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This is the weirdest thing to happen in this category so far. We've already seen the Emmys have confusion about classifying variety shows and sitcoms and gone through years where they awarded single programs over full seasons, etc. Things took yet another bizarre turn for the 1959-1960 season when they cut a bunch of categories and limited things to "Outstanding Program in the Field of Humor," and Drama and Variety. While The Jack Benny Program took the statue for writing the second year in a row, the series award went to a strange series that wasn't even consistently a comedy. That wording "the field of humor" is very telling.
Art Carney was a character actor probably best known for playing Ed Norton opposite Jackie Gleason on The Honeymooners. But now a new decade was around the corner and it almost seems as if Carney was trying to make a name for himself as more than one character, as an entertainer and as a serious actor, at least that's the impression that I get watching the resulting Art Carney Special. Alternately titled The Art Carney Show, this was barely a series. Instead, it was a series of 10 programs starring Carney that aired on usually a monthly basis from 1959 to 1961 (the last aired almost a year after the previous 9). They were broadcast on NBC and were a sort of anthology, with no real uniting element apart from starring Carney. The series generally ran an hour long, but I've read that some went for 90 minutes.
It was not a straight comedy series, and certainly not a sitcom. Some programs were more dramatic. For example, the second episode was a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town starring Carney as the Stage Manager. Other episodes were self-contained little teleplays very much of the sort you'd see in the Golden Age of Television from other anthology drama series. While whimsical and humorous at times, they were not strictly comedies. Still other programs were more comedic, sketch-driven variety formats taking a satirical look at contemporary life. All this is to say The Art Carney Show was a strange and unique moment in television history.
Unfortunately, its uniqueness also means obscurity, making it extremely difficult to locate and view. Short of setting up a screening at a museum or the Paley Center, I was at the mercy of whatever was uploaded to YouTube, and that was very little. I was able to view two full episodes, "The Man in the Dog Suit" and "Full Moon Over Brooklyn". Both had comedic elements and would be classified as humor in the academic sense, but were rather removed from typical television comedy I'd seen to that point. It's curious watching characters give jokey banter that in normal series would get laughs but with no laugh track. "The Man in the Dog Suit" has some typical repartee moments but they feel strange on television just lying there without laughs. This does not mean they aren't funny, but that the tone is different. And for the most part the story is of a different tone altogether from that sort of typical television banter.
"The Man in the Dog Suit" is a story about the struggles of conformity and becoming a cog in a machine that you don't respect. Carney plays a banker up for a promotion he's not sure he wants, trapped in a life he never asked for. One night he attends a costume party and is stuck wearing a dog suit, but finds as the dog he can loosen up and be someone else. But after the party, he keeps wanting to return to the dog suit, with destructive results. It's a fascinating little play, with a great cast including Celeste Holm and Orson Bean. But the humor is more of a deep satire on social conventions, and the second half becomes more dramatic than its set-up. We are in an entirely different sophisticated brand of humor.
"Full Moon Over Brooklyn" is a bit more whimsical, though with no less of a satiric edge. It's a sort of fable about a man who works for a railroad company running cargo on barges. A shipment from a traveling circus comes in, including a woman with her live bear. But when the bear appears to be dead, the man is trapped ferrying between ports because neither side will accept the shipment lest they be charged for damaging the cargo. The bear is of course played by a man in a bear suit, and this becomes rather ridiculous late in the show when the bear turns out to have just been hibernating and wakes up.
Both are much more like little plays and while there's certainly a degree of humor present, neither would easily be thought of as comedy. How then did this strange little infrequently broadcast series win the Emmy award? Because in addition to these stories, there were some early episodes which were apparently much more in a more traditional sketch comedy box. Often for Emmy voting, and I assume it was true back then too, series are being based on only a few submitted episodes. It is therefore very likely that the Emmy voters based the award on some of these earlier shows, such as "Very Important People". I was again unfortunately unable to find a full broadcast of this program, but what has survived to the internet is a clip of a parody sketch of the popular game show What's My Line? Here, Dick Van Dyke guests stars, and it's a fun little parody; a spot-on take on the typical tropes of the series. If earlier broadcasts were more of this type, it's Emmy award is less of a mystery. You can watch the clip below.
One innovation I did want to mention about the series is the advent of color. Not all of the available footage from the series is in color, but at least some of the later shows were originally broacast by NBC in color. This is the first appearance of color television broadcasting in this little walk through TV history. And you can see that NBC really went out of their way to make it worthwhile in the early days. "Full Moon Over Brooklyn" with its circus elements and slightly whimsical story has a lot of color throughout. Purples, blues, and greens pop off the screen in an effort to show the contrast you get with color. This approach to color would really continue throughout the 1960s, and it's part of why series like Star Trek look the way that they do.
The Art Carney Show was a weird little showcase for Art Carney and on one hand it's a strange footnote in this parade of monumental television comedy. We've had big entertainers like Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and Danny Thomas, and landmark sitcoms like I Love Lucy. Where did this weird little anthology series come from? People often think about the 1960s really beginning with the assassination of President Kennedy. But as I watched these shows today, I could feel in microcosm the kind of attitude shift from the 1950s to the 1960s. Here's Art Carney, lovable goof of the 1950s now selling himself as a different actor. Here's a sharper, more sardonic comedy beyond just having a few laughs. Here are stories about societal ennui, and dissatisfaction with authorities who want to control your life. Things feel a little more adult. Celeste Holm even says "damn" at one point. In "Full Moon Over Brooklyn," the bear is named Igor the Inevitable. When asked why he's named that, we are told it was because "nothing is as frightening as the inevitable." That sentiment seems a great summation of what was to come in the new decade.
FAVORITE EPISODE: The Man in the Dog Suit (though admittedly this was from a very small sample size)
UP NEXT: The Jack Benny Program (again!)
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