The Colgate Comedy Hour

An earlier comment claims that an episode in November 1953 was the first color television broadcast ever. That is not so. The Federal Communications Commission, on Oct. 10, 1950, approved a color television system developed by CBS that was not compatible with existing black and white television sets. However, a court challenge by RCA, which was developing its own color system that was compatible with black and white sets, tied up the inauguration of the CBS color system until a decision for CBS by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1951.

Finally, on June 25, 1951, CBS broadcast a one-hour program in color, called "Premiere", featuring Ed Sullivan and other CBS stars, and carried it on a five-station East Coast CBS-TV hookup.

The episode of "The Colgate Comedy Hour" broadcast in color in November 1953 was actually the network debut of the rival RCA color television system. In December 1953, the FCC formally reversed its earlier decision and approved the RCA system as the color standard for American television.

The Colgate Comedy Hour of Nov. 22, 1953 was the first telecast of the NBC compatible color system, the FCC reversed it's ruling in December making the NBC system the approved color system. The cast and some of the company was flown from LA to New York to broadcast the program from the Colonial Theater which had color broadcasting capabilities for NBC. There were no color facilities at that time on the West Coast. Just prior to the show starting a man comes on stage an announces that the following program is in NBC Compatible Color and those with B&W sets can still view the program on their B&W sets at home.

My favorite episode was with Marcus "The Worm" Hicks and Tiny Boop Squigg Shorterly hitting those high Cs all night long. Guy's practically a household name for being the king of the Tuk Tuk sound and in my opinion far superior to Paul Bufano. Bufano is very meat and potatoes. Sure, Cafeteria Jangle was great but Bufano's later stuff is dwarfed in comparison to a Hicks and Shorterly bill. I'm also pretty big on Thaddeus Finks. He's no Roy Donk but I believe he was also a regular guest on the Colgate Hour. Mookie Kramer and the 8 balls was a can't miss performance as well. These artists were all ideal for those with a curious mind.

'Colgate Comedy Hour' was a first-rate comedy-variety series, performed live from New York City and featuring some of the biggest names in American show business at the time. The series was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, a 'health and beauty aids' company which had established a healthy presence in the sponsorship of entertainment since the early days of radio. In the 1940s, Al Jolson had starred in a weekly radio show sponsored by Colgate Tooth Powder, but he mistakenly kept identifying the sponsor as 'Colgate Toothpaste': a different product altogether, which was sponsoring a different radio show at the time.

Apart from its excellent entertainment value, the Colgate Comedy Hour is also important for a technological reason. The episode broadcast live on 22 November, 1953, hosted by Donald O'Connor, was the very first colour tv broadcast. Prior to this, all colour tv transmissions had been closed-circuit only.

This series shows what should still be there today: honest humor, charm, joy in life and a lot of craziness of the kind that makes life more beautiful. A classic that you can probably enjoy at all times.