What was the first sitcom?

[Mrs. Ducky]

This has been bothering me for a while. Does anyone know?? :confused:

[Stuck In The '70's]

The first sitcom on Network Television was Mary Kay and Johnny which ran from 1947-1950 on the old Dumont Network. It later ran on CBS and NBC.

[barwars]

But then of course there were sitcoms on the radio.


Although the only radio sitcom Ive ever heard was the 1950's radio sitcom "My Favorite Husband" starring Lucille O'Ball thanks to the I Love Lucy DVDs.
It gets kind of boring with nothing to look at.
But I have an idea -- take the recordings (which are still in pretty good shape) and add animation to create a Television sitcom out of it.

That way -- Lucy can star in a new sitcom in the new millenium!!
(even if it is animated)

[jamesanthony]

Are there any surviving films of that show? I'm assuming it was produced on kineoscope which disintegrated. I would like to see an episode of this. I read somewhere (maybe here on a post) that Mary Kay and Johnny slept in the same bed and she was pregnant on the show and they even used the word pregnant and that the actors were a married couple in real life.

[Adamantium]

Originally posted by jamesanthony
Are there any surviving films of that show? I'm assuming it was produced on kineoscope which disintegrated. I would like to see an episode of this. I read somewhere (maybe here on a post) that Mary Kay and Johnny slept in the same bed and she was pregnant on the show and they even used the word pregnant and that the actors were a married couple in real life.

I read somewhere that there are no surviving episodes.

There are alot of sitcoms from the late 40's I'd like to see but can't since they didn't save the episodes.

[MaydayMalonesGirl]

This is weird. I was just discussing this with my mom, and this thread pops up. :lol:

[Teddy02]

here is a very good "article" (if you would call it that) about mary kay and johnny:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htmhttp://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm

[Mrs. Ducky]

Originally posted by Teddy02
here is a very good "article" (if you would call it that) about mary kay and johnny:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htmhttp://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm


I can't get the link to come up. What did it say?:confused:

[Mrs. Ducky]

Originally posted by jamesanthony
Are there any surviving films of that show? I'm assuming it was produced on kineoscope which disintegrated. I would like to see an episode of this. I read somewhere (maybe here on a post) that Mary Kay and Johnny slept in the same bed and she was pregnant on the show and they even used the word pregnant and that the actors were a married couple in real life.

I was watching this thing on TV (I think it was that TVland special: Taboo TV, but I'm not sure) and they were talking about that show and they were showing clips of it, so there must be some episodes, or at least parts of episodes.

[db108108]

I've also heard that The Goldbergs was the first sitcom

[treky]

Originally posted by jamesanthony
Are there any surviving films of that show? I'm assuming it was produced on kineoscope which disintegrated. I would like to see an episode of this. I read somewhere (maybe here on a post) that Mary Kay and Johnny slept in the same bed and she was pregnant on the show and they even used the word pregnant and that the actors were a married couple in real life. you're right; "Mary Kay and Johnny" did do all that. But people complained, so in 1951 the "Television Code" was formed. It was a set of rules that TV producers had to follow, saying they couldn't show two people sharing a bed, and other things.

[jamesanthony]

Hey Treky:

Who complained? Pregnancy is part of nature. And the actors were married, it's not like they were shown having sex on the air. Yet and still they banned a lot of things but kept cigarette ads and rampant smoking in shows. What does that tell you?

[Stuck In The '70's]

Originally posted by db108108
I've also heard that The Goldbergs was the first sitcom
Mary Kay and Johnny came on in 1947 and the Goldbergs came on in January 1949. The Goldbergs had been on radio before then so maybe that's what they're talking about.

[treky]

I think "Amos and Andy" was the first radio sitcom.

[treky]

Originally posted by jamesanthony
Hey Treky:

Who complained? Pregnancy is part of nature. And the actors were married, it's not like they were shown having sex on the air. Yet and still they banned a lot of things but kept cigarette ads and rampant smoking in shows. What does that tell you? I guess some people felt that those things shouldn't be shown on TV, for whatever reason.
My mother has said that she remembers when they would show Lucy Ricardo pregnent on "I Love Lucy" in 1952, her mother thought it was "disgusting",

[jamesanthony]

Treky, that lady's mother seemed to really be straight out of some Victorian novel or something. I think that repression to the extreme breeds all kinds of ill attitudes and behavior. Pregnancy is a part of life. I just can't imagine that such a large percentile of the US populace in 1950 were so buttoned up that they would get outraged over that sort of thing.

[treky]

well, my moms mother was somewhat "prudish" about certain things. For instance, when my mother was going through puberty, her mother made sure she taped her bra flat against her chest so her breasts wouldn't show!!:D :D

(really, I'm not making that up!!)

[jamesanthony]

Wow.:confused:

[sally mander]

Originally posted by treky
I think "Amos and Andy" was the first radio sitcom.


actually the first radio sitcom ( if you want to call it that ) was "The Happiness Boys" which aired on WEAF in NYC way back in 1922. The show was pretty much two guys ( like A&A) who did skits and sang. When WNBC signed off the air for good in 1988, they featured a clip of this as part of WNBC's final radio broadcast.

