Product Details

• Actors: Ginger Rogers, Erroll Garner, Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Bill Dana
• Format: Black & White
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: good times
• Run Time: 51 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00022UDOO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,748 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Steve Allen's quick wit influenced a generation of comedians such as talk show host David Letterman. In this golden tv classic, Allen irreverently pokes fun at viewers of his Monday night NBC show and TV producers. As Hubbell Signoff of Screen Bombs Inc. he introduces a number of new programs including the Wonderful World of Violence. Joining in the fun are two of TV's best loved regulars, Louis Nye and Don Knotts, plus film star Ginger Rogers and singer Tony Bennett.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome array of talent, April 26, 2008

By 

Phil S. (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden TV Classics The Steve Allen Show Live TV (VHS Tape)

This is not the Tonight Show Steve Allen, meaning his nightly 90-minute show. This is the weekly Steve Allen ("The Steve Allen Plymouth Show"), and equally a reminder of the kind of talent, humour, and personality it took way back when to sustain a TV show. Of course, with all the Cable outlets to fill, the talent pool is thinned out in this day and age. But let's give Allen and co., their due: despite the obvious "boys club" at work, and the 1960 approach to stand-up, both which cannot be exempt from serious scrutiny against today's standards of diversity, this tape has an abundance of intelligent witticisms, in stand-up, sketch, and straight man-second banana segments. Don Knotts, Gabriel Dell, Pat Harrington, Jr., Bill Dana, and Louis Nye all do well, especially in a satirical look at the crass commercialism
of the growing medium: Allen plays the President of a third-rate TV network, introducing new banal programming for the 1960-61 season.
Henny Youngman is on the scene with his rapid-fire, and mostly funny lines, although the young, unitiated student of comedy may be shocked at what was considered sophisticated stand-up at the time.
On the musical side we have Erroll Garner, Bobby Hackett, Les Brown, and Tony Bennett - Tony is typically great, in a lounge or big band backdrop. Talking about stuff you'll never see again, Tony lights up a cigarette, the perfect complement at the time for a smooth number sung close to the 88s.
Ginger Rogers has a slightly overlong, but interesting and funny scene, as the "feminine comic" - the answer to the stereotypucal lady comedian doing it guy-style in a guy's world. She slinks about in a semi-diaphonous robe in her low-lit boudouir and tells.....bar jokes! She's excellent....and more risque than one might expect for 1960!
To set up her bit, another lady comic demonstrates the masculine/feminine hybrid - unfortunately she's not identified.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good word about Steve Allen, June 15, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Golden TV Classics The Steve Allen Show Live TV (VHS Tape)

Steve Allen was one of the first great comic stars of TV. He had a kind of intelligent zaniness and surrounded himself with a cast of real comic characters, the most famous of whom Louie Nye ( Why not Boob-a-lee? ) and Don Knotts appear in this show. He had a very pleasant manner and an infectious laugh . His shows brought a lot of late- night comic pleasure.