Guest Author - Dani M. Sanders

One of the staples of prime time TV from the 1950s through the 1970s was the variety show. Before MTV, 500 cable channels, and 24-hour television, variety shows were the best way for people to see various singers and comedians perform. Most of the shows featured comedy skits, musical performances, and banter between the hosts and the guest stars.

These days we have whole channels for a single subject or genre of music. The fascinating thing about the variety show era is that you could see all sorts of performers on the same show. The Ed Sullivan Show was a perfect example of this. That show featured jugglers and acrobats right alongside rock-and-roll singers and Broadway actors doing scenes from hit plays. Back then, there wasn't much competition for viewers on Sunday night at 8p, so Ed Sullivan did his best to provide a bit of everything for everyone.

There is not one definite style that is can be called a variety show. The makeup of variety shows varied as much as the type of entertainment they featured. Some shows were structured like a vaudeville review with one sketch or musical performance after another and nothing tying them together. Other shows, like the Playboy Penthouse Party, tried to make you feel as if you were in the star's home with famous musicians and comedians stopping by for a chat.

The balance between music and comedy often depended upon the particular talent of the host. Shows hosted by singers naturally had a lot more music than shows hosted by comedians. There were exceptions, however. Sonny and Cher were offered their own variety show after the success of their records, yet their show relied heavily on comedy sketches.

There are still hints of the variety show influence on the TV schedule today. Saturday Night Live is the longest-running child of the variety show known as the sketch show -- light on the music, heavy on the comedy sketches. In recent years, there have also been variety shows on children's channels, such as All That which aired for 10 seasons on Nickelodeon. Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson even did an old-fashioned variety special in the Sonny and Cher style in 2004. It was well-received but I don't think that we will ever see a variety show series again. TV has gotten to a point where everything is specialized. I'm not sure that today's viewers would sit through opera, country, rock, and corny jokes all on the same show, especially when there are so many other choices out there.

If you are curious about how TV used to be or want to revisit some of the shows you grew up with, many of these shows are available on DVD. A quick search on NetFlix brought up shows from Donny and Marie, Flip Wilson, Captain and Tennille, and many more. With most shows going on hiatus for the summer, now would be a perfect time to indulge in some nostalgia with the family.