The Ford Show (also known as The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford and The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show) is an American variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired on NBC on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956, to June 29, 1961. The show was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, whose founders shared a last name with the host but had no known relation. Beginning in September 1958, the show was telecast in color, and was broadcast from NBC Studios at 3000 W. Alameda Avenue in Burbank, California. It is also one of the first places that showed Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters in animated form, which, like the later specials, was directed by Bill Melendez. It became one of the most popular segments of his show.
Selected guest stars
Ben Alexander
Cliff Arquette
Lloyd Bridges
Sally Brophy
Terry Burnham
Allen Case
Andy Devine
Robert Horton
Lee Marvin
Darren McGavin
Tom Nolan
John Payne
Cesar Romero
Roger Smith
Mickey Spillane
Craig Stevens
Guy Williams
Charles Laughton
Jo Stafford
Shari Lewis
Production notes
The Ford Show was produced and directed by Bud Yorkin. Television icon Norman Lear was also a writer on The Ford Show, though he has claimed that Roland Kibbee was in fact the show's main writer and that he merely wrote the opening monologues. Lear has also stated that both Yorkin and Kibbee were in charge on the show's production. The program was officially named not for the host, but for the show's sponsor, the Ford Motor Company.
See also
For other TV series sponsored by Ford Motor Company, see Ford Television Theatre, Ford Startime, Ford Festival, and Ford Star Jubilee