CTVA UK - "The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine" (ITC)(1971-72)

CTVA - US Music Variety    -   CTVA - UK

The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (1971-72)
Episode Guide compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by: Rina Fox
references:
TV Guide / Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
 
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THE MARTY FELDMAN COMEDY MACHINE
---------------------------------
an ATV Colour production (Associated Television) (Taped at Elstree Studios, England)
for
ITV network [UK] Fridays (01Oct71-14Jan72)(14 episodes x 60 min)
ABC network [US] Wednesdays (12Apr72-23Aug72)(20 slots x 30 min)(includes some reruns)

Distributed world wide by Incorporated Television Company (ITC) (Lew Grade)
Executive Producer, Colin Clews
Producer Larry Gelbart [UK info]   Producer Barry Levinson
Writers Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan, Barry Levinson, Larry Gelbart, Rudy DeLuca.
Director John Robins

UK Music Variety Comedy series 1971-72  14 episodes x 60min (UK) / 30min (US)

Host Marty Feldman
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Alan Price
Clovissa Newcombe
Jack Parnell and His Orchestra
The Irving Davies Dancers


Semi Regular Guest from the USA:
Barbara Feldon (appeared in at least 5 episodes)

Taped in London and Hollywood.

The original UK version comprised 14 hour-long episodes. These were edited in the US to Half-hours
It is difficult to compare UK and US versions, because some guests appear to have been moved to different episodes during
the editing process.

*NEWS ITEM: HOLLYWOOD (AP) March 16, 1972.
ABC will drop its Comedy Hour Wednesday, April 12, and replace it with two half-hour comedies, The Marty Feldman
Comedy Machine and
The Smith Family starring  Henry Fonda,, it was announced Tuesday. Feldman, a British comedian,
was introduced to  the network in a special Feb. 7..He had appeared on a summer series with The Golddiggers.

##### The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine #######
################# 1971-1972 ##################
##############################################
ITV network [UK] Fridays (01Oct71-14Jan72)(14 episodes x 60 min)
ABC network [US] Wednesdays 9:00-9:30pm (12Apr72-23Aug72) (20 slots x 30 min) (includes some reruns)

[01] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
01Oct1971 ITV [UK] Fri
12Apr1972 ABC [US] Wed 9pm


Guests
Orson Welles
Sunday's Child

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Skits and Blackouts:
Feldman does a re-interpretation of the legend of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Marty in a deadly combat with a flower that doesn't want to be picked.
Orson Welles narrates the story of the World's Greatest Cameraman, played by Marty.
Marty in a takeoff of the film "The Pride and the Passion" coping with a cannon that suddenly develops a
personality of its own.
Orson Welles in a discourse on aristocracy, illustrating his points with pictures of human beings in a zoo.

[02] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
08Oct1971 ITV [UK] Fri
07Jun1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Roger Moore
Marsha Hunt
Fred Smoot
Tom Paxton

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty does a man vs. machine bit when he confronts a public pay phone which seems to have a mind of its own.
Marty is joined by Roger Moore in a sketch about a high military official planning the D-Day invasions.
Fred Smoot in a sketch illustrating how a servant can control his master does a monster monologue.
Marsha Hunt sings "Freaks and Heroes".
Roger Moore plays the male lead in a way-out Swedish flick.

[03] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
15Oct1971 ITV [UK] Fri
21Jun1972 ABC [US] Wed
31Aug1972 ABC [US] Thurs (rerun)
Guests
Barbara Feldon
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Fred Smoot

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty Feldman plays a church-goer who decides he doesn't like the sealing arrangement so he disrupts the sermon
to protest.
*NOTE: Pre-empted on August 30, 1972 for the Republican Convention aired the following evening in repeat.

[04] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
22Oct1971 ITV [UK] Fri
03May1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Godfrey Cambridge
Thelma Houston

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Fanny Carby
Frances de la Tour
Derrick Gilbert
Isobel Hurll
Anne Lawson
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty plays a polite bank robber who waits in line and a traveller who gets caught trying to smuggle a body.

[05] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
29Oct1971 ITV [UK] Fri
26Apr1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Barbara Feldon
Sunday's Child

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Alan Price
Bob Todd
Isobel Hurll
Patricia Hayes
Skits and Blackouts:
Feldman is a singer who catches a strange virus which cause it to rain whenever he sings.
Marty is next seen as a Buckingham Palace guard afflicted by a sentry box with a mind of its own.
Barbara joins Marty in an impromptu dance production number and in a sketch with Marty as a knight rescuing Barbara
from a medieval town which result in disaster.
Sunday's Child sing "Watch What Happens".
Marty plays a Spanish dancer who literally shakes up the World.

[06] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
05Nov1971 ITV [UK] Fri
28Jun1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Orson Welles
Thelma Houston
Leon and Schultz

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Roland MacLeod
Skits and Blackouts:
Orson Welles tries his hand as a circus ringmaster only the stunts are performed by tuxedoed bankers instead of lions.
Welles also narrates a documentary on one of the world's dying species, the British Aristocrat.

[07] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
12Nov1971 ITV [UK] Fri
17May1972 ABC [US] Wed
Produced by Greg Garrison (of The Dean Martin Show fame)
Guests
Barbara Feldon
Honey Cone

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Alan Price
Isobel Hurll
Patricia Hayes
Skits and Blackouts:
Honey Cone sings "Son of a Preacher Man".
Spike and Barbara perform a scene in an unusual operating room.
Marty and Barbara as a husband and wife who have been arguing about going out on Sunday afternoons for a little too long.
Marty as a man-on-the-make in a restaurant with Barbara as his target.
Marty and Barbara in a surrealistic drama about the new mistress of ancient Lock Jaw Manor.

