1951: NBC Debuts 'The Doodles Weaver Show'
On this day in 1951, NBC introduced a variety show starring comedian Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon Weaver, better known as Doodles. The Doodles Weaver Show served as a summer replacement for Sid Caesar's celebrated Your Show of Shows, and dropped Doodles and his co-horts into a TV studio with nothing but props that had been discarded by other shows.
Doodles Weaver first made a name for himself on radio, most famously as a comedic member of bandleader Spike Jones' City Slickers band, but when his NBC show debuted, TV critics of the day were quick to point out that he was also the younger brother of legendary NBC president Sylvester "Pat" Weaver.
Unlike many of his TV contemporaries, Doodles didn't make a huge splash in television, but found steady work as a character actor, racking up a string of guest appearances on popular TV shows and appearing — mostly uncredited — in numerous films.