The David Frost Revue

The David Frost Revue was a half-hour show comprised of short sketches. Mr. Frost (who'd earlier helmed That Was the Week That Was in both the U.S. and the U.K., flying transatlantic every week so he could do both series) served as host, would appear in some of the sketches, and would solo in the final one. The show was simply not very funny.

It ran in fringe time (10:30 on Sunday nights in New York, for example) for a season and never caught on. I once went to the studio and saw them make an episode. The half-hour show took them more than three hours to shoot, and the audience was left to itself during the long delays between sketches. About two hours in, after yet another unfunny piece, people started to leave. I remember Mr. Frost, still on stage, watching as perhaps a third of the audience drifted out. He looked - well, not beaten, but something close to that.