MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE EIGHT

     Here's a good one.  Kelly Monteith.  A stand up comedian by trade, he came to prominence (perhaps too strong a word) in 1970s, making several appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was part of the initial wave of observational comedians.  He also played all of the big Nevada casinos of the day.  He got 'noticed' by CBS who offered him a four-week summer replacement variety show in 1976.  His guests were Freddie Prinze, Vicki Lawrence, George Gobel and Gavin MacLeod.  He started making appearances on British talk shows too which led to him getting signed by the BBC to do his own series.
     He says that he pitched this type of show to American networks who flatly rejected him.  "The Kelly Monteith Show" was partially inspired by the old "The George Burns Show" where the main character would talk directly to the camera at certain points during the program.  Garry Shandling would also use this in his 1980s Showtime series.  The Brits ate it up and the show ran for six series (British for seasons) from 1979 to 1984.  During that time he also returned to CBS in 1980 for another four-week show called "No Holds Barred."  Described by many as a comic version of "60 Minutes", no one knew what to make of it (especially those tuning in expecting to watch "Kojak" reruns) and the show disappeared very quickly.
     After his BBC show ended Monteith returned to the states and continued his stand up career and made a few mostly forgettable TV and movie appearances.  His BBC show ran on the fledgling A&E Network in the early 80s (where I watched it as a child) but has also been mostly forgotten.  That's a shame because it was a very funny show and now his very funny Carson guests stints are now showing up on You Tube.  I highly recommend them and also recommend that the BBC get off their arses and put his old show on DVD.