''Comedy Time'' is an American

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

television series that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in the summer of 1977. In a mix of 30-minute and 60-minute episodes, it aired unsold

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

s for

situation comedies A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...

Background

The practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year – far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series – created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired. Packaging these unsold pilots in

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

and airing them during the summer provided television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them. ''Comedy Time'' was one of these series, aired by

in the summer of 1977, and it consisted of unsold pilots for

. Stars appearing in the series included

Bill Bixby Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) was an American actor and television director. His career spanned more than three decades, including appearances on stage, in films, and on television series. He is known ...

Michael Constantine Michael Constantine (born Gus Efstratiou (or Ευστρατίου); May 22, 1927 – August 31, 2021) was a Greek-American actor. He is most widely recognized for his portrayal of Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the stubborn Greek father of Toula Port ...

, Barbara Feldon, and

Annie Potts Anne Hampton Potts (born October 28, 1952) is an American actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for '' Corvette Summer'' (1978) and won a Genie Award for '' Heartaches'' (1981), before appearing in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984), ''Pretty ...

Broadcast history

''Comedy Time'' premiered on July 6, 1977, as a 30-minute show airing a single unsold pilot from 9:30 to 10:00 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

on Wednesdays. On July 21, it became a twice-a-week program when a 60-minute version of the show premiered, airing two unsold pilots between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The 30-minute Wednesday episodes came to an end after the broadcast of July 27, and the 60-minute Thursday broadcast went into hiatus after the episode that aired on July 28. The Thursday broadcasts resumed on August 25, and ''Comedy Time''′s run ended a week later with the episode aired on September 1. In all, ''Comedy Time'' broadcast 12 unsold pilots during its run.

Episodes

SOURCES

References

{{Reflist 1970s American anthology television series 1970s American comedy television series 1977 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings NBC original programming Television pilots not picked up as a series American English-language television shows