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*3/23/11: Updated to include a rare color 1968 Steve Allen Show broadcast, plus a rare color outtake of his 14th Annual Prickley Heat Telethon, plus a classic 1958 Big Bill Allen Sportscaster comedy skit, and all five discs newly redigitized for improved image and audio quality!* 9 Witty, Wonderful & Hilarious Hours By The High-Brow Humorist Master Of TV's Golden Age Packed Into 5 All Regions DVDs!

Contents:

THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW (9/2/1956, 53:44)
Remember that famous clip of Steve doing a mocking poetry reading of Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-a-Lula"? Yep, this show's got it. To make up for this mockery, the show's also got a wonderful performance by the great Fats Domino, to whom Steve gives a Cashbox Disc Jockey award. It showcases Steve's famous piano-accompanied cavalcade collage o' comedy, whose vignette stylings are most often credited (correctly) to his great contemporary Ernie Kovacs -- and for old time radio fans, there's a heart-warming recreation of a dance band remote broadcast of yesteryear! Cohosted by Gene Rayburn, with comic appearances by Louis Nye, and costarring musical guests Georgia Gibbs and Steve Lawrence. Sponsored by Crosley TVs, Bendix Appliances, Viceroy Cigarettes, Jergens Lotion & Woodbury (nowadays named "Camay") Soap.

THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW (6/2/1957, 50:03)
It's the end of the spring semester, so Steve opens the show with his version of a college graduation. He then bites the hand that feeds him by making fun of TV & print advertising. We get treated to a regular staple of his show, "Letters To The Editor", where he reads real such letters from real newspapers. Steve's famous piano-accompanied vignettes make a great reprise too, where cohost Gene Rayburn and comedian Louis Nye return to pitch in. Musical guests include Xavier Cugat with his "squeeze" at the time, Abbe Lane (no "Coochie-Coochie" Charo here, but Abbe's quite a talented & lovely lady, too!), the Four Diamonds of "Little Darlin'" fame, and the beautiful Erin O'Brien. Also featured is the "extra added attraction" Jerry Lewis, who cuts up brilliantly in routines as fresh and funny as David Letterman and Jay Leno routines of our day. Sponsored by Windex, Drano, Twinkle Carpet Cleaner, Revlon Satin-Set Hairspray & Aquamarine Spray Mist and the Greyhound Bus

THE STEVE ALLEN PLYMOUTH SHOW (1959, 51:24)
An outstanding program jam-packed with top acts such as Ginger Rogers, the great Jazz pianist Erroll Garner, Henny Youngman, Tony Bennett, Louis Nye, Don Knotts, Bill Dana as "Jose Jimenez" and Les Brown & His Band Of Renown. Steve takes TV production companies to task in a blistering series of comic attacks upon all the fad fare being served up for broadcast those days. He even takes a swipe at his own show as he airs it when we listen in on the comments made by a couple of anonymous fellow viewers. Henny Youngman's at the top of his game & sets up Ginger Rogers as a fellow comic, Erroll Garner's performance is simply outstanding, "Jose Jimenez" reports on his round-the-world underwater trip & Tony Bennett wows cast, crew & audience alike through the close of one of Steve's best shows.

THE NEW STEVE ALLEN SHOW PRESENTS CAMPUS USA (6/2/1957, 50:03)
A unique show broadcast from the steps of UCLA starring Frankie Avalon, Connie Francis, Buck Henry, Tim Conway (incorrectly credited as "Tom Conway"), Jim Neighbors, Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana, Robert Ryan, John Houseman, The UCLA Football Team, the UCLA Bruin Marching Band & The UCLA A Capella Choir. Also featured are lots of singing & dancing by the student body, a one-of-a-kind "singing" performance by the Henry/Conway/Neighbors trio, an even more unusual singing trio of Avalon/Francis/Allen, the UCLA Theater Group with members Robert Ryan and John Houseman taking on Shakespeare and Jose Jimenez consecutively, and Decathlete Rafer Johnson. Sponsored by Bufferin Aspririn, Muriel Cigars and Maybelline Cosmetics.