[08] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
19Nov1971 ITV [UK] Fri
ABC airdate?
Guests
Groucho Marx
Tom Paxton

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Fanny Carby
Frances de la Tour
Winifred Sabine
Clovissa Newcombe
Skits and Blackouts:

[09] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
26Nov1971 ITV [UK] Fri
14Jun1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Godfrey Cambridge
Ray Hastings
singing group Honey Cone
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Tony Thawnton
Clovissa Newcombe
Heather Wright
Skits and Blackouts:
Godfrey Cambridge tries out for the part of Rhett Butler.
Marty plays a nervous soldier ordered to defuse a very live bomb.
Comic Ray Hastings offers a routine about department store mannequins.
Honey Cone sings "Stick Up".

[10] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
03Dec1971 ITV [UK] Fri
05Jul1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Barbara Feldon
Randy Newman

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:

[11] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
10Dec1971 ITV [UK] Fri
31May1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Barbara Feldon
Jackie Vernon
Thelma Houston

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Valentine Dyall
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty and Barbara are seen in a dramatic meeting in a thick London fog.
Feldman is as zany as ever as he shows the problems a man might encounter in a bathtub. If he happens to have a
ship tattooed on his chest.
*NOTE: Barbara Feldon makes her third appearance on the show.

[12] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
17Dec1971 ITV [UK] Fri
12Jul1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Thelma Houston
Randy Newman
Beryl Reid

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Clovissa Newcombe
Valentine Dyall
Derrick Gilbert
Winifred Sabine
Skits and Blackouts:
Thelma sings "Cheap Love" from the film "Carnal Knowledge".
Marty plays a talk-show host who has run out of guest possibilities and winds up talking with other talk-show hosts.

[13] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
07Jan1972 ITV [UK] Fri
07Feb1972 ABC [US] Mon 9:30pm
10May1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Art Carney
Lonnie Shorr
Jo Ann Pflug
Skiles and Henderson
Honey Cone

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Julian Chagrin
John Atrobus
Roland MacLeod
*NOTE: News item AP
This was to have been a series, but didn't get on the air. The "pilot" may be the thing that will sell the
remaining episodes, as a summer replacement, if nothing else. Art Carney, Skiles and Henderson and Honey Cone have
a chance of making it.

[14] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
14Jan1972 ITV [UK] Fri
19Apr1972 ABC [US] Wed
Guests
Roger Moore
Honey Cone

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Valentine Dyall
Isobell Hurll
Clovissa Newcombe
Yutte Stensgaard
Roland MacLeod
Skits and Blackouts:
Roger Moore plays a miniature dentist who literally gets into his work.
Roger and Marty play rival undertakers in a town blessed with good health and a "photo-machine" director.
Marty plays an aviator, a man with a flat tire which seems to have a mind of its own.

#############################
 

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
15Feb1972
24May1972 ABC Wed
23Aug1972 ABC Wed (rerun)
Guests
Orson Welles
Dusty Springfield
John Barbour
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Claire Ruane
Clovissa Newcombe
John Junkin
Skits and Blackouts:
Orson Welles previews "The Dictionary", a coming movie attraction.
John Barbour discusses credit cards.
Marty plays a law-abiding citizen, an inept magician and a disaster-prone cameraman.
*NOTE: This was Orson Welles' second guest appearance.

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
1971 airing unknown
19Jul1972 ABC Wed
Guests
Orson Welles
Marsha Hunt

the group Osibasa
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty appears as a jury foreman who can't make decisions and in another sketch as a man trying to make the best
of his marriage to an ugly woman.
Orson Welles joins Marty in a dramatic reading of "Graffiti".
Marsha sings "Meet Me".
Osibasa sings "Think About People".

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
1971 airing unknown
26Jul1972 ABC Wed
Guests
Roger Moore
Dusty Springfield
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:
Roger Moore in hiking gear for a disastrous mountain climb with Marty.
Also a day in the life of a not-so-average man and the Feldman solution for unemployment.

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
1971 airing unknown
02Aug1972 ABC Wed
Guests
Barbara Feldon
regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty plays an elevator operator trapped in an elevator with people who were planning to go to the roof to jump.
Barbara portrays a luscious dish in a restaurant and Marty is the patron who is pursuing her.
Barbara Feldon sings and dances in a production number "Dry Bones".
Marty & Barbara enact a couple who discuss divorce and the different ways there to split property.

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
1971 airing unknown
09Aug1972 ABC Wed
Guests
Marsha Hunt
Osibisa

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:
Marty as an orchestra member is dissatisfied with his role as a cymbal player and manages to destroy the orchestra
in an attempt to enlarge his part.
Marsha sings "Freaks and Heroes".
The Osibisa group performs "Music for Gong Gong".
A cartoon segment about Albert Einstein's hands.

[--] The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
1971 airing unknown
16Aug1972 ABC Wed
Guests
Godfrey Cambridge
Thelma Houston
Jackie Vernon

regulars
Spike Milligan
Hugh Paddick
Bob Todd
Skits and Blackouts:
Godfrey is a suspicious customs officer and Marty's the traveler with the coffin.
Marty is a soldier with a grenade that talks.
Feldman capers about monks in basic training; a cymbal player attacking a fly, and an unusual twist on a balloon
breath test for alcoholic content.

###### The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine ######
################## The End ###################
##############################################

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