Red Skelton end speech from last taping on CBS. From the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy in Vincennes, Indiana. THIS WILL BE PUBLIC FOR A LIMITED TIME. Become a member to see Unlisted episodes and special videos. redskeltonmuse...
Well, how can you get better than that? Red Skelton was my favorite because of his loving soul. I enjoy many comedians, they’re all different. He was extra special. It was the “And May God Bless” that was the difference. Thank you for posting this. I loved the way he did “I Pledge Allegiance”.
I loved watching this show. Watching this brought tears to my eyes. Mr Skelton, Thank you for coming into our home each week when I was younger. Your show meant a lot to me. ❤️❤️
In my capacity as an Emmy nominated producer with Reader's Digest Video -- and a huge Skelton fan who got to, as a kid, meet Red backstage in 1966 during a TV taping -- I wondered if Red would consider working with me through Reader's Digest Video to assemble a proposed three hour video collection to be called "Red Skelton: His Greatest Hits & Finest Performances" -- so I wrote to him. To my amazement and thrill, Red wrote back. He actually remembered meeting me because I had made him laugh! I sent Red an outline of the project which we discussed in great detail over the phone. Finally Red invited me to fly to his home to explore his video archives together and select clips. Then disaster struck. My starstruck boss (Ed) and a sleazy producer friend of his (Charles) announced that they would show up at Red's house -- instead of me! When they did arrive on Red's doorstep, he was quite upset to see two strangers and not me. ("Where's Gary?") With great reluctance, Red let them in anyway and quickly became totally turned off by their unprofessional nature and obvious phoniness. In less than ten minutes, Red had tossed both of those bozos out his door. I was crushed -- as to work with Skelton would have been a dream come true for me. Even to this day, as a comic actor, I find myself channeling Red, as in a given situation -- what would Red do? As you probably know, Red was quite bitter when CBS abruptly cancelled the Skelton hour while it was still in the Top 10. Red's heart was not in his later one season NBC half-hour and afterwards never returned to a weekly series again. Red even ordered his entire tape library of episodes destroyed upon his death! Fortunately Red's wife did not follow through on that wish and eventually Time-Life assembled a Skelton video retrospective with some of the same material Red and I had originally planned.
For many years, every Tuesday night my grandfather and I would sit down together to watch Red's show; a family tradition. I was a tremendous fan. But I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Red in the way he handled his cancellation. EVERY television show gets canceled sooner or later, and almost no one lasted as long as Red. Not Perry. Not Dean. Not Gleason. Not Jack Benny. Bob Hope didn't even have a weekly show. The one question I have about this video...am I correct in assuming this segment was NOT actually broadcast on CBS?
With all due respect to Red Skelton's tremendous talent, there were some issues which could not be ignored. First and foremost, although the show still had a large audience, the demographics were outside of what advertisers wanted. Lots of people over 50. Second, the show was expensive to produce and, on top of that, -- like Gleason and Sullivan -- the star had an escalation clause which paid them more and more every year. When you consider those issues, CBS had no choice. Also, I think that Red's whole format got a little stale. You will notice that when he went to NBC the following year, he had pretty much the same format and it flopped. However, when he rested for a few years and came back with the one-man tours and HBO specials it freshened his act up.
I think this is Red's farewell from his last show on NBC, not CBS, which came a year after his CBS series was canceled. I just watched his last CBS show - "If Marriages are Made in Heaven Why Do They Call It Heaven" with Pat Carroll. Red gives a teary farewell at the end and it isn't this one plus he has a different suit on. Comcast runs Red nightly on channel 1495, the ZLVND network, the big drawback is the musical guests numbers are usually edited out. On some episodes a very young and stunningly beautiful Elaine Joyce appears, no wonder one of the greatest writers of the 20th century later married her. I appreciate the work of the Red Skelton Museum but you guys should really check out if this isn't his farewell on NBC.
This is his CBS speech. Noticed that he says that he was on the network for 17 years. Red started on CBS in 1953. The Pat Carroll episode is a rerun and the last episode that aired on CBS on 6-23-1970. It was taped on 12-16-1969 and first aired on 6-23-1970. Red said 17 years on CBS and that he will return in the fall but did not say NBC. The last episode he taped on CBS with Cesar Romero VTR: 3-24-1970.
@@RedSkeltonMuseum Thank you Museum Guys, I appreciate the correction. I read about his son's tragic death, the details of which will break the heart of anyone who reads up about it. Red always seemed to me to be sad and that doing comedy was only a temporary respite from the pain. He was blessed with great talent and became wealthy, but I don't think anyone would trade places with him and his wife and their grief. His story would make a great movie.
Re Skelton was dropped from c.b.s.Cause they felt his humor was not up to date. He was up to date with his musical guest . He did have rock bands on his show.
The rock bands were a last ditch effort to bring the aging demographics of the show down. It didn't work. Advertisers' desires were an important cause of his cancellation.
Red was an early victim of cancel (53 years early) culture in Hollywood. While still in the top ten CBS unceremoniously dropped his program because of his conservative views. He never got over that. One of the great entertainers of the 20th century. A different show business then. I'm glad I'm old enough to have experienced it. Thank you Red and may God Bless.
are you sure? If he was conservative he would have not invited a young Diann Carrol to sing on his show in 55. Unless he resented paying taxes and was against social security and medicare, economical one or he was pro-Vietnam war.I got the impression he was apolitical.
@@michaelmcgee8543 Skelton was Republican. When he wanted to do the Pledge Of Allegiance CBS was against it. Red had to sneak it into the show and when it had such a great response the network wanted him to record it for sale. He told them to go to hell for being hypocrites. They released it from the show and it sold over a million copies! I know, I bought one. He had Senator Everett Dirkson on the show occasionally a Republican from Illinois and good friend. CBS again was not pleased. Of course Red would have Diahann Carroll on, why would he not? He was a God fearing, patriotic, loving husband and father. A eccentric, talented man who carried the Midwestern values he grew up with. Most entertainers of his day didn't wear their politics on their sleeve. They were performers first and foremost. Not political activists. A different show businesses then. Why would they want to alienate half their audience? Who cared what Jack Benny's politics were or anyone else's. They were there to entertain and that they did.
@@michaelmcgee8543 You are spot on Michael, magoo has no clue. CBS and the country was changing, Beverly Hillbillies etc were soon to go, Red had just aged out, his audience was dying off and younger people weren't tuning in. Just tune out magoo and his ilk, they too are past their sell by date and younger people aren't buying. RIP Red Skelton, a great talent.
