The Abbott and Costello Show is an American television sitcom starring the popular comedy team of
Bud AbbottWilliam Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:...
and
Lou CostelloLouis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...
that premiered in syndication in the fall of 1952 and ran until May 1954.
The series is regarded among the most influential comedy programs in history. In 1998
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
praised the series as one of the "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time." In 2007,
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine selected it for its "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."
Overview
The show was a vehicle to bring the duo's tried and true
burlesqueAmerican Burlesque is a genre of variety show. Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy and female striptease...
routines to television in a format that the team could control. It contained none of the musical interludes or love stories that marked most of their feature films. Basically, if a situation or gag was funny, the team filmed it with little regard to plot, character or continuity. As a result, the show became a record of classic burlesque scenes performed by the duo.
Abbott and Costello portrayed unemployed actors sharing an apartment in a rooming house in Hollywood. The supporting cast included
Sidney FieldsSidney Fields was a comedy actor and writer best known for his featured role on The Abbott and Costello Show in the early 1950s. He was sometimes credited as "Sid Fields" and "Sidney Field."...
as their landlord;
Hillary BrookeHillary Brooke was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films...
as a neighbor and sometime love interest; Gordon Jones as Mike the Cop, a dimwitted foil for the boys;
Joe BesserJoe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59...
as Stinky, a 40-year-old man dressed in a
Little Lord FauntleroyLittle Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886...
suit; and
Joe KirkJoe Kirk was a U.S. radio, film, and television actor who was best known for playing the role of Mr...
(Costello's brother-in-law) as Mr. Bacciagalupe, an Italian immigrant caricature who held a variety of jobs depending upon the requirements of the script.
Bobby BarberBobby Barber was a prolific American character bit player who appeared in over 100 films. Barber is notable for his work as a foil for Abbott and Costello on and off screen.-External links:...
and
Joan ShawleeJoan Shawlee , also credited as Joan Fulton, was an American film and television actress.Her most notable roles were small roles in Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder films. Her most famous role was as Sweet Sue in the 1959 comedy classic, Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack...
also appeared frequently. Several episodes featured a pet female chimp named "Bingo", who was dressed exactly the same as Costello. Bingo was fired from the show after biting Costello. Brooke, Besser, and Kirk also left the cast after the first season.
Broadcast history
Lou Costello owned the show with Bud Abbott working on salary. The show was not a network program when first introduced but was sold into
syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
by MCA Inc. to about 40 local stations across the country. As a result, it was broadcast on different days and at different times in different cities. In New York, it first appeared on the
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate, WCBS, on December 5, 1952 but was not carried nationally on that network. (The 1953-54 season was telecast locally on WNBT, as
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's New York flagship station was then known). However, first season episodes were repeated as part of CBS' Saturday morning schedule during the 1954-55 season.
Production notes
The program lasted two seasons (52 episodes) and was directed and produced by
Jean YarbroughJean Yarbrough was an American film director.-Biography:He was born in Marianna, the seat of Lee County in southeastern Arkansas. After attending the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, he entered the film business in 1922, first as a propman, but he steadily rose in the ranks to...
. (Costello's brother, Pat, was listed as the producer, but his function was nominal.) Most of the scripts for the first season were written by Sid Fields after Eddie Forman wrote the early establishing episodes. Episodes in the second season were written by Jack Townley, Felix Adler or
Clyde BruckmanClyde A. Bruckman was an American writer and director of comedy films during the late silent era as well as the early sound era of cinema. Bruckman collaborated with such comedians as Buster Keaton, W.C...
.
The first season episodes were filmed at the
Hal RoachHarold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
Studios in Culver City. (The 14.5 acres (58,679.5 m²) studio, once known as "The Lot of Fun", was torn down in 1963 and replaced by "Landmark Street", an area of light industrial buildings, businesses, and an automobile dealership, where a plaque marks the studio's former location). The second season was shot at Motion Picture Center Studios, which later became Desilu-Cahuenga Studios, where
I Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
as well as the
Danny ThomasDanny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
and
Jack BennyJack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
shows, were filmed.
DVD releases
- Season One: September 5, 2006
- Season Two: October 3, 2006
- The Abbott and Costello Show: The Complete Series, Collector's Edition: March 30, 2010.
Legacy
Jerry SeinfeldJerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
has declared that
The Abbott and Costello Show, with its overriding emphasis upon funny situations rather than life lessons, was the inspiration for his own long-running sitcom,
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.