1965: Linkletter's 'Hollywood Talent Scouts' Debuts
On this day in 1965, CBS introduced the variety show Hollywood Talent Scouts, a program hosted by Art Linkletter on CBS. On it, Hollywood celebrities brought unknown talent into the studio to make their television debut.
A few future stars actually did make debuts during the show's run. On March 7, 1966, Tom and Dick Smothers introduced a comic by the name of Pat Paulsen. Paulsen later became a star in 1967 as a regular on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Other future stars to appear on the show included aspiring comic Garry Marshall (a then-writer for The Dick Van Dyke Show brought to Talent Scouts by Carl Reiner). Actor Bob Crane introduced a young singer named Marilyn McCoo.
Even if many of the stars' guests never made it big, viewers were still able to see some of the day's top talent when they tuned in each week. Hollywood drop-ins included Maureen O'Hara, Rex Harrison, Donald O'Connor, Rod Serling, Agens Moorehead, Glenn Ford, Ethel Merman, Greer Garson, Carol Burnett, Morey Amsterdam, Donna Douglas, Vincent Price, Jim Nabors, Red Buttons, Nanette Fabray, Gloria Swanson, Danny Thomas, Robert Stack, Pearl Bailey and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
When the summer show returned in the fall it was renamed Art Linkletter's Hollywood Talent Scouts.