Steve Allen Show from 1959

[@roberttelarket4934]

Steve Allen was a genius!!! Literary, musical, comedic!!!

[@hewitc]

He created The Tonight Show format.

[@roberttelarket4934]

@@hewitc: That has nothing to do with genius. Anyone can create that sort of program. However as I wrote he had genius elsewhere!

[@WintersWar]

the world is lonelier without Steve Allen. Paar and Carson.

[@annenyman678]

They were all great!

[@ejseabury]

Absolutely agree with you. They were the kings of Late Night.

[@kd6836]

Their replacements definitely aren’t any substitute.

[@jamesf1525]

He is my all time favorite. Hi ho Stevarino!

[@candaceohara9916]

Steve Allen's comedic brilliance was not only way ahead of the curve but ultimately helped define the American talk-show platform.

[@manwithumbrella]

Curb?

[@candaceohara9916]

@@manwithumbrella Thanks for catching my snafu... ( Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm).

[@deanronson6331]

One of the best ad lib gags ever for me was from Steve Allen. Btw, you have to be familiar with jazz slang to get it. Steve was the first talk show host to do a walk through the audience. One day, he ran into a little girl that had a plastic bucket and shovel in her hands. He asked her: "What do you do with those, little girl?" She said, "I dig." Steve responded without hesitation, "I'm hip."

[@Msfifisquarepantz]

Now THATS funny

[@LeeKav]

Hahaha, that's great

[@CissyBrazil]

The comedy and jokes are very simple and that’s what makes it so funny. Steve Allen was hysterical, very very funny!

[@zekelucente9702]

David Letterman sure thought so since he patterned so much after Steve Allen.

[@kikovazquez7277]

Simple but clever.

[@brianandrews7099]

Steve Allen was a fixture of 1950’s entertainment. He was just everywhere!

[@pbwbrian53]

One of the best TV series ever. Still miss that man.

[@roberttelarket4934]

I remember watching Steve on his show in the mid-1960's as a young teen of about 15. Loved it and his shmahck shmahck!

[@raymondst.pierre4372]

Me and my brother, too .. the Hollywood Ranch Market, remember that?

[@roberttelarket4934]

@@raymondst.pierre4372: No I don't. Explain. I lived on the East Coast until 1972 when I moved to L.A. California. Then I knew of the Farmer's Market on Fairfax if that's what you’re referring to.

[@raymondst.pierre4372]

@@roberttelarket4934 Way before your time.

[@rosetallon1162]

I have great memories of that show as well -- schmock schmock! How do you get 4 elephants in a Volkswagen? Two in the front and 2 in the back. What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming over the hill? "Here come the elephants over the hill!" Didn't realize @ the time, but this was vaudeville for the Boomers. Don Knotts, Louis Nye, and Tom Posten - a golden trio of maniacs for Allen to riff off of ...

[@topper7685]

Have continued missing Mr Allen . Talented and great . Thank you Steve

[@amtrakatsfnyc]

I remember seeing this on the original broadcast on NBC. This variety of classic comedy will never be created by current day "comedians". Thank you for sharing.

[@lucasrem]

Old people, current day ? Slapstick humor here, i do like SNL better, but this was some early version of it.

[@claudiamiller7730]

Looking back at this, I now understand why my curious 9 year old self was entranced with Steve Allen and his show. It was adult - it was hella funny- it showcased talent - introduced me to Lois Nye, Tom Poston and Don Knotts - led me to Jack Parr and Ernie Kovacs. Also made me hep to adult side jokes in Rocky & Bullwinkle. I was such a snotty nosed smart ass back then. Well..still am. I’m lucky to be one of those blessed people who loved their life growing up. Great tv, great music - both jazz and rock - great magazines - freedom to roam just about anyplace on my bike…mmmmmmm! Cuban missile crisis….not so much fun. Thanks for this!

[@Downecker]

How about Maynard G. Krebbs from the Dobie Gillis show ! The original beatnik and hippie !😂😂 !

[@raymondst.pierre4372]

Steve Allen is missed so much.

[@Flap999]

Loved this program! Born in 1951 I remember sneaking into the hallway to watch Steverino & Co. What an amazing time it was. Steve, Gary Moore and Ernie Kovacs were the best.

[@franksadlowski8136]

Really was a Funny Guy back then...TV just beginning and he was on top of it all. Good clean, funny Comedians all...rest in peace...

[@alvilla9659]

Great show. Thank you for showing this.

[@stewartberger7734]

Steve is still the greatest talk show host of all time

[@mr.majestic8713]

Schmock, Schmock!

[@roberttelarket4934]

@@mr.majestic8713: It was shmahck shmahck not schmock.

[@Shug1145]

Definitely, he was the original !

[@ralph5450]

​@@roberttelarket4934Nope. It's Schmock Schmock. He even wrote a book by that title.

