ABC Comedy News

For years it was impossible to find any information about this show, or proof that it had even existed. I'm so glad there is a glimmer of hope here, and a full episode uploaded to YouTube to prove that my memory is correct!

This late-night show came on sporadically in the "Johnny Carson" time slot over at ABC. Johnny, of course, walked all over it, which was a shame because it had some wonderful talent: Bob and Ray, Fannie Flagg, Kenneth Mars, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, and my favorite, the musical madman PDQ Bach (Prof. Peter Schickele).

I remember having to look each week to see if an episode was coming. It got very little promotion, and vanished after only a few episodes (there is still apparently no information on the exact run of the show). It predated SNL's newscasts, Not Necessarily the News, and other parody programs.

ABC could never quite come up with a viable alternative to Carson, but Comedy News was a good try.