Rhetoric to Popular Culture

The Milton Berle Show

Did you ever wonder whom the first person was to make it big on TV? The answer to that question would be Milton Berle. He was a comedian, actor, and American television superstar beginning in the late 1940s. Starting out young, Milton was destined to make it to the big top. However, little did he know that he was going to take the world by surprise!

Born Milton Berlinger in New York, he performed in silent movies as a child. In the 1920s he worked in vaudeville, where he developed many of his broad and impetuous comedy routines. In the 1930s he hosted a number of variety shows on radio without achieving much fame. Berle specialized in physical comedy suited for a visual audience. Therefore, when Berle began appearing on television in the 1940s he gained nationwide popularity.

The Texaco Star Theatre premiered in homes on June 8, 1948 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The show at the time had no set format and rotated several emcees during the summer of 1948. Originally signed to a four-week contract, Berle was named permanent host for the season premier that fall. He and the show were an immediate smash, with ratings as high as 80 the first season.

The original Texaco Star Theater was built along the lines of an old-fashioned vaudeville variety hour, with half a dozen guests each week, including singers, comedians, ventriloquists, and acrobats. But the star of the show was Berle, and he involved himself in many of the acts, adding his little dash of comedy. Each show opened with four Texaco Service Men, singing the Texaco jingle. Then they worked their way into a musical introduction of Berle, who came on dressed in some silly costume. Finally when the show was at an end, Berle would sing his theme song “Near You”.

The inevitable began to happen when other programs began to evolve and compete with Berle’s popularity. His dominance of the television audience began to dwindle and Texaco ended its sponsorship. In the 1953-54 season, the Buick-Berle Show was set into action. Trying to meet the needs of a new audience and greater competition, Berle’s staff and writers changed focus from the zany qualities of the show’s early days to a more structured format. Berle was still attracting an audience, however Buick dropped sponsorship at the end of the season in 1955.

Variety shows began to be more expensive and demanding, which lead to them being difficult to produce. Not only the show but Berle himself was changing and the audience was somehow unsatisfied. The next year, a new Milton Berle Show was produced in California for the 1955-56 season. However, it failed to capture either the spirit or the audience of Berle in his prime. Almost to the anniversary of his first show Milton Berle decided to call it quits in June 1956.

The Milton Berle Show was not only a hit but also it held a nationwide impact on television. With the highest ratings ever-attained Berle was nicknamed “Mr. Television”. Parents and kids alike would tune in every Tuesday night at 8 to catch what crazy stunt Berle would create. Parents began to get worried because of their kids staying up late. Milton would say to the kids after the episode was over it was time for them to turn in for the night for “Uncle Miltie”. This gesture worked and Berle gained yet another nickname. Restaurants, theaters, and nightclubs adjusted their schedules so patrons would not miss Berle’s program. His was one of the first of television shows to be promoted through merchandising, including Uncle Miltie tee shirts, comic books and chewing gum.

The shows were pitched at an aggressive level, anything-for-a-laugh, which perfectly suited Berle’s comic style and profile. It not only suited Berle, but it seemed to go over well with the critics as well. Everyone raved about the show and Berle’s talent for comedy. The show was so well taken that when he first went on the air, less than 500,000 television sets had been sold nation wide; when he left The Milton Berle Show in 1956, after nearly 500 live shows, that number increased to nearly 30 million.

The Milton Berle Show has set the stage for many of the shows that we watch today. They may not appear to be evident, but how do you think we got David Letterman or Jay Leno? In the days of Berle, people would settle themselves before the screen, welcome their fictitious “Uncle” into the living room and then let him rest for a week. However, they had the assurance that he would return once again when asked. The Milton Berle show has set a pattern that will and can never be broken.

Bibliography

·http://timvp.com/miltonb.html

·http://encarta.msn.com