Arts & Manners: So Long, Clown

NBC made it official last March: The Red Skelton Show will not be part of the 1971-72 season. And that, I think, is a sizable loss. Although he is one of our most frustratingly erratic and uneven performers, Red Skelton is also one of the most individually gifted comics we have. More important perhaps, he is one of a handful of performers who have not only discovered the true nature and resources of their own talents on TV, but have also uncovered something about the unique nature of the medium itself, and have extended our appreciation of what can and can’t be done on the home screen.

Skelton spent half a career in films as a popular second-stringer, a kind of studio-contrived wise guy and would-be quipmaster. It didn’t work very well, but occasionally the real Skelton would show through even in the movies, and the real Skelton was a rubbery, unkempt, apparently clumsy but secretly graceful low-comedy clown. On TV, this real Skelton grew and blossomed.

MW

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Martin Williams

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NBC made it official last March: The Red Skelton Show will not be part of the 1971-72 season. And that, I think, is a sizable loss. Although he is one of our most frustratingly erratic and uneven performers, Red Skelton is also one of the most individually gifted comics we have. More important perhaps, he is one of a handful of performers who have not only discovered the true nature and resources of their own talents on TV, but have also uncovered something about the unique nature of the medium itself, and have extended our appreciation of what can and can’t be done on the home screen.

Skelton spent half a career in films as a popular second-stringer, a kind of studio-contrived wise guy and would-be quipmaster. It didn’t work very well, but occasionally the real Skelton would show through even in the movies, and the real Skelton was a rubbery, unkempt, apparently clumsy but secretly graceful low-comedy clown. On TV, this real Skelton grew and blossomed.