Melinda,
Agreed! Dobie Gillis was one of the best comedies ever! A classy classic which is right up there with the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and several of others from the late 40s through the early 60s--comedies which remain timeless in their appeal.
Some excellent drama and comedy shows and series were created during TV's early days. At the time, the theater people did not believe TV could ever replace live plays or glossy films, and the radio people thought video images got in the way of the individual viewer's/listener's fantasies.
TV was regarded as little more than pablum for the senses, and few thought it a serious contender on any platform. Many of the great shows from the early days through the late 1960s are forever lost, as the networks reused videotapes with little to no thought to what was on those tapes. ABC was probably the worst! Virtually nothing from the ABC network's archives survives, as that studio taped and taped and taped again over previously recorded programs.
Through the efforts of his widow, Edie Adams, along with a handful of his admirers, much of the recorded comic genius of Ernie Kovacs has been preserved. Had Kovacs not died tragically in an automobile accident in 1962, spurring this effort, the tapes containing his works surely would have been reused.
Before anyone reminds me, yes, I do know that TV preceded videotape technology and that much of the stuff from the early days consisted of live performances. Some good stories there, too.
Holly |
