Tue, Jan 25, 1949
Milton Berle's guests include dancers the Unger Twins (Gustaf and Bertil), singer Frances Faye, slapstick comics Low, Hite, and Stanley (one short, one average, one tall), dancers the Caites, and singer Julie Wilson. Berle replaces one of the Unger Twins in a comic mirror routine, and teams with Costello for the old A&C math routine. The finale is in a turn of the century beer garden with all the cast.
Tue, Feb 1, 1949
Comedian Jack Carter fills in for an ill Berle. Guests are comic actress Beatrice Lillie, ballet dancer Kathryn Lee, the Borrah Minevitch Harmonica Rascals, comic Johnny Burke, the Gauthier Steeplechase dog and pony act, and actor Cyril Ritchard. Lillie sings several novelty songs with Ritchard as her foil. Burke does a routine from WWI.
Tue, Mar 1, 1949
Milton Berle returns after an illness and exhaustion. His scheduled guests include: singer/comedienne Virginia O'Brien, acrobats The Gauchos, comic actor Billy Gilbert, singer/actor Robert Alda, and musical/comedy performer Pat Rooney Sr. Alda sings and joins Berle for in a sketch about the foreign legion; Gilbert and Berle do a routine; O'Brien performs "Go To Sleep My Baby" and joins in a parody of Hollywood movie-making; Berle joins Rooney for the closing song and dance.
Tue, Mar 15, 1949
Uncle Miltie's guests this week include: Peter Lorre, singer Phil Regan, Stewart Morgan Dancers, Irish-American Celtic musicians the McNulty Family and Broadway singer Joan Roberts. Roberts, from the original cast of "Oklahoma!" performs songs from the show; Lorre and Berle do a sketch about "The Cabinet of Dr. X"; Miltie spoofs musical recitals; and a St. Patrick's Day salute to Irish songs.
Top-rated
Tue, Mar 22, 1949
Milton Berle's guests include Ethel Merman, Teddy Hale, Keye Luke, acrobatic act Los Gattos, Teddy Hale, and composers Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer, Charles Tobias, Maud Nugent and Lou Brown. Berle opens dressed as a Roman riding in a chariot. He joins Merman for "The Varsity Drag" and "Friendship," and the two go for a drive. She solos on "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "I Got Rhythm." The finale is a salute to songwriters.
Tue, Mar 29, 1949
Berle's scheduled guests on this show include: band leader Desi Arnaz; the Beatrice Kraft Dancers; ex-boxer Jack Dempsey; comedian Jackie Miles; and actress June Havoc. Berle opens the show dressed as an organ grinder with a monkey; Desi closes the show with a South American production number.
Tue, Apr 12, 1949
Berle's scheduled line-up features: film actor Boris Karloff, opera singer Richard Tucker, harmonica player Stan Fisher, dancers Merle, Duval and Lee, and actress Peggy Ryan. Karloff and Berle do a mad scientist skit; Ryan tap dances; Tucker sings "La Donna E Mobile"; Fisher plays "Rumanian Rhapsody"; the cast performs in a take-off of opera.
Tue, Apr 26, 1949
Berle's guests include comedian/magician Carl Ballentine, comic actors Lew Hearn and Lou Sorin, Ethel Merman,and vaudevillian/songwriter Jack Norworth. Berle and Sorin join Hearn in his old "Belt to the Back" sketch. "The Amazing Mr. Ballentine's" magic tricks go awry. Norworth does a medley of his big songs.
Tue, May 17, 1949
Berle's guests this week include comedian Georgie Price, "mentalist" Dunninger, the Blackburn Twins, dancer Pat Rooney Jr., and actress/singer Janet Blair. Miltie opens dressed as Napoleon. Much of the program is devoted to the reopening of the famed vaudeville theater The Palace with cast members imitating many of its stars.
Tue, May 24, 1949
Milton's guests this week include comedian Leo DeLyon, balancing act King Brothers, opera singer Catherine Mastice, Eugene Freeman, comic/vocalist George DeWitt, and singers Dick Haymes and Lillian Roth. Haymes performs "When You're Really in Love" and "Skyscraper Blues" and joins Berle for a Broadway medley; Freeman sings "Caravan"; Mastice does an aria from "La Traviata"; Roth sings "Goody Goody"; in a slapstick sketch, Berle plays a piano-fixing plumber.
Tue, Jun 7, 1949
Uncle Miltie's guests include comic/actor "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom, teeterboard act the Lange Acrobatic Troupe, actor Horace McMahon, and double-talk comedian Al Kelly. Kelly, Berle and Rosenbloom do a slapstick courtroom sketch. In a take-off of the famous balcony scene, Rosenbloom plays Romeo to Berle's Juliet.
Tue, Jun 14, 1949
Berle's guests for the season finale include singer Tony Martin, and singer Lina Romay. Martin sings "Tenement Symphony." Romay performs a Latin tune and joins Berle and Eddie Hanley in a Mexican café sketch. Also, a send-up of "Mutiny on the Bounty," a Rube Goldberg comedy bit, and Milty appears in drag. The entire cast performs a production number about heading to California. Berle plugs his upcoming moving "Always Leave 'Em Laughing."