[@addie_is_me]

Jayne Mansfield was something else. Very special and very talented. Steve Allen was ahead of his time and people still use his stuff like his silly, man on the street, style interviews. Thanks you for the bid. 😊

[@w.e.b.8719]

Mariska Hargitay look like her mother.

[@michaelfischer841]

i consider Steve Allen the best NBC variety show host ever

[@bigbass421]

I used to watch The Steve Allen Show when I was a kid, I loved it. I was 11 when he had on a young Frank Zappa, who proceeded to play a bicycle. Those guys, Tom Poston, Louie Nye, Don Knotts- and the guy doing Groucho here- Dayton Allen, were hysterical. Sad.. all of them are gone now.

[@lynnfisher3037]

The show got even better when they moved to L.A.where they did some really funny outdoor bits. I remember him diving into a swimming pool full of Jello and his playing piano on a platform high above the Hollywood Ranch Market and throwing salamis down to the street on parachutes. David Letterman stole many of his bits. I think his funniest bit ever was an episode Mal Allen the sports reporter. He lost it completely and could not stop laughing histerically. You can find it. Also enjoyed his adulterated. nursery rhymes and his hilarious serious readings of the lyrics of rock and roll songs. A super entertainer who could do it all. See him in The Benny Goodman story. One of a kind for sure.

[@Msfifisquarepantz]

Yah, but do you like Steve Allen?

[@CuppaTeaandaSliceoCake]

Absolutely brilliant ... thank you very much indeed.

[@sylviawatkins9137]

I loved the Steve Allen Tonight show. Great entertainment AND Book reviews which I appreciated.

[@chromefin5378]

Steve Allen once lamented that all of his Tonight Shows had been destroyed. Glad that he found this one somewhere.

[@TVonthePorch]

The Steve Allen Show =/= The Tonight Show

[@LeonZetekoff]

I think this is from his Sunday show not Tonight

[@tonyshans2226]

Thanks for posting...I was a big Steve Allen fan when I was a kid....

[@mr.majestic8713]

Schmock, Schmock!

[@RichBacon-c9j]

As a 10/11 year old, I was so amused by Mr. Allen's humor. Later I found his genius in historical contexts, i.e. "Meeting of the Minds", then his song writing abilities. He played piano occasionally on The Tonight Show but musical composition I discovered later. Acting, "The Benny Goodman Story". His approach to humor affected me as a child and I do believe I learned to appreciate humor in helping people that needed an emotional uplift. Smock, Smock!

[@tanya1883]

I love Steve Allen. This show felt like Mad Magazine come to life. Fun to see Jayne Mansfield like this.

[@NineInchTyrone]

His talk about his youth and poverty is profound

[@hoosierboy43]

all these years later and still a funny show.

[@tomlowe7947]

Steve Allen and the Tonight Show had a tremendous impact on my young high school life.

[@bravuras_with_parth]

That's the golden age of television

[@TheBigMclargehuge]

in my opinion television stopped in 1970.

[@kathrynfauble9053]

@last Koresh You are including the early phase of color television in your golden age of television.

[@jchow5966]

Thank you!!!!! ☮️💟

[@kevincurtis7917]

Mr Allen was brilliant and had the advantage of being in the position to do things first. Which others duplicated afterwards.

[@redkos]

All of a sudden, I wish I were a cigar after watching Jayne Mansfield. What a doll!

[@evelynovercash1147]

What an intelligent talented lady.

[@Kinkle_Z]

3:56 I remember as a teenager at Graumin's Chinese Theater for the "Mad Mad, Mad World" premier, Don Knotts was sitting directly behind me. I turned around, saw him and almost passed out! As a kid I adored him so much as the lovable Barney Fife. I was thrilled but... I kept my cool. lol but I'll never forget that!

[@carl77242]

I watch this show every time it comes on 😊

[@mr.majestic8713]

Jane did a great job remembering her lines. She was a natural. RIP Jane.

[@mickeyray3793]

Steverino, the genius. Brilliant comic, philosopher, and jazz pianist. INVENTED THE TONIGHT SHOW. Young people today have never heard of Steve. 😮

[@daniel69]

I cant believe he still presents every morning from 4am. What a legend

[@krobigraubart]

Nice, thank you!

[@bdavis4099]

Judy Garland had a TV variety show in 63/64. Judy was thrilling (Old Man River will knock your socks off) and funny. Steve Allen and Mel Torme and Count Basie and his band all guested on one show. Can you imagine? It was clear that Mr. Torme and Mr. Allen brought their own material to the show. It caught a lot of Mr. Allen's contagious silliness. They elevated the quality of a troubled series with talent galore, and great good humor. And Judy matched them. Steve and Mel said that they knew each other in high school.