THE STEVE ALLEN PLYMOUTH SHOW (1959, 59:03)
Steve sings us into the swing of things with his introduction of the night's guests to the tune of "That's What I Like About The Show". And what does he like? The great comedian Jonathan Winters, the celebrated comic Don Knotts, bandleader/singer/hipster of old time radio fame Phil Harris, Bill Dana of "Jose Jimenez" fame, Les Brown & His Band of Renown, comedian Louis Nye, Pat Harrington, Jr., singer Patrice Munsel, The North American Air Defense Band & more! A rare & wonderful assemblage of talent, wit, wackiness & fun.

THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW (Dec. 30, 1953, 39:26)
A TV history milestone of an archival broadcast, sponsored by "Father Knickerbocker" of Knickerbocker Beer, documenting the infancy of an entire TV genre in a first season episode of what evolved into the venerable late night institution "The Tonight Show". Originally a local show broadcast out of WNBT-TV New York City, it went national on the NBC network under the title "Tonight!" in September 1954. Some nine months earlier, this choice show featured Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence as singers, Bobby Byrne as conductor, Roger Price as guest comedian and, most important, Steve cutting up with all the charm and wit with which he was to later earn so much acclaim and renown.

THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW (1962, 1:19:45)
The modern late night TV viewer may see much in Jay Leno's "Tonight Show", and even more in David Letterman's "Late Night", that seems new, unusual, ground breaking and/or cutting edge. Truth to tell, much of such material was in fact not only already done before, but had been pioneered by the late great Steve Allen half a century or so ago. This particular broadcast of "The Steve Allen Show" is so surpassing an example of such pioneering material that, though styles in clothes and hair may have changed, the content and character of this unpredictable, wide-ranging romp through the frontiers of the possible will make you feel throughout as though you are watching moment-by-moment something entirely fresh and new under the sun. To begin with, Steve starts the show off from atop a flagpole (really!) - and if that ain't enough, he plays a piano atop that flagpole (!), then follows that up by making prank telephone calls to apartment dwellers in the surrounding neighborhood, telling them to look to the sky outside their windows to see who's calling! Wait a minute, though, he's not done settin' standards yet - after air-dropping salamis to the crowd below by parachute, he returns to terra firma, introduces a classic piano & guitar performance by the legendary Slim Guillard, then literally dissects the mystery of the Mexican jumping bean with scalpel & magnifying glass. He intros the lovely singer Barbara McNair -- two black performers on the show in 1962 was itself quite out-of-the-norm, to say nothing of Steve's wrapping his arms around both in the closing moments of the show -- and amidst an array of other entertainments, he closes the show with himself, the crew and "Miss Measure Your Mattress Month" bouncing up, down & around on top of beds & each other onstage! Of all the vintage television treasures we sell, this special broadcast is among the ones we are the most proud to share. Enjoy it capitally!

BIG BILL ALLEN BREAK-UP (1958, 2:26)
An outtake from NBC's Tonight Show, where Steve is in character as "Big Bill Allen, Sportscaster", and try as he might, he just can't stop cracking up at his own hilarity!

THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW (1968, 51:33)
A rare color episode of Steve's, featuring comedian and sidekick Jack Carter, guests Nancy Culp of The Beverley Hillbillies, the great blues singer Joe Williams, and The Five Americans singing their hit "Western Union"! Steve also reads letters, does comedy sketches with his guests, gets into hilarious discussions with colorful members of the audience and shows the sophistication and maturity that the years brought to him. And see if you can catch the tip-of-the-hat to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In!

14TH ANNUAL PRICKLEY HEAT TELETHON (1967, 3:00)
Another great color offering where Steve delivers a well-deserved satire of television telethons, when he appears as Steve Maudlin to introduce comedian John Byner, who does an excellent send-up of a typical wiseguy comedian common to the era and this genre.

NOTE: Due to the age and condition of the source media, the picture quality sometimes falls below regularly accepted standards. It should nevertheless not prevent you from greatly enjoying what few old time television appearances there are of this great American entertainment genius. Enjoy!

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