Could Milton Berle make it today?

I bought the other day a DVD collection of Classic Variety Shows which
contains 20 episodes including 5 Milton Berle shows.
It was selling for 7.99 at Suncoast they
sell a lot of vintage TV shows.

I watched the first one and was so unimpressed. Yes it had funny bits
but the jokes were so corny. But Berle was just so bad. The episode took
place on Nellis Airforce Base with the audience being AF personnel. Not
sure why though - USO connected??

Anyways Berle was just bad. He stammered a lot, repeated lines, during a
skit he broke down in laughter way too much sinking the skits flow, and
seemed to have forgotten lines.

I cannot imagine any TV comic like Seinfeld and any SNL actors ever
being this bad - past and present.

ANIM8Rfsk...

As staggeringly bad as I've always found Berle to be, he was still miles
ahead of anybody out of SNL for the last 20 years.

mcardle...

I don't know if it's a nationality thing, but I find all the talk show
hosts from the US not only completely unfunny, but unlikeable. (The ones
we get in Australia - Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, etc.) It may be that they
keep up some sort of shield.

I will try the other Berle episodes but wonder what was his appeal? I
doubt if he would have made it today.

zaryzary2003...

Tastes change, and the funniest comedian of 2006 could easily have been
a complete flop in 1956, and vice versa.

The thing about Berle is, he was spectacularly popular (and had lots of
competition) in his day, to the degree that it's hard to comprehend
today. There really aren't any comedians or TV stars today that compare
in terms of popularity. He was called Mr. Television because people
would literally go out and buy TV sets if they didn't have ont just to
watch him. Movie theaters and restaurants would close on Tuesday nights
sometimes because they knew everybody would be at home watching his
show. So I don't really think it's fair to say he was "bad," just that
he wasn't your style.

It's hard to say whether he could "make it" today. In a sense, almost
every TV comedian since him has built on what he started with, so in a
sense if he hadn't been there the entire landscape of comedy on TV
today would be pretty different. It's a little like saying could
Copernicus "make it" today as an astronomer today with his simplistic
(by today's standards) theories about the motion of the planets. No,
but if it weren't for Copernicus our view of Astronomy would probably
be totally different. I'm not saying comedy requires the work of
previous comedians the way astronomy does, but Berle was a seminal
figure.

Rich Clark...

If he was working today I'm sure he'd be using contemporary material and a
performance style intended for modern audiences.

BTW the other non-Berle episodes include Dean/Martin, Grucho Marx and
Liberace. I doubt I will watch Liberace but wil watch Dean/Martin and
maybe Grucho.