One of the more gratifying aspects of producing a site like TVparty! is re-discovering stars I enjoyed from television who weren't all that well known.
The great, pioneering black comic Timmie Rogers is an example. Rogers came up through vaudeville and released several best-selling comedy LPs like 'Super Soul Brother' in the sixties.
He was brilliant on the variety shows of the 1960s & 1970s, he had an original delivery that other comedians flat out ripped-off.
The set for the variety program resembled a colorful ghetto boarding house (think Sesame Street only grittier) with the skits and musical numbers taking place in various exposed units, the lobby, on the steps, and up on the roof.
As was the style of the day, there was lots of Sonny and Cher style squabbling between the couple but what I loved about the short-run series was old-school nightclub comedian Timmie Rogers ("Oh Yeeaaah!") gained a forum for his hilarious bits.
The Melba Moore Clifton Davis Show was a summer hit, a great deal of that success was due to Timmie Rogers' hilarious bits. It was widely reported that CBS was going bring the show back as a mid-season replacement in 1973, but it was not to be.
Here's another of Roger's routines that he did variations on for years - 'Everything's Going Up' from the same show. This is timeless comedy, it works perfectly today.
More on the life of the great Timmie Rogers here.
Watch Redd Foxx & Timmie Rogers from one of the better episodes of Sanford & Son:
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