Episode 18- Leslie Uggams
How Far Can You Push The Envelope?
QUESTION: Who was the first African-American entertainer to
star in a network TV series?
It was Nat King Cole . He hosted a music show, which
was cancelled after one year because the network could not find a
national sponsor.
NEXT QUESTION: Who was the first African American woman
entertainer to host her own network series?
It was Leslie Uggams. THE LESLIE UGGAMS SHOW was
cancelled after just 10 weeks because the show could not find an
audience.
In the brouhaha caused by the abrupt cancellation of THE
SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR, CBS may have felt they
needed to show their liberal bona fides. They announced the replacement
would be a variety series starring a young black woman.
CBS staged a photo op upon the lawn in front of their studios on
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Fairfax displaying all of the many African Americans who had been
Hired on the show in various capacities. There was no question this was
a first in network television. Ilson and Chambers and our production
staff were the few European American faces. We even managed to hire
a black comedy writer, of which, in those days, there were scant few in
The Writers Guild.
It was a time when singers were getting great ratings starring in their
own variety shows—Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Dean Martin and
Andy Williams, among them. Leslie was already well-known to TV
viewers. In her late teens, she was a standout on the Mitch Miller
series, SING ALONG WITH MITCH. She was young, vivacious, pretty
and endearing with a sparkling personality and a singing voice like a
nightingale..
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Leslie had been in show business all her young life, having
performed on stage at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre at the age of
7. She went on to star on Broadway, winning a Tony for her role in
“Hallelujah, Baby!”.
The show had two other distinguishing features besides having
a black star. My partner and I planned to follow the same booking
strategy which launched the Smothers show, booking beloved
established names to get the public to tune in and sample our show.
Unfortunately we could not get anybody. Nobody was willing to take a
chance on a new show with an unproven star.
We were finally able to book Dick Van Dyke on terms
which I don’t believe have ever been duplicated- we did an exchange.
Normally, an “exchange” is when two stars agree to do each other’s
Show, working for scale, which was a fraction of their usual fee. This
particular exchange had never been done before--- an exchange between
a performer and producer. Dick agreed to appear on the Leslie Uggams
premiere, waiving his usual substantial fee and being paid the minimum
scale. Ilson and Chambers, in return, agreed to produce and head write
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Dick’s next TV Special, waiving our usual substantial fees and being
paid Writers Guild minimum. It was worth it. Dick and Leslie were
magic together.
There was yet another aspect which distinguished this from any
other show on the air. We cast a group of black actors to appear on the
show with Leslie every week in a situation comedy about a working
class family living in “SUGAR HILL”, a section of Harlem. The weekly
15-minute situation comedy was the first black comedy on television
since the days of AMOS N’ANDY.
Our talented cast included Lillian Hayman, Lincoln Kilpatrick,
Johnny Brown, Alison Mills, and Leslie as the very funny, very sharptongued
realist who kept the family on track. We discovered that Leslie
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was not just a naïve, lovable sweetheart. She had comedy chops and
could play tough, and pushy and very funny.
Scheduled against NBC’s bone crusher, BONANZA, THE LESLIE
UGGAMS SHOW never got off the ground. We never got the sampling
we had hoped for. Other series, like THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW
and SEINFELD, both had very shaky beginnings. They were on the
verge of being cancelled, but they were given a second chance and
became two of the biggest hits in the history of television. THE LESLIE
UGGAMS SHOW deserved to stay on the air, but it didn’t. Why?
The “SUGAR HILL” actors on our show used to have a put down
when someone said or did something stupid. They would say, “ “You
ain’t ready!”
It was shorthand for “You ain’t ready for Civil Rights.”
Our show was before Flip Wilson and Cosby and “The Jeffersons”
and “Blackish.” Maybe America just wasn’t ready.
NEXT: FRANK SINATRA
The 2,000 Pound Gorilla
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