The Jerry Lewis Show as host on "The Colgate Comedy Hour", with vocalist Dean Martin as the duo of "Martin and Lewis", first formed in July 1946. In 1956, after 17 films, a radio series , 29 Colgate shows and many night club appearances, they parted ways bitterly. Both Martin and Lewis continued as successful, but separate superstars. Between 1957 and 1962, Lewis headlined several well received solo specials for the NBC and ABC networks. "The Jerry Lewis Show" was the comedian's first foray into weekly television. Lewis had been a substitute host of "The Tonight Show" for two weeks after Jack Paar quit
Jerry Lewis "He was kind and loving and patient and limitlessly generous with his genius. He was unbelievably complicated and shockingly self-aware." Actor and comedian Jeffrey Tambor wrote after Lewis' death, "You invented the whole thing. Thank you doesn't even get close." There have been numerous retrospectives of Lewis' films in the U.S. and abroad, most notably "Jerry Lewis: A Film and Television Retrospective" at Museum of the Moving Image, the 2013 Viennale, the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival, "The Innovator: Jerry Lewis at Paramount", at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, and "Happy Birthday Mr. Lewis: The Kid Turns 90", at MOMA.