Editing Steve Allen (section)

=== ''The Steve Allen Show'' ===
In June 1956, NBC offered Allen a new prime-time, Sunday night variety hour, ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]''. NBC's goal was to dethrone CBS's top-rated ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''. The show included a typical run of star performers, including early television appearances by rock-and-roll pioneers [[Elvis Presley]],<ref name=wardvol1>{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Ed |date=2016 |title=The History of Rock & Roll, volume one, 1920–1963 | location=New York |publisher=Flatiron Books |page=132 |isbn=978-1-250-07116-3 |author-link=Ed Ward (writer)}}</ref> [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], and [[Fats Domino]]. Many popular television and film personalities were guest stars, including [[Bob Hope]], [[Kim Novak]], [[Errol Flynn]], [[Abbott and Costello]], [[Esther Williams]], [[Jerry Lewis]], [[Martha Raye]], [[The Three Stooges]], [[Sammy Davis, Jr.]], [[Shelley Winters]], [[Edward Everett Horton]], and a host of others.

The show's regulars were [[Tom Poston]], [[Louis Nye]], [[Bill Dana]], [[Don Knotts]], [[Pat Harrington, Jr.]], [[Dayton Allen]], and [[Gabriel Dell]]. Dell was the only show-business veteran, having appeared in the [[The Bowery Boys|Bowery Boys]], [[Dead End Kids]], [[Little Tough Guys]], and [[East Side Kids]] film series. Allen's other regulars were relatively obscure performers prior to their stints with Allen, and all went on to stardom. The comedians in Allen's gang often were seen in his "Man in the Street" interviews about some topical subject. Poston would appear as a dullard who could not remember his own name. Nye's character was an effete advertising executive named Gordon Hathaway, known for greeting the host with "Hi ho, Steverino!" Dana played amiable Latino "Jose Jimenez." Knotts was an exceedingly jittery man who, when asked if he was nervous, invariably replied with an alarmed "No!". Harrington was the Italian immigrant and former golf-pro Guido Panzini. Dayton Allen, who had gotten his start playing various characters on the children's television series "Howdy Doody," played wild-eyed zanies answering any given question with the question "Why not?" Dell usually played [[straight man|straight men]] in sketches (policemen, newsmen, dramatic actors, etc.), and occasionally played the character Boris Nadel, a Bela Lugosi/Dracula lookalike.

Other recurring routines included "Crazy Shots" (also known as "Wild Pictures"), a series of sight gags accompanied by Allen on piano; Allen inviting audience members to select three musical notes at random, and then composing a song based on the notes; a satire on radio's long-running ''[[The Answer Man]]'' and a precursor to [[Johnny Carson]]'s Carnac the Magnificent (sample answer: "Et tu, Brute." Allen's reply: "How many pizzas did you eat, Caesar?"); and overdramatic readings of real letters to the editor from New York City newspapers.

Allen's show also had one of the longest unscripted "crack-ups" on live television when Allen began laughing hysterically during "Big Bill Allen's Sports Roundup". Allen, known for his infectious high-pitched cackling laugh, laughed uncontrollably for over a minute with the audience laughing along, because, as he later explained, he caught sight of his unkempt hair on an off-camera monitor. He kept brushing his hair and changing hats to hide the messy hair, and the more he tried to correct his appearance the messier and funnier it got.

Allen helped the then-new [[Instant camera#Cameras and film|Polaroid camera]] become popular by demonstrating its instant-picture capabilities during live commercials and amassed a huge financial windfall for his work because he had opted to be paid for it in [[Polaroid Corporation]] stock.

Allen remained host of "Tonight" for three nights a week (Monday and Tuesday nights were taken up by guest hosts for most of the summer of 1956; then by [[Ernie Kovacs]] through January) until early 1957 when he left the show to devote his attention to the Sunday night program. It was his (and NBC's) hope that ''The Steve Allen Show'' could defeat Ed Sullivan in the ratings. Nevertheless, [[Maverick (TV series)|''Maverick'']] often bested both in audience size.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Tise Vahimagi|title=Maverick|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/maverick/maverick.htm|publisher=The Museum of Broadcast Communications|access-date=2007-10-20|quote=Maverick premiered on September 22, 1957, and pretty soon won over the viewers from the powerful opposition of CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show and NBC's The Steve Allen Show, two programs that had been Sunday night favorites from the mid-1950s.|archive-date=September 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911105959/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/maverick/maverick.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> In September 1959, Allen relocated to Los Angeles and left Sunday night television (the 1959–'60 season originated from [[NBC Studios (New York City)|NBC Color City]] in [[Burbank, California|Burbank]] as ''The Steve Allen Plymouth Show'', on Monday nights). Back in Los Angeles, he continued to write songs, hosted other variety shows, and wrote books and articles about comedy.

After being canceled by NBC in 1960, the show returned in the fall of 1961—on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], as ''The New Steve Allen Show''. Nye, Poston, Harrington, Dell, and Dayton Allen returned. New cast members were [[Joey Forman]], [[Buck Henry]], the [[Smothers Brothers]], [[Tim Conway]], and Allen's wife Jayne Meadows. The new version was canceled after fourteen episodes.<ref name="muse">{{Cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/steveallens/steveallens.htm|title=The Museum of Broadcast Communications&nbsp;— Encyclopedia of Television|publisher=museum.tv|access-date=February 2, 2020|archive-date=April 19, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419171707/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/steveallens/steveallens.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>