[@durangomcmurphy1529]

I remember it like it was yesterday . What a great show .

[@Gregorywillard777]

The corniest jokes I ever heard in my life never understood the jokes or white folks

[@Chuwks1991]

@@Gregorywillard777🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@claudiastarr776]

My favorite guy to watch on late nights during the summer . Crazy stunts ,,,,SHMOCK SHMOCK ! Was his yell

[@katherinehunter9526]

First time I ever saw Frank Zappa, was on the Steve Allen show. Thanks for sharing this video.

[@letsif]

And Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac and James Baldwin and Lenny Bruce and Miles Davis and........

[@katherinehunter9526]

@@letsif Yes and all those amazing folk's too. 😘

[@michaelsicowitz362]

I can't find smock smock, and something bird. I was just a kid but my parents let me stay up and watch. I remember the bits like the tea bags

[@Jodyrides]

I was a little kid watching Steve Allen one night doing his monologue. He very kindly smiled at the camera and said this very softly for all of your little kitties out there watching the show tonight. then he screamed- --GET TO BED !!!!!!!

[@leonarddonald2093]

He was amazing.

[@censusgary]

TV comedy writing has really come a long way since 1959.

[@w.e.b.8719]

I would stay up late at night to watch the Steve Allen Show at age seven in 1959.

[@jacobdickinson7372]

My Ad-Lib Comedian Hall of Fame: Steve Allen Bob Hope Groucho Marx Robin Williams All together could perform totally UNSCRIPTED material for as long as long as they want, and leave me ROLLING on the floor. R.I.P., you wise-guy dudes!

[@LimitlessThinker]

I remember going to a museum in Hollywood, Florida, where they had the actual car Jayne Mansfield had the fatal accident. That was in the late 90s, we were driving through and stopped there out of curiosity.

[@florriehathorn1890]

I love the Jayne Mansfield clip - she was a wonderful promoter. They used to say if she was in the neighborhood and you were opening a super market or something, if asked, she'd come to entertain. She was smart and wonderful at promoting her career. Sadly, died too soon. This is great!

[@riconui5227]

I grew up with Steve Allen on the tube. He could act, do stand up, play piano, and I fondly remember him parachuting Hebrew National Salamis from a light pole in the parking lot of the L.A. Farmer's Market, to the audience below. He set a high bar for TV comedy, still very much in evidence.

[@gloriasmall9323]

Greatest comic EVER!💓

[@d.martin7692]

Hi ho Steverino! Schmock! Schmock!

[@censusgary]

Jayne Mansfield graduated from the same high school I did (about a quarter century before me). She also briefly attended the same university (again, long before I did).

[@chuckw1021]

Great skit. They had a lot of fun doing the show.

[@Paul-lm5gv]

He had a lot of talent! And she was no slouch either. She did comedy as well as Marilyn Monroe. Jayne Mansfield was only 26 and already an international star. Sadly she died in 1967 at age 34 from brain trauma after a car accident.

[@stevehartman1730]

I remember when Steve introduced the world to his son Woody, we always watched him but we laughed our butts off. My brother who looked n acted like Steve just saidabout Wooddy, "hes a nut"

[@davidlong1786]

had the subtitles on a short time and during the last skit, Steve says " thanks for your frankness" and the subtitles said "thank you for your pregnancy" 😅

[@garydavidderby]

I REMEMBER THE ADD ON TV SAYING LAUGH YOUR HEAD OFF ON STEVE ALLEN SHOW CHANNEL 5 KTLA 1960

[@Msfifisquarepantz]

Shhhhhhhhhh!

[@anthonyknox5464]

You can see Marissa Hargitay in her face so much R.I.P.

[@ralphonofrio1518]

I actually watched this show as a kid...My mom let me stay up!!!

[@ignorecorporatenews]

Most people don't know how much david lettermann imitated The Steve Allen Show

[@ianedwards4400]

Never mind Steve Allen in this 1959 segment. But, if you are a fan of the gorgeous Jayne Mansfield, you must catch this one as she is in more frames than you expect. Her shimmering pillow blonde hair is in full evidence. I love how it glistened and gleamed. I've been a fan of Ms. Mansfield since I saw her in The Girl Can't Help It, circa 1957. Despite the sex-pot image that seemed to consume her, she truly was a fine actress giving natural performances in one film after another. Its very sad that her life was snuffed out in that tragic car accident. May her soul rest in peace!!!

[@Martin-ql2bd]

Jayne Mansfield had a high IQ.!

[@billwilson-es5yn]

Steve Allen wrote and hosted a strange series called "The Meeting of the Minds" that won several awards. He hosted a panel of historical figures from different eras to discuss current topics. One panel was US Grant, Marie Antoinette, St. Thomas Aquinas and Gengis Kahn. Grant and Kahn got along just fine and flirted with Marie.

