Beyond the Fringe of musical items in the show, using Dudley Moore's music, most famously an arrangement of the Colonel Bogey March which resists Moore's repeated attempts to bring it to an end. The show prefigured the Satire Boom of the 1960s. Without it, there might not have been either "That Was the Week That Was" or "Private Eye", the satirical magazine which originated at the same time, that partially survived due to financial support from Peter Cook, and that served as the model for the later American "Spy Magazine". Cook and Moore formed a comedy team and appeared in the popular television
The Billy Barnes Revue for a total of 48 weeks. The "Billy Barnes Revue", with original cast members Joyce Jameson, Bert Convy, Patti Regan, Ken Berry, Ann Guilbert, Jackie Joseph, Len Weinrib and sketch writer/director Bob Rodgers, opened at the York Playhouse in New York City on June 9, 1959. The production was produced by George Eckstein (Ann Guilbert's husband) in association with Bob Reese. Billy Barnes was the musical director, with Armin Hoffman on the second piano. "The New York Times" review by Lewis Funke was mixed: "A crisply played and highly polished little entertainment called "The Billy Barnes Revue" arrived at the