The Ken Murray Show

The Ken Murray Show was an American music and comedy television show on CBS Television hosted by Ken Murray that ran from 1950 to 1953.[1]

The Ken Murray Show
Title screenshot from October 14, 1950 episode.
GenreVariety
StarringKen Murray
Narrated byNelson Case (announcer 1950-52)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Release
Original releaseJanuary 7, 1950 (1950-01-07) –
June 21, 1953 (1953-06-21)

Show

An established entertainer and vaudeville regular, Murray had hosted comedy and variety series on CBS radio in the past. But his Blackouts racy stage variety show ran in Hollywood for years in the 1940s and made him quite popular before the TV show debuted in January 1950. Anheuser-Busch was the primary sponsor. It began as an every-other-week show broadcast from 8-9pm on Saturday nights, alternating with the 54th Street Revue.[2][3][4] The show became weekly in the fall of 1950, and ran in that format through the end of the 1951-52 season in June 1952.

The New York-based show featured popular guest stars and had an elaborate Hollywood and Vine set, and a large cast of singers and female dancers. Murray would open the show and do transitions between bits, often with a cigar in hand. Darla Hood (best known as Darla in Our Gang as a child actor) was a regular in 1950-51. Laurie Anders began as one of the "Glamourlovelies" women of the show and emerged as a featured player after performing the song I Like the Wide Open Spaces and getting instant impact.[5][6][7] The inclusion of many attractive females on the show was in keeping with Murray's formula for Blackouts. A young Stanley Kubrick photographed the show's mass audition for "beautiful girls - no experience necessary" for Look magazine in 1950.[8]

The show opened with a scene of the sponsor's Budweiser Clydesdales galloping along and pulling an Anheuser Busch wagon.[9] Live commercial segments during the show would include Murray and a guest drinking Budweiser.[10]

Episodes often had a dramatic scene from a play as one segment. For example, the first episode of the show on January 7, 1950. had a scene from the popular 1949 play Death of a Salesman, with the Broadway actors Gene Lockhart and Alan Hewitt from the ongoing show playing their roles.[11][12][13][14]

A tentative plan to move the show to Tuesday nights in late December 1952 was rejected, thinking it would be unfair to Murray to have to move from his established Saturday slot to compete with Milton Berle and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.[15] Instead, the show returned in February 1953 in a 30-minute format on alternate Sunday nights at 9:30pm, switching weeks with The Alan Young Show under the joint title of Time to Smile.[5][16] This last season, which ran from February to June 1953, was broadcast from Hollywood.[17][18][19][20] The Time to Smile format and content got mixed reviews at best, and the show was dropped by its sponsor after the season, in favor of a new show, The Man Behind the Badge.[21] Anheuser-Busch also bought the St. Louis Cardinals in early 1953, so cutting the show's sponsorship fee may also have been related to that purchase.[22]

Marilyn Monroe's first ever appearance on television occurred on the show on March 1953, a segment filmed at the premiere of Call Me Madam.[23]

The Nielsen ratings (the service's TV ratings debuted in 1950) rated the show as the 28th most watched show for the 1950-51 season (fall 1950-spring 1951).[24]

Awards

The show was nominated for the Emmy for Best Variety Show, losing at the 3d Emmy Awards in January 1951 to The Alan Young Show. The show was the first to win a Freedom Foundation Award.[25]

References
  1. Terrace, Vincent (2012). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 Through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland & Company. p. 560. ISBN 978-0786486410. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  2. Robertson, Bruce (9 January 1950). Bi-Weekly vs. Weekly Placements, Telecasting, p. 7 (noting that Anheuser-Busch was joining Ford and Chevrolet as bi-weekly sponsors for the show)
  3. (20 February 1950). Telerama, Broadcasting, p. 74.
  4. (8 November 1949). C.B.S. Completed Plans for Ken Murray Video Show Based on 'Blackouts' Theme, The New York Times, p. 52 (reporting plan for show to be a half-hour show, every other Saturday, based on Murray's very successful Blackouts stage show)
  5. Brooks, Tim and Earle Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, p. 733 (2007 ed.)
  6. Forman, Murray (2012). One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount: Popular Music on Early Television. Duke University Press. pp. 110–113. ISBN 9780822350118.
  7. Kleiner, Richard (23 May 1952). TV Coast to Coast, Plattsburgh Press-Republican
  8. Mather, Philippe. Stanley Kubrick at Look Magazine, pp. 9-10 (2013).
  9. (23 March 1961). Ken Murray - A Comedian of Many Projects, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  10. (17 September 1989). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/139688452/ TV at 50, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  11. Lanigan, Bob (19 January 1951). Bob Lanigan's TV Review, Brooklyn Eagle, p. 17 (opining that Murray's show was much different from Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan)
  12. (26 November 1951). Ken Murray TV Show Bigger, The Baytown Sun
  13. (12 March 1950). The Ken Murray Show Holds Bi-Weekly Spot, Lansing State Journal
  14. Crosby, John (18 January 1950). Ken Murray Show Entertaining Corn, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (review of first show by leading TV critic of the day John Crosby, includes amusing claim by Murray that blames Crosby for moving Blackouts to Broadway, where it did poorly)
  15. (12 December 1952). Ken Murray Show Will Not Resume, The New York Times
  16. (14 April 1953). Radio-TV Notes, The New York Times (The Arthur Murray Party was the summer replacement for the shows after June 1953)
  17. (10 February 1953). Return of Ken Murray Evokes Mixed Emotion, Philadelphia Inquirer
  18. Lanigan, Bob (1 May 1953). 'Time to Smile' Offers Viewer Little Incentive, Brooklyn Eagle, p. 26
  19. Lanigan, Bob (11 February 1953). Bankhead Show Proves to be Lacking in Laughs, Brooklyn Eagle, p. 30 (unfavorable review of 1953 season debut, "I found very little to smile about during the 30 minutes the show was on")
  20. Foster, Bob (9 February 1953). TV Radio, San Mateo Times (more positive review of 1953 season debut)
  21. (18 July 1953). Note, Danville Bee
  22. Ruby, Earl (22 February 1953). Ruby's Report, Louisville Courier-Journal ("This wasn't confirmed, but it seems apparent a very large part of the purchase price was met by cancellation of the Ken Murray TV program.")
  23. (10 March 1953). Hollywood, Santa Cruz Sentinel-News, p. 11.
  24. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Primetime Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (Ninth ed.). Ballantine Books. p. 1679. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
  25. "Comic Ken Murray turns author". Rome News-Tribune. December 9, 1976. p. 2A.
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