Editing Steve Allen (section)

==== Television ====

Allen's first television experience came in 1949, when he answered an advertisement for a television announcer for [[professional wrestling]]. Knowing nothing about wrestling, he watched some shows to gain insight and discovered that the announcers did not have well-defined names for the [[wrestling holds]]: when he got the job, he created names for many of the holds, some of which still are in use.<ref name=Inventing /> After the first match got under way, Allen began ad-libbing in a comedic style that had audiences outside the arena laughing. An example:{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Leone gives Smith a [[full nelson]] now, slipping it up from either a half-nelson or an [[Ozzie Nelson]]. Now the boys go into a double pretzel bend with variations on a theme by [[Veloz and Yolanda]].<ref name=Inventing />}}

After CBS radio gave Allen a weekly prime time show, CBS television believed he could be groomed for national television stardom and gave him his first network show. ''The Steve Allen Show'' premiered at 11 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1950, and was later moved to a thirty-minute, early evening slot. The new show required him to relocate, with his family, from Los Angeles to New York. It ran until 1952, after which CBS tried several different formats to showcase Allen's talent.<ref name=Inventing>Ben Alba, ''Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show'' (Prometheus Books, 2005), pp. 40–42</ref>

He achieved national attention in early January 1951, when he was pressed into last-minute service to guest host the hugely popular ''[[Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts]]'' when [[Arthur Godfrey|Godfrey]] was unable to appear.<ref>John Crosby. "New Sprig in the Allen Family Tree." ''Lansing'' (Michigan) ''State Journal'', January 12, 1951, p. 18.</ref> He turned one of Godfrey's live [[Lipton]] tea and soup commercials upside down, preparing tea and instant soup on camera, then pouring both into Godfrey's iconic ukulele. With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) laughing uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major plaudits both as a comedian and as a host.<ref name=Inventing />{{Rp|48}} ''Variety'' magazine editors who had seen the show wrote, "One of the most hilarious one-man comedy sequences projected over the TV cameras in many a day&nbsp;... The guy's a natural for the big time."<ref name=Inventing />{{Rp|49}}

Leaving CBS, Allen briefly hosted a talent-competition program on ABC called [[Talent Patrol]] in the first months of 1953.

At the same time, he became a regular on the popular panel television game show ''[[What's My Line?]]'' from January 1953, substituting for the suspended [[Hal Block]], and replacing Block by March.  He continued on the show until 1954, and returned frequently as a [[panelist]] until the series ended in 1967. He once appeared as a regular contestant on June 19, 1966, but the panel failed to guess his line, which was selling motorcycles; Allen at the time was co-owner of a Los Angeles dealership selling [[Honda]] motorcycles.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7LL6wwIGw Whats My Line? TX 06/19/1966]</ref><ref name=NYT /> Those introducing him as a panelist sometimes jokingly called him the son of panelist [[Fred Allen]], but the two men were unrelated. He also revived and popularized the question "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" while trying to guess the products associated with ''[[What's My Line?]]'' contestants.