I like to add my thoughts to the discussion of why there weren't more Christmas themed episode in programming, I don't know what my opinion will be worth. Probably no more than two-cents. But here goes.....first I think the budgets dictated what could and couldn't be done. In most of the early shows there was no charge for admission to the audience b/c the sponsers wanted to fill the theatres for the purpose of live laughter. So it was the sponsers who paid the actors out of their profits and of course they wanted as much profit as the could get besides they also had to pay the actors...All of this was part of the budget which might have had something to do with the lack of investing in seasonal props which would only be used once. Compare that with the variety shows which almost always had some kind of Christmas special, Toast of The Town, The Ed Sullivan Show, Caesar's Hour, every one looked forward to the annual Andy Williams Christmas Special. When Red Skelton went to a full hour he had a yearly Christmas special. The difference in the two venues, Situation episodes vs. variety was that the audience paid good money to get into a variety show considering the talent that would be performing so the shows could afford to provide an annual expense for their Christmas specials. The Andy Williams Christmas Specials were one of the most watched shows of the year..Well that's my thoughts...I'll leave it at that.
Hope everyone has a Blessed 2013.....You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. Vic Friskey _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
