Information about Variety Show

A variety show on television is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and comedy skits, and normally introduced by a compère or host.

History

The format is basically television's version of the music hall. Variety in the UK evolved in theatres and music halls, and later in Working Men's Clubs. Most of the early top performers on television and radio did an apprenticeship either in stage variety, or during World War II in Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). In the UK, the ultimate accolade for a variety artist for decades was to be asked to do the annual Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium theatre, in front of the monarch. In the 1960s, even the Beatles undertook this ritual. In the US, shows featuring Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope and Dean Martin also helped to make the Golden Age of Television successful.

From 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show was one of CBS's most popular series. Using his no-nonsense approach, Ed Sullivan allowed every known act possible from every known medium to get their "fifteen minutes of fame." Sullivan was also partially responsible for bringing Elvis Presley and The Beatles to US prominence, while in the UK The Good Old Days, which ran from 1953 to 1983, featured modern artists performing dressed in late Victorian/Early Edwardian costume, either doing their own act or performing as a music hall artist of that period. The audience was also encouraged to dress in a similar fashion.

On television, variety reached its peak during the period of the 1960s and 1970s. With a turn of the television dial, viewers around the globe could variously have seen shows featuring Andy Williams, Julie Andrews, The Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, Lynda Carter, Sonny and Cher, Bob Monkhouse, Carol Burnett, Rod Hull and Emu, Flip Wilson, Dinah Shore, Lawrence Welk, Glen Campbell, Donny & Marie, Barbara Mandrell, Judy Garland, the Captain & Tennille, The Jacksons, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Mary Tyler Moore, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Smothers Brothers, Dick Van Dyke, Buck and Roy or The Muppet Show. Variety shows were once as common on television as Westerns, courtroom dramas, suspense thrillers, or sitcoms.

During the 1960s and 70's, there were also several one-time variety specials, featuring stars such as Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, or Mitzi Gaynor, none of whom ever had a regular television series.

Contemporary U.S. variety shows

The last major network attempt at a traditional variety show was Dolly (starring Dolly Parton), which ran on ABC during the 1987-88 season. By that time, the format had fallen out of fashion (due largely to changing tastes and the advent of MTV), and the series was not successful.

A contemporary version of the variety show format, NBC's Saturday Night Live, which made its debut in 1975, is still airing today, with its combination of comedy sketches and musical performances, but Saturday Night Live places most of its emphasis on comedy, while earlier variety shows placed most of their emphasis on the music.

In 2004, ABC's The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour attempted to revive the prime-time variety hour as a special for today's generation. The first show was a ratings success, and it was followed by Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas in early December of that year.

The Scouting Gang Show performed principally by young people 18 years of age and under in many locations around the world is an example of a variety show format that has endured for over seventy years.

Other countries

The prime time variety show format was popular in the early decades of Australian television, spawning such series as In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show and Hey Hey It's Saturday, which ran for 27 years. Recent prime time variety shows include the short lived Micallef Tonight and The Sideshow.

Since 1962, the Spanish variety show known as Sábado Gigante has been hosted by Don Francisco. It currently is broadcast by Univision on Saturday evenings.

The first Chinese variety show to become a major success was Hong Kong's Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which aired in 1967 and lasted 27 years.

Another of today's variety shows in Asia is Taiwan's Variety Big Brother. Taiwanese variety shows are infamous for its constant use of artificial laugh tracks even though there is a studio audience.

In Korea(South), the hugely popular 'Muhan Dojeon'(Infinite Challenge, MBC, since 2005) is a new model of this. It combines comedy and variety scenes.

In the Philippines, the longest-running variety show Eat Bulaga still airs up to this day on GMA Network. The show began airing in 1979, originally on RPN channel 9.

Japanese television programs such as Music Station and Utaban continue in an almost pristine format from the same variety shows of years before. The only major changes have been the increasing disappearance of live backup music since the 1980s.

