Texaco Star Theater - Legacy

Legacy

As Ed Wynn's hit, the show became bankable, but as Fred Allen's radio hit, Texaco Star Theater was one of the most cleverly cerebral comedy-variety shows of its time. When it moved to television with Milton Berle, it proved a groundbreaker for two decades' worth of television variety programming and, in the cantankerous Berle, gave the medium the first star it could call its own. The television version of Texaco Star Theater allowed him the full spread of his visual and verbal talent, uniting them toward a height he couldn't have achieved even in his legendary vaudeville and silent-screen days.

As often happens those it inspired soon out-performed it, and Berle—once television's biggest single star—also became, as the Museum of Broadcast Communications phrased it, "the first TV personality to suffer from over-exposure and burnout." But for being there at the birth, and cutting the umbilical cord with such immediate and memorable effect, weaning a country from radio as its primary home entertainment medium, Texaco Star Theater earned its legend.