The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show has it. Burns was once asked this question and said it would have been a funny line. Asked why he did not do it, Burns replied, "Incredibly enough, no one ever thought of it." In March 1953, "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" joined "I Love Lucy" as part of the CBS Monday-night primetime lineup. As a result, the show entered the top 30 television programs in the Nielsen ratings ranking at number 20. For the 1954–1955 season, it ranked number 26, and for both the 1955–56 and 1956–57 seasons it was number 28. With "I Love Lucy" ending
Variety show honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby, Gracie Fields, Dan Leno, Gertrude Lawrence and Marie Lloyd. Most of the early top performers on British television and radio did an apprenticeship either in stage variety, or during World War II in Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). In the UK, the ultimate accolade for a variety artist for decades was to be asked to do the annual Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium theatre, in front of the monarch. Later known as the "Royal Variety Performance" (from 1919), it continues today. In the 1940s,