Many television specials continue to resemble the variety show format to this day.
Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.
Master of Ceremonies or MC (sometimes spelled emcee), sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey", is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance.
..... Click the link for more information.
A host (sometimes hostess, in feminine form) or presenter is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit.
..... Click the link for more information.
Music hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to
  1. A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts.

..... Click the link for more information.
Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) (from French "théâtre", from Greek "theatron", θέατρον, meaning "place of seeing") is the branch of the performing arts defined as simply as what "occurs when one or more
..... Click the link for more information.
Working Men's Clubs are a formally organized type of private social club (Also see C&IU). They were initially founded in the nineteenth century in industrial areas of Great Britain, particularly the North of England with the aim of providing recreation and education for working
..... Click the link for more information.
Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Entertainments National Service Association, or ENSA was an organisation set up in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes.
..... Click the link for more information.


The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held in the United Kingdom once each year, and often in a theatre in London's West End although it is increasingly being held outside of London.
..... Click the link for more information.
London Palladium

The London Palladium in 2004, with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang posters
Address
Argyll Street

City
Westminster, London


..... Click the link for more information.
The Beatles were an English musical group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.
..... Click the link for more information.
Milton Berle

Publicity shot of Berle
Birth name Milton Berlinger
Born July 12 1908(1908--)
Manhattan, New York
Died March 27 2002 (aged 95)
Los Angeles, California
..... Click the link for more information.
Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats in The Hustler (1961)
Birth name Herbert John Gleason
Born January 26 1916(1916--)
Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York
Died
..... Click the link for more information.
Bob Hope

Birth name Leslie Townes Hope
Born May 29 1903(1903--)
Eltham, London, England, UK
Died July 27 2003 (aged 100)
Toluca Lake, California, U.S.
..... Click the link for more information.
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti, June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an Italian American singer, film actor, and comedian. He was one of the most famous music artists in the 1950s and 1960s.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Golden Age of Television is a reference to the period in the United States from approximately 1949 to 1961, when television became a popular mass medium and many of the common programming formats were developed.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Ed Sullivan Show was an American television variety show that ran from June 20, 1948 to June 6, 1971, and was hosted by former entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan.
..... Click the link for more information.
CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country  United States
Availability    National; also available in  Canada,  Mexico, and the Caribbean
..... Click the link for more information.
Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the emcee of a popular TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was at its height of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s.
..... Click the link for more information.
Elvis Aaron Presley[1][2] (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977), was an American singer, musician, actor, writer, and producer. He is a cultural icon, often known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King".
..... Click the link for more information.
The Beatles were an English musical group from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They are one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Good Old Days was a popular BBC television light entertainment programme which ran from 1953 to 1983.

It was recorded live at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the
..... Click the link for more information.
Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Although commonly used to refer to the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901, scholars debate whether the Victorian period—as defined
..... Click the link for more information.
The Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period 1901 to 1910, the reign of King Edward VII. It succeeded the Victorian period and is sometimes extended to include the period up to the sinking of the RMS Titanic
..... Click the link for more information.
Howard Andrew Williams (born December 3, 1927 in Wall Lake, Iowa), known as Andy Williams, is an American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 Gold [1] and 3 Platinum [2] certified albums.
..... Click the link for more information.
Julie Andrews

Birth name Julia Elizabeth Wells
Born 1 September 1935 (1935--) (age 72)
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England

Spouse(s)
..... Click the link for more information.


The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
..... Click the link for more information.
Olivia Newton-John AO OBE (born 26 September 1948) is a Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated English-born Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress. Her highly acclaimed vocal, musical, and acting talents have made her a globally recognized name.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lynda Carter

Birth name Linda Jean Córdova Carter[1]
Born July 24 1951 (1951--) (age 56)
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
..... Click the link for more information.
Sonny & Cher were an American rock & roll duo, made up of husband and wife team Sonny Bono and Cher in the 1960s and 1970s. They were among the first hippie personas with mainstream appeal. In their career (1964-1975) Sonny & Cher had sold 80 million records worldwide.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter