The Rise and Fall of Variety Shows
While they’re rarely seen today, variety shows, with a genial host introducing an eclectic array of singers, comedians, jugglers, and the like, were once among the most popular displays on television — and before that, on radio, and before that, on stage. They’re a remnant of another time, before a remote control or the click of a mouse could point our drifting attention toward a different channel.
Until relatively recently, variety shows were a prominent part of American culture. Here’s a look at how this form of showmanship rose with the times, but failed to keep pace as the entertainment industry evolved.
From the Stage to Radio
Variety acts have been part of the American theater tradition since at least the 18th century, when they were used to keep audiences amused between sets of the main show. They emerged as independently staged productions by the 1840s, and by the early 1880s, the variety show extravaganza known as vaudeville was en route to becoming the country’s most popular form of entertainment.
With the burgeoning prevalence of radio in the 1920s, performers who made their living on stage began showcasing their skills over the airwaves. The medium’s first mainstream variety show belonged to singer and bandleader Rudy Vallée, who provided music, interacted with guest stars, and unveiled a dramatic sketch as part of The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour beginning in October 1929.
Vallée was credited with discovering top talents such as Eddie Cantor, who brought in a studio audience to liven up his own radio program. Stars such as Ed Wynn, Fred Allen, and Bing Crosby also enjoyed success as variety show hosts during this era.
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Variety Takes Off on Television
Television’s first variety show surfaced on NBC in May 1946, courtesy of Standard Brands, which had been a major sponsor of the format on radio. Hour Glass featured an ever-changing array of guest stars who introduced comedic sketches, musical acts, and commercials. But squabbling between the network and sponsor ultimately led to the show’s cancellation in February 1947.
NBC tried its hand at variety again in June 1948 by bringing the long-running radio program Texaco Star Theatre to television, and soon settled on Milton Berle as its permanent host. A well-traveled if moderately heralded veteran of vaudeville, radio, and movies, Berle found this weekly gig a perfect platform for his brand of outlandish physical comedy. Texaco Star Theatre quickly emerged as the top show on TV, to the point where restaurants and movie theaters reportedly closed while Berle commandeered the attention of would-be customers from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday nights.
Twelve days after Texaco Star Theatre’s TV debut, Toast of the Town premiered on CBS with a markedly different host. Awkward and notorious for forgetting names, Ed Sullivan hardly looked the part of a man tasked with entertaining the masses. Yet from the very first episode, which featured the Toastettes dance troupe and the comedy duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, it was clear its host possessed a sharp eye for talent. The show was renamed in his honor in 1955, and Sullivan took care to balance the presentation of children’s fare with up-and-coming rock ’n’ roll acts such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The show served as a kingmaker of American tastes until going off the air in 1971.
The successes of Berle and Sullivan spurred an onslaught of TV variety shows, many of which carried their audiences from previous incarnations. Arthur Godfrey brought his competition program Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts from CBS Radio to TV in late 1948, and soon afterward premiered the more traditional variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. The Red Skelton Show became another successful radio-to-TV hit beginning in 1951, with its star’s stable of comic characters such as Junior the Mean Widdle Kid proving just as engaging on camera.
Not every established star was able to make the leap to a weekly TV format, however. Comedian Joe E. Brown, who possessed face-distortion abilities to rival those of Berle, couldn’t keep The Buick Circus Hour afloat for more than a season in the early 1950s. And for all his accomplishments as a singer and actor, Frank Sinatra twice failed to gain significant traction with a variety show that decade.
New Talents in the Turbulent 1960s
While old entertainment standbys such as Dean Martin enjoyed success with their programs in the 1960s, variety shows experienced a lag until being jolted by a wave of new talent later in the decade.
Chief among these was The Carol Burnett Show, which boasted the comedic and musical talents of its titular star as well as a strong supporting cast. Known for its recurring characters and spoofs of popular movies, as well as the signature ear tug and Tarzan yell of its host, The Carol Burnett Show claimed a whopping 23 Emmy Awards over its run from 1967 to 1978.
Also debuting in 1967, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour featured the sibling-rivalry schtick of folk singers Tom and Dick Smothers. While the show included traditional variety elements such as musical production numbers, the co-hosts and their guests rankled CBS executives with their barely veiled drug references and criticism of the Vietnam War, until they were canceled at the end of the second season. Meanwhile, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, which premiered in January 1968, also poked fun at cultural mores and pushed the envelope with its risqué jokes, although it managed to hang on until 1973.
With the launch of The Flip Wilson Show in 1970, the variety format had its first successful Black host. Wilson excelled at character creation, particularly with the fan-favorite Geraldine Jones, and his show was the country’s second-most-watched program for two of its four seasons.
Music-Dominated Acts Herald the End of an Era
Musicians came to dominate variety shows in the 1970s, with Cher and Sonny Bono, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Tony Orlando and Dawn enjoying solid ratings as hosts. Other notable entries from the period include The Muppet Show, which featured the brilliant puppet work of Jim Henson and his crew from 1976 to 1981, and Saturday Night Live, which embarked on its endless run in 1975.
However, the format was clearly running on fumes by the time Pink Lady and Jeff, which starred a pair of non-English-speaking Japanese pop stars, went on and off the air in 1980. The long-running Hee Haw, which first introduced a country flavor to the genre back in 1969, continued airing original shows until 1992, while The Statler Brothers also enjoyed success among the country set on the Nashville Network through most of the 1990s. Otherwise, few variety shows managed to make a dent in the public consciousness across the final years of the 20th century.
The format’s demise is often blamed on the rise of cable television and the accompanying fragmentation of audiences: About 23% of American households received basic cable TV service in 1980, a number that jumped to 60% by the end of the decade. However, it’s clear that changing tastes have also dictated viewing preferences, as 21st-century audiences have tuned in to traditional networks to watch reality TV competitions such as America’s Got Talent, which features the disparate singing, dancing, and athletic performances that would have been welcomed on The Ed Sullivan Show, though without the competition element
Variety shows continue to find their fans in international markets, and multitalented artists including Maya Rudolph and Neil Patrick Harris have attempted to revive them with limited success in recent years. And while SNL shares some elements with traditional variety shows, it is mostly focused on sketch comedy. Otherwise, variety has largely been relegated to old video clips and other forums of nostalgia, waiting for the day when the curtain rises again and this once-celebrated form of entertainment is called back into the spotlight.
