# Will the TV variety show ever return to American TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192 "2005-04-26T17:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/1 "2005-04-26T17:18:31Z")
As a kid, I enjoyed watching **Red Skelton** , **Carol Burnette** , **Sonny and Cher** , and **The Captain and Tenille** (shut up!) shows. The format for all of them was the same: comedy sketches and musical numbers featuring a different guest star each week. Such shows were a staple of TV from its beginnings up through approximately the mid-1980s. The format has since pretty much disappeared from US television. They disappeared, no doubt, because of low ratings. Anybody think we’ll ever see them again? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/2 "2005-04-26T17:30:16Z")
Silly me. I forgot that there is still **Saturday Night Live** and **Mad TV**. They both suck so much ass, though, that I tend to repress memories of their existence. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/3 "2005-04-26T17:37:41Z")
The variety show was an all things for all people format. Here’s some singing. Here’s a monologist (thank you, Ed Sullivan for that word for stand-up comic). Here’s a novelty act. TV in the U.S. seems to have really gotten into narrow casting. You want music? Here’s a channel of it 24 hours a day. The Comedy Channel. All cartoons all the time. Saturday Night Live is almost a dinosaur. There wasn’t an MTV when SNL started, so it broke twice for music. They probably could do away with that part now. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/4 "2005-04-26T17:45:04Z")
Since the demise of the variety show, where on the tube does one turn for plate spinners, jugglers, ventriloquists, and other vaudeville-type acts? ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/5 "2005-04-26T17:47:50Z")
Let’s not forget **Hee Haw** or Donny and Marie. (I try to sometimes, but we shouldn’t.) **Chappelle’s Show** and **Doggy Fizzle Televizzle** are two quite funny shows I like nowadays, with a variety of music and comedy. Yet still outside the classic “variety show” format in question. (And both in seemingly eternal reruns.) ---
**Author:** ![milquetoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@milquetoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milquetoast)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/6 "2005-04-26T17:49:06Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Since the demise of the variety show, where on the tube does one turn for plate spinners, jugglers, ventriloquists, and other vaudeville-type acts? C-SPAN? ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/7 "2005-04-26T17:50:09Z")
Stupid human tricks? Letterman. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/8 "2005-04-26T17:56:23Z")
Now that you mention it, Tonight and David Letterman might be the closest thing to variety we still have. I googled up plate spinners and jugglers. They’re still out there. If you could convince the cable people that an all-novelty act channel could be commercially viable you might have something. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/9 "2005-04-26T18:02:19Z")
“Steve Harvey’s Big Time” might be on in your local area. That’s completely a variety show, and was on Sunday nights. I don’t know if it still is. I’ve found it to be pretty funny, and he has flame-eaters, jugglers, funny animals and all this other crazy stuff. He also makes fun of them and is pretty humorous about the whole thing. Now, a prime time variety show on a major network? It seems unlikely but so did a big game show until “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” so I’d never say never. The reason you always seem to get is that TV is so “narrow cast” now. That’s how they think we want it, and they’re probably right. We don’t watch as a family. We’re not going to sit through a show where even a portion of the show fails to grab our attention. That previous paragraph was just me parroting what I’ve read in other places, but I buy it, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![MinniePurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/10 "2005-04-26T18:26:38Z")
It appears that there is at least one in development: [The Barenaked Ladies Variety Show](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-32255/) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/11 "2005-04-26T18:31:57Z")
There was a show about vaudeville on PBS a few years ago (vaudeville being the spiritual predecessor of the variety show, a fact several people have alluded to). Their conclusion was that the remote control has killed the tradition; people put together their own variety shows by hitting the clicker. A little MTV – click. Some Comedy Central – click. Bravo – click. Wrestling – click. Etc. etc. etc. Makes a lot of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/12 "2005-04-26T18:38:06Z")
I buy it, too. You couldn’t PAY my kids to sit through musical acts that don’t reflect their preferences of the moment, much less something my wife or I would watch. The standup comics we’d watch are, for the most part not edgy enough for their tastes. We might all sit still while the cast of a Broadway show does a number, but Broadway isn’t what it used to be, either. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-tv-variety-show-ever-return-to-american-tv/301192/13 "2005-04-26T21:35:22Z")
> [@MinniePurl](#): > > It appears that there is at least one in development: > > [The Barenaked Ladies Variety Show](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-32255/) I’ll watch. Though it’s Fox, so they’ll probably put on a brilliant, original, amazingly groundbreaking show a month before, then run it into the ground (or re-kill Family Guy) to make BNLVS work if it’s drek.