The Paul Williams Comedy Show

The Paul Williams Comedy Show is a children's variety show from NBC that turns an actor and Academy Award-winning composer into a Martian for about thirty-minutes. It's 1978, and NASA's Viking spaceship has set down on Mars. The National Broadcasting Company reports that aliens landed on earth. Children flock to the NBC studios to see a real-live Martian, but when they get there, what they find is Paul Williams in a poorly made costume. Once the gig is up, Paul sheds his outfit and spends the rest of the half-hour talking to kids about the earth and other interesting science topics. Paul has help from his Martian crew, fictional female astronauts Barbara (Sandra Kerns), Debbie (Dana Hill) and Victoria (Amanda McBroom) and the show's goofy janitor, Virgil Weeks (Earl Doen). Together, the group and the kids discuss photosynthesis, space travel, why the planets have different colors and the difference between the moon and the stars. Paul uses comical sketches to present his science subjects, which always seem to put Virgil's IQ on the spot.