The Colgate Comedy Hour remains one of the great jewels in the crown of early television. Sunday nights saw the live comedy/variety show brought into homes under sponsorship of the Colgate company. What really made the show stand out was it's revolutionary use of rotating stars. One week would be hosted by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (pictured here), the next week by Phil Silvers, the next by Abbott and Costello, the next by Eddie Cantor, and so on. The show had marvelous energy, and the stars being able to play off of a live audience made their performances even sharper. For Abbott and Costello and many others, this meant a televised version of their vaudeville and burlesque routines -these preserved by the fact that the show was kinescoped for West coast broadcasts. The Martin and Lewis episodes are considered some of their best presentations, capturing the absolute craziness of their live performances. Being live, and in a period where television technicians were still learning their craft, this meant frequent mess-ups with props or forgotten lines. Audiences loved this, and screamed all the louder with their laughter. Over the years since, The Colgate Comedy Hour was kept in memory by the releasing of several episodes on tape and later disk. Most all the episodes I've run across featured either Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis. A public domain series now, episodes have been collected for disk releases, though all the ones I've seen are tied to the above-mentioned teams. I'd love to see a wider selection of episodes get released (though there may be legal issues preventing that, if the estates of the actors and performers are involved in any way). As a bonus, many episodes released on tape even include the original commercials!
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