The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon individual stations, airing on ABC on Sunday, September 1, 2013, and running two hours. The final edition aired on ABC on August 31, 2014, again as a two-hour special, beginning at 9PM ET/PT. It was announced on May 1, 2015 that the MDA would be discontinuing the annual event for good. Jerry Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America (MDAA) in 1952 after a plea from a staff member who worked with Lewis and Dean Martin on "The Colgate Comedy Hour". Lewis had previously taken part in what has been described as the very first
Jerry Lewis and Davis Jr. performed in Las Vegas together (his first 'double-act' since the split with Martin in 1956). That same year, he also learned of the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin and attended the funeral, which lead to a more substantial reconciliation with Martin. In 1988, Lewis hosted "America's All-Time Favorite Movies", then was interviewed by Howard Cosell on "Speaking of Everything." He then starred in five episodes of the CBS program "Wiseguy". The filming schedule of the show forced Lewis to miss the Museum of the Moving Image's opening with a retrospective of his work. In 1989,