60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
9/16/65 – “The Dean Martin Show” premiers on NBC-TV. It is an immediate ratings success and will run for ten seasons.
Started as a new feature on the last season of his weekly program, Dean would act as Roastmaster of a Celebrity Roast. Each week, a different celebrity would be "roasted" by their peers. A panel of celebs would take part in poking good-natured fun at one of their own.
On the final season of the weekly series, they managed to "honor" everyone from Hugh Hefner, Ronald Regan, Bette Davis, Wilt Chamberlain and Truman Capote to Johnny Carson, Barry Goldwater, Don Rickles (finally getting a dose of his own medicine), Jack Benny and Redd Foxx.
Then, after his regular series ended, the show evolved into a series of television specials, airing as The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts ... 54 television specials in all airing over the next ten years!!!
And
even though Red Buttons "never got a dinner," some pretty big names
were saluted and given the spotlight treatment over the years, including Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Michael Landon, George Burns and even Dean Martin himself. (You'll still find these airing as holiday marathons on some of the cable channels!)
And who can forget this classic bit from his original program ...
