TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 -
Feldman's first brush with fame was as a part of comedy / musical trio Morris, Marty
and Mitch, making several appearances on BBC TV in the mid-
It was just a matter of time before he would give performing another go. However,
fate had other ideas. The pace and sheer amount of work he needed to do in order
to write dozens of TV and radio scripts every year got the better of his health.
His subsequent erratic behaviour and a hyperthyroid condition was causing concern.
A side-
In 1967 he was invited to come back to work with Frost and Cleese on a new TV series for Rediffusion, At Last The 1948 Show. This would be the first time most people would have seen Marty, certainly the first time since the days of Morris, Marty and Mitch. The show only ran for two series, leading BBC2 to an offer Marty a new series of his own to be broadcast in colour. All of the future members of Monty Python would contribute to the show, even Terry Gilliam who did animations and captions for it. It proved so successful that the BBC exported it, winning several international awards, and leading to an invitation by Dean Martin to appear on his his USA shows, recreating some of his BBC sketches.
As a result of his American success Lew Grade offered him the chance to make a series
for ATV in the UK and ABC in the USA, The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine. Produced
by Larry Gelbart, the UK based American writer for TV's M.A.S.H., the show would
mix verbal comedy, silent comedy, dance (from the Irving Davies Dancers) and music,
plus top-
Concluding a sketch recorded for the thirteenth episode (according to TV Times) Feldman grabbed hold of a curtain that was being raised above the stage. He fell onto the stage breaking his arm which, now in a cast, he would show off to the cameras once he had come back from hospital. The sketch (but not the fall) was shown during the fourteenth and final show.
The show was broadcast as an hour-
The Comedy Machine lasted just one series before Feldman went back to the BBC and
then onto Hollywood for what was to be the final phase of his career, although a
return to the UK was on the cards before his sudden death, testing the water with
an appearance on ITV's Give Us A Clue. Comedy Machine showcased what was best about
Feldman, silent comedy, inventive use of props, a sense of the absurd, all achieved
with virtuoso jazz timing. A half-
Although his involvement in Mel Brooks' movies were worth him moving to Hollywood for, his own late seventies movies weren't, but TV would always have him back.
The entire series was scheduled for release as a 4 DVD set in 2016 by Network in the UK but was cancelled.
MARTY FELDMAN'S COMEDY MACHINE
ATV
2nd October 1971 -