George

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  • 1 month later...

OK.  Here' one.

The name of this TV show was the name of a celebrity who starred of the show, but not with name that you may be familiar with.  Like a lot of variety shows of this period there were appearances by many hollywood elites some the like of Lucille Ball, Karl Reiner, Chevy Chase, Carol Burnett,  Sid Caesar, Bob Denver, Mary Tyler Moore, Jack Nicklaus, George Foreman and Freddie Prinze.  On the show, one of stars known for his outlandish and unorthodox stand up comedy routines played in a regular skit where he would interrupt the host and tell a joke or perform some shtick.   The show was short lived and lasted only a year.  There was also a regular appearance by a group or mime troupe of performers that put an extra spin on this comedy show.

 

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Well, I know that Shields and Yarnell (mimes) were regulars on the Sonny and Cher show, but that show went three seasons.

Sonny got a spin-off, the Sonny Comedy Revue, which also featured The Unknown Comic; that lasted one (short) season.  I'm not sure if S&Y were on that show, too; nor do I know if any of the other stars listed in the clue appeared, though all would be reasonable for that time and genre.

I don't really know what "the name of a celebrity who starred of the show, but not with name that you may be familiar with" means, (maybe, not with Cher?) but I'll go with the Sonny Comedy Revue for now.

George

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3 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

the name of a celebrity who starred of the show, but not with name that you may be familiar with"

It means a celebrity I'll use Morton Downey Jr for an example has a variety show and calls it the Downey Show, that's really about it.  I did find that the show had a credit for another previous year but I suspect that it never aired for whatever reason.  No, it's not the Sonny Comedy Revue.  There isn't a whole lot of plot information to glean from because it only ran one year.  

Apparently, this variety/ comedy show (I haven't seen before only briefly caught it on the Decades channel the other day) had another reoccurring segment about the "dumbest family in the world".

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Well no, that wouldn't be it since it wasn't called "The Wilson Show was it?   I figured that this show would be a show that came from unfamiliar territory.   I know I wouldn't know it.

I could give you the name of the comedian with the outlandish and unorthodox routines (famous for one tv show, died early, and now some give him an Iconic status), but it still wouldn't help anyone connect to the tv show.  It was like a one hit wonder in music only it was on television for a brief moment and then we blinked.

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In his own words, "I never had the chance to do a variety series, so I'm going to spread myself out." Dick Van Dyke said before embarking on his new show 'Van Dyke and Company', "I'm not afraid to try anything on this. I'm too old to worry about ratings. I say, let's simply please ourselves. If it's to be fifteen shows and out, so be it, and I'll go home and go sailing and the hell with television."

Pulled this from a site called TVparty!  Here is that link:  van dyke & company

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Van Dyke and Company aired on NBC in 1976 but it was cancelled after 15 episodes.  Andy Kaufman was the outrageous and outlandish comedian who was a regular on Van Dyke and Company.  He appeared at the height of his career in "Taxi".  The group of mime performers were the L A Mime Company.  Dick Van Dyke cancelled his own show "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" two years earlier to get an opportunity to do a variety show even though it was a solid top program for CBS.  

Someone else can go if they have one.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Universal produced this show, and it was a good thing for the show that they did- the character visuals benefited greatly (at least one.)  It was set in a suburb of Southern California.   Thre was initial disagreement as to whether it should be animated or live-action (the latter won out.)  It featured an automobile that was a hot rod partly built out of a Model T Ford.  The house that was used was also used in at least 3 other shows (the last time after a remodel.)    It had an Easter Special once.   Recurring actors were Paul Lynde, Dom de Luise, and John Carradine.  Leo Durocher also appeared (coach of the LA Dodgers), which helped position the show as being somewhere not very far from Los Angeles. Mel Blanc was in the cast, as was a previous Hollywood starlet (actress, dancer, singer) once described by a producer she worked for at the time as "the most beautiful girl in the world."

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