The Colgate Comedy Hour

Because of a missed airplane connection, Fran Warren was late for the telecast. Her theater understudy, Mary Stanton, jumped in and performed Warren's first song.

This production is a good example of the dangers of live television. Watch for the boom mike and stagehands in shots, actors forgetting their lines and Bert Lahr ad-libbing when Gene Nelson misses his cue. Even Betty Furness admits is a 'wrong night' during a commercial.

Pearl Bailey injured her leg during rehersals, so she does her songs seated on a chaise lounge.

The phony guest star names in this week's opening credits were Tom Ache-Latt, Sylvia Nift, Barney Holton, and Phil Seatcover.

In the dressing room sketch, the towel dispenser on the wall refuses to stay closed. After fooling with it for a while, Jerry runs off stage and returns dragging a stage hand to hold it shut for the rest of the sketch.

Goof: When Jerry opens their suitcase in their hotel room, the two stare at the luggage when it opens as expected. Jerry walks to the camera and explains that the clothes were supposed to come flying out of the bag but "unfortunately we ran short on money somewhere and couldn't get a spring." He then manually throws their clothes into the air.

George Raft appears unannounced after Lou brags about how he'd rough up the tough guy. He punches Lou out with one swing.

Frank Gallop appears on stage to give a solemn introduction to the sketch about Jerry and Dean's early days.

Goofs: This episode was riddled with performer mistakes. In the sketch set on the subway, one of the Santas starts a joke but forgets the punchline. Bob announces he's been sent out to kill time while the next act sets up behind the curtain.

This program was performed live Christmas Eve on the inter-connected NBC network. For the non-connected stations which aired the kinescope a week or two later, Bob filmed an introduction informing viewers about when the show was performed and asks them to get themselves back in the holiday spirit for the program.

The regular characters from his radio program, inhabitants of Allen's Alley, were portrayed on-camera as puppets.

"Barr and Estes" are listed as guests in the opening credits, but only Leonard Barr performs. No mention of "Estes" is made during the rest of the telecast.