Variety show Stan Laurel revisited his music hall days when he performed at the "Royal Variety" show. In the United States, former vaudeville performers such as the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, and Jack Benny honed their skills in the Borscht Belt before moving to talkies, to radio shows, and then to television shows, including variety shows. Variety shows were among the first programs to be featured on television during the experimental mechanical television era. Variety shows hosted by Helen Haynes and Harriet Lee are recorded in contemporary newspapers in 1931 and 1932; because of technical limits
The Ann Sothern Show often appear in commercials for the sponsors' products at the end of the episode. Sothern would then sign off with, "Well, goodnight everybody. Stay happy!". During its first two seasons, "The Ann Sothern Show" aired on Monday nights at 9:30 P.M. on CBS immediately following "The Danny Thomas Show" ("Make Room For Daddy"). The series' first two seasons received decent ratings, however, at the start of the 1960-1961 season, the series moved to Thursday nights at 9:30 P.M opposite the ABC hit show "The Untouchables". The ratings plummeted and CBS canceled the show in the spring of 1961. The series