Lasts two seasons.

First season:

Highly surrealistic. Bud and Lou come on a stage to an unseen audience. It is only vaguely admitted by either of them that they reealize it is a tv show. A pretty lady, however, does walk by carrying a sign showing the guest stars's names. Break for a commercial. Bud and Lou are now in a rooming house where they live together. Lou has a pet chimp, Bingo. Their testy landlord is a bald man named Sydney Fields (the actor using his real name). Also, in the rooming house is a blonde lady named Hilary Brooke (the actress using her real name). She and Lou kinda have eyes for each other. Lou has an occasional playmate, a middleaged man dressed like a kid, nicknamed Stinky (Joe Besser). Bud and Lou often run into a ton of apparent relatives of Mr. Fields (all played by Sydney Fields wearing a wig and mustach) who own various businesses. Rounding out this circle is a cop, Mike (Gordon Jones), who often roughs Lou up. Before breaking for a second commercial Bud and Lou come out on stage again, more or less in character.
The plots are really thin, Bud and Lou do a lot of their sketches from their movies (or very close variations of them). the laugh track is loud and the eps conclude with Bud and Lou back out on stage saying goodbye to the audience. Occasionally a character from the rooming house storyline will follow them out on stage, but that's rare.

Season 2: No more stage setting at the beginning, middle and end. Hilary and Stinky are gone. So is Bingo. Mr. Fields is now just their landlord. He no longer plays his own relatives. MIKe is still there. The storyline is far more solid now. Bud and Lou are no longer doing their sketches from their movies. The writers are now from BUster Keaton's old silent screen movies.

Well, I haven't seen it since I was about 15, but I thought it was hilarious - much funnier than most of their movies. You're right, and you put it very well, it did have a surrealistic quality.

I much preferred the 1st Season of the show to the second (a pretty common agreement amongst us hardcore A&C fans). Although some people may prefer the 2nd Season where there was more of a "sitcom" feel to the show that revolved around certain plots, I enjoyed the absolute craziness of the 1st Season where the boys were indeed preforming their old routines. The ratings were drastically better during that first year, and I believe even Bud and Lou preferred the concept and direction of the show during that first year.

As for the show in general, as compared to their movies, I'd have to say I much prefer their films (especially the early films done between 1940 - 1944). They were younger then, and full of energy. A decade later, when the show aired, they were basically only a shadow of their former selves.

B&W "long live Abbott and Costello in all their incarnations" fan

First time poster, but life long A&C fan. Have many of their movies on video, almost all episodes of their tv show and many of their radio shows as well. I didn't realize that Hilary wasn't in season two. Anyway, I perfer the first season with the banter at the beginning and end, which i've seen parodied on "Ren & Stimpy" (i wasn't watching it, my brother was).