Lucille Kallen

Writer

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

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About

About this interview

In her three-hour Archive interview, Lucille Kallen (1922-99) talks about her early years in the Catskills and her longtime association with her mentor, producer Max Liebman, who hired her on the television show Admiral Broadway Revue. She gives her truly unique perspective as the only woman writer for Your Show of Shows, working alongside Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar and her long-time writing partner Mel Tolkin, including writing several "Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper" sketches for Caesar and Imogene Coca. Kallen speaks of her work on The U.S. Steel Hour specials and Stanley, and writing the Broadway play "Maybe Tuesday" with Tolkin. She recounts the pressues of live television, and describes what it was like to be involved in the Golden Age of Television. She discusses retiring from television to focus on writing novels, which included the successful "C.B. Greenfield" series of detective novels. Sunny Parich conducted the interview in Ardsley, New York on April 25, 1998.

"After leaving Sid Caeser and Your Show of Shows, I ran into my replacement, Selma Diamond. She said 'I've been with that group for six weeks- how did you stand it for six years?'. I said 'Just think of it as the Harvard of television writing.'"

Full Interview

Chapter 1

On her early life and influences; on the theater group she started in Toronto

On radio shows she listened to growing up and joining a comedy troupe; on her nightclub act and living in New York in the '50s; on being discovered by Max Liebman

Chapter 2

On appearing in Max Liebman's stage show at Camp Tamiment in the Pocono Mountains; on putting together Max Liebman's Camp Tamiment stage shows; on her earliest memories of television and on her television writing assignment

On working with writer Mel Tolkin at Tamiment; on working with Imogene Coca at Tamiment and on writing for Coca and Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows; on meeting Sid Caesar and writing for Admiral Broadway Revue and on the format of the show

Chapter 3

On the main stars of Admiral Broadway Revue (and the chemistry between Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca); on Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows choreographer James Starbuck and other staff members; on the early Admiral Broadway Revue telecasts and on the end of the show

On the advent of Your Show of Shows and on the difference between it and Admiral Broadway Revue; on the types of sketches done on Your Show of Shows and on the format of the show

On the writers room of Your Show of Shows and on Sid Caesar's involvement with the writing of the show; on Sid Caesar's temperament during the run of Your Show of Shows and on being the only female in the writers room

Chapter 4

On working with Imogene Coca on Your Show of Shows; on working with Carl Reiner and Howard Morris on Your Show of Shows and on the live aspects of the show

On the rehearsal of Your Show of Shows; on Mel Brooks on Your Show of Shows;

On some of the memorable sketches on Your Show of Shows; on the "Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper" sketches on Your Show of Shows, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca

Chapter 5

On the sophistication of the comedy on Your Show of Shows; on the pressure of the production of Your Show of Shows; on the cancellation of Your Show of Shows, declining to be part of Caesar's Hour, and on writing for The Imogene Coca Show

On writing for Max Libman Presents and The United States Steel Hour with people like Carol Burnett and Buddy Hackett; on collaborating on a Broadway play called "Maybe Tuesday" with Mel Toklin; on becoming a novelist and on her first novel "Outside There, Somewhere!: A Novel"

Chapter 6

On writing for The Bell Telephone Hour; on her decision to retire from writing for television and focus on writing novels and on Your Show of Shows having been a training ground for comedy writers; on television's Golden Age and on being a sucessful television comedy writer; on various people with whom she worked in her career

On b-roll pictures from her career- picture for her first novel; the whole staff of Your Show of Shows in 1952-53; the crew at Camp Tamiment; drawing of Tamiment Playhouse and players; 48th Street Playhouse with her play "Maybe Tuesday"

Shows

Admiral Broadway Revue

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Writer Lucille Kallen the format of The Admiral Broadway Revue