The Milton Berle Show

Maybe "The Milton Berle Show" wasn't "Texaco Star Theater," but then again, television was new in 1948 and Berle was about the most "visual" thing on it, what with his physical brand of comedy. Eighteen years later, variety shows were a dime a dozen but Berle's show wasn't any worse than the others of the time. In one show I've seen, acerbic talk-show host Joe Pyne confronts Berle as a motorcycle type straight out of Marlon Brando's "The Wild One"; on the same show, Adam West as Batman, and Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet and Kato, appear in a sketch in which Berle is cast as a bad guy on both their shows (he had played Louie the Lilac on "Batman") and goes back and forth from set to set, getting pummeled every time. I can't say the guest list is so bad; yes, many of the guests, such as West, Williams, and Lee, are stars of ABC shows, as are Phyllis Diller and David Janssen, but there are also top names like Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. And there's a place for popular rock acts of the mid-'60s, such as regulars Bobby Rydell and Donna Loren, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. If there is a problem it's the same one Ed Sullivan was having by this time, trying to appeal to both sides of the generation gap. Still, you can't fault Uncle Miltie for trying to keep up with the times.