The Comedy Spot

Background

By the mid-1950s, television networks annually ordered far more pilots than could be broadcast as series, creating a large backlog of unsold pilots. The industry began packaging these pilots into summer anthology series to provide fresh programming during rerun season and recoup production costs. ABC and NBC pioneered this concept in summer 1956 with G.E. Summer Originals and Sneak Preview, but CBS did not air its first such series until summer 1960, when it launched The Comedy Spot and New Comedy Showcase.

Production and content

Art Gilmore hosted The Comedy Spot in 1960. The series changed name and content each year: in summer 1960 it combined unsold pilots with reruns of General Electric Theater and NBC's Colgate Theater; in summer 1961 it was retitled Comedy Spotlight and consisted entirely of General Electric Theater reruns; in summer 1962 it reverted to The Comedy Spot and aired only unsold pilots, including one repeat from New Comedy Showcase. On July 19, 1960, it aired the unsold pilot 'Head of the Family,' about writer Robbie Petrie explaining his job to his son Ritchie.

A reworked version with a different cast became The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966), and the pilot's plot was reused in that show's February 1962 episode 'Father of the Week.' CBS filmed a pilot for a proposed series Medicine Man starring Ernie Kovacs and Buster Keaton, in which Kovacs played a traveling medicine salesman. Kovacs died in a car accident the day after filming some scenes, on January 13, 1962. CBS planned to broadcast the pilot on The Comedy Spot in 1962 but abandoned the idea due to problems with Kovacs's estate.

Broadcast history

The Comedy Spot premiered on June 28, 1960, as a summer replacement for The Red Skelton Show, airing 11 episodes over 13 weeks on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It returned in summer 1961 as Comedy Spotlight, replacing The Tom Ewell Show in the 9:00–9:30 p.m. Tuesday slot, running nine consecutive weeks from July 25 to September 19.