Television
Kraft Music Hall made the move to television in 1958, replacing the dramatic anthology series Kraft Television Theatre. Milton Berle hosted during the 1958 season. Beginning with the fall 1959 season, singer Perry Como became the host, and continued until 1967 (as a monthly series from 1963 through '67). During the summer seasons, the show continued with new episodes, with a variety of guest hosts replacing Berle/Como. This rotation of guest hosts became a permanent feature when Como left the series in the winter of 1967 (with the Music Hall returning as a weekly series that fall), and continued until the series finally ended in 1971.
Every show featured a guest entertainer, among them Bob Hope, Liberace, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx, Jimmy Durante, George Jessel, Larry Parks, Dorothy Kirsten, Doris Day, Leo Fuld, Boris Karloff, Margaret Whiting, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Phil Silvers and Simon & Garfunkel. Each episode also often featured a familiar film actress, such as Marilyn Maxwell. During its final years, Friar's Club "Roasts" were occasionally broadcast on this series in place of the usual musically themed episodes. Later, these Roasts appeared as a separate series hosted by Dean Martin.
In 1966, NBC aired a summer replacement show, Kraft Summer Music Hall. It featured John Davidson as host, with a new young comedian, Richard Pryor and singer Jimmy Boyd.
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Famous quotes containing the word television:
“The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labour in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour.”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
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—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)