Tim Conway Show, The

1 9 8 0 – 1 9 8 1 (USA)
9 x 60 minute episodes
23 x 30 minute episodes

Comedian Tim Conway was given a second shot at a CBS variety series (following 1970’s unsuccessful The Tim Conway Comedy Hour).

Conway’s cohorts this time around included Dick Orkin, Bert Berdis, Jack Riley, Maggie Roswell, Miriam Flynn, Eric Boardman, and the Don Crichton Dancers, a talented group of child hoofers.

Premiering in March 1980, the show started out in a one-hour format, but when it returned in September, it had been trimmed to thirty minutes, and Jack Riley and Eric Boardman had left.

Early in 1981, Harvey Korman, Conway’s former foil on The Carol Burnett Show, became a regular, and Dick Orkin and Bert Berdis were dropped.

Guests included Carol Burnett, Suzanne Somers, Dick Martin, Don Knotts, Helen Reddy, Jonathan Winters, Barbara Mandrell, Susan Anton, Bernadette Peters, The Village People, KC & The Sunshine Band, and magician David Copperfield.

The show was closely modelled on the successful Carol Burnett Show (even using some of the same sketches), but like all of Conway’s starring ventures, this one failed to last more than a year. Undaunted, he returned in 1983 in Ace Crawford, Private Eye.

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