[@Cris43130]

I wonder what the other Jayne in Steve's life thought of this show.

[@danmartens8855]

He invented the talk show format. He was NOT appreciated by Hollywood. He was a Hilarious Rennaissance Man.

[@TeaParty1776]

smock, smock!

[@brianengley2171]

Way ahead of his time!

[@essessessesq]

Dayton Allen as Groucho ! never saw him do that before!

[@glennso47]

I remember watching it on WOC Davenport Iowa. The NBC network affiliate.

[@randynelson2265]

Wasn't this the origin of the Tonight Show?

[@lynnfisher3037]

Yes indeed it was!

[@hewitc]

he invented the format. Many of Carson's routines were copies of Allen's. Allen went outside and did the first "man on the street". Often with Louis Nye as the "man".

[@croiners4166]

Wow!

[@johnnymac1580]

With all serious aside ⚡️

[@gispel7058]

All seriousness aside.....

[@thomasmayk]

god how I remember those Man on the Street interviews with Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, and Dayton Allen. Classic TV comedy. Got any clips of that?

[@latequilera22]

The Simpsons showed me who Steve Allen was. Learned many cultural references through The Simpsons.

[@a5dr3]

Was she doing Marilyn or was Marilyn doing her? Or was everyone doing the same character then?

[@oughtssought1198]

great question. I'm pretty sure the answer is YES

[@skyebird3933]

I agree with previous comments. Steve was hilarious.

[@gispel7058]

Had no political hatred in his content ever. Sure was pure clever writing and good natured satire on Steve's show.

[@Ollie_WDA]

HES MY GREAT GRANDPA

[@robertbutler1681]

Sophistication and class. Now not to be found intertainers.

[@clearfield2009]

Jayne Mansfield is the mother of Law & Order SUV's star Mariska Hartigay. Mariska was her only child before she died tragically in a car accident. No kidding.

[@siggylloyd3566]

Dead wrong. A simple Wikipedia search will tell you that Jayne first had a child with Paul Mansfield, a daughter named Jayne Marie Mansfield, well before Mariska. Check your facts before stating nonsense about people you don't know.

[@edgarfreire3766]

Jayne had 5 children

[@nickyd.4695]

@@siggylloyd3566 Calm down, so she made a mistake so what!

[@oughtssought1198]

@@nickyd.4695 Calm down. So he corrected it. So what.

[@freddyfurrah3789]

She had 4 other children.

[@roberttelarket4934]

I knew Jayne Mansfield was very intelligent but I didn't know she played the violin. Or are they fooling me?!

[@garycarotta3984]

Steve Allen smock

[@wtesoro]

"How's Your Sister?"

[@lcs1956]

@@wtesoro How's your sister's fern?

[@pbwbrian53]

Smock, smock, smock!

[@bubgum0079]

Wow, Jane looks huge.

[@tomcartwright7134]

One time in the sixties Steve was doing a man in the street interview. He would stop various people on the streets of Manhattan and ask silly questions. He was conversing with a middle aged woman whom he asked what are her bedtime habits that help her sleep. She said well, I don’t believe in sleeping pills. Steve looked into the camera saying, but madam I’ve seen them!

[@binxbolling]

1st host of the Tonight Show

[@sohosean]

Hi Warren, I was trying to find stuff on Gypsy Boots, one of the first hippies, and the KZbin algorithm brought this up. How ya doing? Sean Sweeney

[@wtesoro]

Gypsy Boots may have come later in the early 60's..Gimme a call when you get a chance

[@vanuwaltrick2795]

Que linda

[@stlouisactor]

Smak! Smak! Ding, ding, ding!

[@genesclean1]

Smock schmock How's your fern ??

[@sneadh1]

Jayne Mansfield!

[@waynej2608]

Va-Va-Voom!

[@carlossantiago323]

Jayne Mansfield was very sexy but Don knotts was hilarious LOL right before Andy Griffith

[@petermorris452]

Often imitated , never equaled😂

[@SOLE2SOUL]

Who's doing the Groucho impersonation? And I don't see Gabriel Dell at all in this show.

[@briannelson42]

Dayton Allen as Groucho. He and Groucho appeared on I'VE GOT A SECRET for the blindfold segment with Dayton, seated next to Groucho, answering the panel's questions in his voice.

[@SOLE2SOUL]

@@briannelson42Thanks for that info! I know Dayton's name mostly from his work in 1960s cartoon shows. When I looked him up on imdb, the face was instantly familiar but I never connected it with his brilliant voiceover stuff. Am gonna examine his imdb entry closely to find stuff he acted in as a human! Cheers!

[@Floyd_Steel]

Out of all the late night host you could tell Letterman and Leno were the most influenced by Allen

[@TheAVJ2]

huh he sounds like the voice of how its made