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The Hank McCune Show
American television sitcom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Hank McCune Show is an American television sitcom. Filmed without a studio audience, the series is notable for being the first television program to incorporate a laugh track.[1]
The series began as a local program in New York in 1949.[2] NBC placed it on its national primetime schedule at the start of the 1950–51 season. It debuted at 7:00pm Eastern Time on September 9 and was cancelled three months later. It was briefly resurrected as a syndicated program in 1953–54,[3] but without a laugh track.[4]
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Overview
The premise foreshadowed that of The Larry Sanders Show in that it contained a show within a show. Former radio comedian McCune portrayed a television variety show host named after himself, and each week the character managed to blunder his way into a variety of comic predicaments.
The supporting cast included Larry Keating, Charles Maxwell, Frank Nelson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Sara Berner, Tammy Kiper,[5] and Florence Bates.
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Production
United Television Productions produced the show,[2] and Harold Schuster was the producer.[6] Mort Lachman and Cy Rose were the writers.[5]
Although ratings "weren't terrible", the sponsor left after the then-minimum 13 weeks of shows.[7]
Syndicated version
Bing Crosby Enterprises produced the syndicated version of The Hank McCune Show. It was distributed by CBS's TV film sales division.[8]
See also
References
External links
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