Musical Comedy Time

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Musical Comedy Time is an anthology television series broadcast on CBS in 1950 and 1951. It was the first television program in the medium's history to feature televised adaptations of musical theatre works from the Broadway stage.{{cite book|title=Musicals at the Margins: Genre, Boundaries, Canons|year=2021|page=218|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|editor=Julie Lobalzo Wright, Martha Shearer|chapter=Live Musical Spectaculars|author=Anthony Enns}} These adaptations were abridged versions of the musicals and only presented part of the work to fit within a television series's time limits.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvNQEAAAQBAJ|chapter=Musical Comedy Time|title=The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television|author=Thomas S. Hischak|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199887323|page=516}}

The premiere broadcast on October 2, 1950, broadcast twice monthly, featured a television adaptation of Cole Porter's Anything Goes with Ethel Merman reprising her role from the original 1934 Broadway production.{{cite book|title=Broadway in the Box: Television's Lasting Love Affair with the Musical|author=Kelly Kessler|year=2020|isbn=9780190674038|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=24}} Other adaptations included Babes in Toyland,{{cite news |last1=Lohman |first1=Sidney |title=Christmas on the Airwaves |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/12/24/archives/christmas-on-the-airwaves-christmas-eve-on-television-christmas-day.html |access-date=March 4, 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=December 24, 1950 |page=51 |url-access=subscription }} Miss Liberty, and Louisiana Purchase.{{cite news |title=Fred Allen Leaves Video Show Dec. 17: Comedian Will Give Up Sunday Night Series on N.B.C. Because of Health |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/12/01/archives/fred-allen-leaves-video-show-dec-17-comedian-will-give-up-sunday.html |access-date=March 4, 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=December 1, 1950 |page=31 |url-access=subscription }}