Mary Kay & Johnny may be the first network sitcom but I believe there were a number of "local" sitcoms even before that. One such program I recall reading about was "Wildroot Charlie" which aired on an experimental TV station out of New York State back in either 1943 or 1944. Didn't Ernie Kovacs do some kind of sitcom on Philadelphia TV back in the early 40's?

Highly doubt any film exists of Charlie but there are some still pics of it that exist as they have appeared in a few TV trivia books in the past.

[W.J. Griffin]

Originally posted by sally mander
actually the first radio sitcom ( if you want to call it that ) was "The Happiness Boys" which aired on WEAF in NYC way back in 1922. The show was pretty much two guys ( like A&A) who did skits and sang. When WNBC signed off the air for good in 1988, they featured a clip of this as part of WNBC's final radio broadcast.

Mary Kay & Johnny may be the first network sitcom but I believe there were a number of "local" sitcoms even before that. One such program I recall reading about was "Wildroot Charlie" which aired on an experimental TV station out of New York State back in either 1943 or 1944. Didn't Ernie Kovacs do some kind of sitcom on Philadelphia TV back in the early 40's?

Highly doubt any film exists of Charlie but there are some still pics of it that exist as they have appeared in a few TV trivia books in the past.

"The Happiness Boys" (also alternately known as "The Interwoven Pair") were more of a radio vaudeville act, what with songs, skits and snappy (for the '20s, anyway) patter, than an actual comedic narrative. As far as I know, there were no continuing themes or compelling storylines with these characters.

"Amos 'n' Andy", on the other hand, began life as a comedic serial, inspired in part by the real-life event of the Black Migration, in which millons of African-Americans moved from the racist deep south to the less racist but industrial north, and the popularity of the serialized comic strip, particularly Sidney Smith's "The Gumps" and Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff". Combining these elements into a cohesive whole, small-time radio performers Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll devised a nightly serial about two naive southern Black Men named Sam and Henry, which premered on Chicago radio station WGN in January of 1926.

Within two years of its debut, "Sam 'n' Henry" became a minor sensation, and Gosden and Correll wanted to syndicate the show to other stations (just like the comic strips), but WGN said no, so the two actors quit and took their creation to rival station WMAQ, where the two leads were renamed Amos and Andy...and the rest is history. In its heyday, "Amos 'n' Andy" was THE most popular program on the air, and remained popular for at least two generations before the changing racial and political climate made their basically folksy escapades an embarrassment to its broadcasters...the radio version is rarely heard and the tv adaption is all but banned from the airwaves. (well, not really..."The Amos 'n' Andy Show" has been availiable on vhs and dvd for years...and the radio episodes are easily obtainable online.)

Both "Sam 'n' Henry" and "Amos 'n' Andy", politics aside, deserve to take their place as the true forunners of the popular situation comedy.

[Stuck In The '70's]

Originally posted by W.J. Griffin
"The Happiness Boys" (also alternately known as "The Interwoven Pair") were more of a radio vaudeville act, what with songs, skits and snappy (for the '20s, anyway) patter, than an actual comedic narrative. As far as I know, there were no continuing themes or compelling storylines with these characters.

"Amos 'n' Andy", on the other hand, began life as a comedic serial, inspired in part by the real-life event of the Black Migration, in which millons of African-Americans moved from the racist deep south to the less racist but industrial north, and the popularity of the serialized comic strip, particularly Sidney Smith's "The Gumps" and Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff". Combining these elements into a cohesive whole, small-time radio performers Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll devised a nightly serial about two naive southern Black Men named Sam and Henry, which premered on Chicago radio station WGN in January of 1926.

Within two years of its debut, "Sam 'n' Henry" became a minor sensation, and Gosden and Correll wanted to syndicate the show to other stations (just like the comic strips), but WGN said no, so the two actors quit and took their creation to rival station WMAQ, where the two leads were renamed Amos and Andy...and the rest is history. In its heyday, "Amos 'n' Andy" was THE most popular program on the air, and remained popular for at least two generations before the changing racial and political climate made their basically folksy escapades an embarrassment to its broadcasters...the radio version is rarely heard and the tv adaption is all but banned from the airwaves. (well, not really..."The Amos 'n' Andy Show" has been availiable on vhs and dvd for years...and the radio episodes are easily obtainable online.)

Both "Sam 'n' Henry" and "Amos 'n' Andy", politics aside, deserve to take their place as the true forunners of the popular situation comedy.
I believe The Goldbergs also started in 1929. I wonder which premiered first?

[W.J. Griffin]

"Sam 'n Henry" preimered on WGN January 12, 1926; "Amos 'n' Andy" first appeared on WMAQ in March of 1928; it switched to NBC in August of 1929.

I hope this answers your question.