Tonight pop culture historian and presenter Johnny Legend will fire up the projectors at the Roxie Theater for the first of his two-night trip through the history of weird things on television. Tonight's edition promises to be a laugh-a-minute romp for fans of early TV comedy with Don Knotts' first TV appearance, a rarely seen segment from Moe Howard (of Three Stooges fame) and even a bit from 1953 featuring a young, pre-Golden Girls Betty White.
Tonight's installment is broken down in to two parts: with program one featuring pilot episodes of Jackie Gleason's The Life of Riley from 1949, the premiere episode of the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show and the first edition of the Mickey Rooney Show called "The Moon or Bust". Part two will fast forward to the sixties and seventies with early TV appearances by Bob Cummings, Don Knotts, Moe Howard, and of course, the recently rejuvenated Betty White.
Program one screens at 6:15 and 9:45 p.m. Program two is at 8 p.m. only. Tickets are a steal at 11 bucks a pop. Tuesday night, Johnny Legend will follow up with the premiere of his TV in Acidland, an "astouding time capsule documenting the birth of 'live' television" from the late 40s to 1955.