Tue, Sep 20, 1949
Milton's guests for the season premiere include Duke Ellington, actress June Havoc, comic actor Phil Silvers, Howdy Doody, "Buffalo Bob" Smith and Robert Keeshan, comic actor Bert "Mad Russian" Gordon, and the Stewart Morgan Dancers. Berle opens the show with a huge banner reading "Welcome Back, Mr. Television!" Ellington performs a medley of his hits at the piano. Havoc sings and clowns with Berle playing a Kentucky colonel. In a take-off of "The Howdy Doody Show," Berle and guests harass Buffalo Bob as members of the peanut gallery.
Tue, Sep 27, 1949
Uncle Miltie welcomes: horror star Bela Lugosi, actress Billie Burke, dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, the Maxellos, and a cameo by comedy team Olsen and Johnson. Lugosi appears in a sketch trying to sell a house to a frightened Berle; Robinson dances and chats briefly with Berle and Robinson; Burke hosts a recreation of the famous Ziegfeld Follies featuring Robinson and impressions of W.C. Fields and the like with Berle as Eddie Cantor.
Tue, Oct 4, 1949
Berle's guests include actor Pat O'Brien, trampoline act the Paul and Paulette Trio, tap dancers Steve Condos and Jerry Brandow, juggler Trixie, and comic actress Beatrice Kay. Beatrice and Trixie appear in a picnic sketch based on "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee." Berle and O'Brien do a takeoff on the Gallagher and Shean vaudeville act.
Tue, Oct 11, 1949
Berle's guests include comic actor Hugh Herbert, dancers the Blackburn Twins, Janet Blair, and comic dancer Will Mahoney. Berle opens the show dressed as Christopher Columbus. Herbert, Blair and Berle do a Caesar, Marc Antony, and Cleopatra sketch. Blair and the Blackburn Twins do vaudeville numbers. Mahoney tap dances on a xylophone.
Tue, Oct 18, 1949
Uncle Miltie's guests include Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Broadway singer Ethel Merman, unicycle act the Goetschis, adagio team The Zoris, child performer Verna Raymond, the Magid Triplets, bass fiddler Chuck Roe, champion trick roper Junior Eskew, and glamorous dance group The Wally Wanger Girls. In a stand-up bit, Berle tries to mediate an argument between Martin and Lewis and gets assaulted in the process. Milton and Jerry conduct the band while Dean tries to sing. The three do a Buck Rogers-type look at the future. Berle, Martin, Lewis, Merman, Raymond, Magids are in the Western finale featuring performers from the World Championship Rodeo currently at Madison Square Garden.
Tue, Oct 25, 1949
Berle's guests are singer Johnny Johnston, comedienne Nancy Walker, song and dance trio Buster Shaver, Olive (Shaver) and George (Shaver), singer/actress Kathryn Grayson, Bert Gordon, and Chinese acrobats Wong Troupe. In a sketch, Berle is Sitting Bull with Walker as Princess Leita and Bert Gordon as her father. Walker and Berle sing and dance "Pass the Peace Pipe." Milton helps a late-arriving audience member (Grayson) find a seat. Berle interviews Gordon portraying an opera coach. Nancy Walker performs a comedy song "Irving." Buster Shaver, Olive and George sing "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and dance "All the Things You Are." Johnson does "That Old Black Magic." The finale production number is set at Texacollege, with Berle as a student, and Walker sings "You've Got to Be a Football Hero."
Tue, Nov 8, 1949
Berle's guests include actor Arthur Treacher, comedy actress Imogene Coca, vaudeville comic Benny Fields, puppeteer Frank Paris, dancers the Clark Brothers, ballroom dance team Adam and June Di Gatanos, Rosie the Bear, and comedian Henny Youngman. Berle, dressed as a cannibal, sings "I've Got You Under My Skin." Treacher gives Berle a diction lesson and Youngman joins the two for a number. Fields sings "Baby Face." Coca impersonates movie glamor queens. Fields and Berle do a sketch about old time New York with a skating bear.
Tue, Dec 6, 1949
Uncle Miltie's guests include comic actor Guy Kibbee, comedian Rex Raymer, opera singer Robert Merrill, the Blackburn Twins, comic acrobatic team Coco, Steve and Eddie, harmonica players Borrah Minevitch's Rascals with Johnny Puleo, and actress Janet Blair. Berle stars with Blair in a play he wrote, "One Ham's Family," with Milton playing all the male roles; the quick costume changes can't keep up with the script. Merrill performs the Toreador song. Raymer's act of musical impressions was interrupted by Berle because time had run out and the show was over.
Tue, Dec 13, 1949
Comic Hank Ladd guest hosts for the vacationing Berle. His scheduled guests include: comic performer Bert Lahr, Gil Maison and his dog act, vocal group The Ink Spots, Stan Cavanaugh, comedy acrobatic act the Acromaniacs, singer Mary Hatcher, and comedienne Connie Sawyer. The Ink Spots perform "If I Didn't Care."