Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer, and actor.

and, from 1977 until 1981,[2] he wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show Meeting of Minds, a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format.

[citation needed] Allen became an announcer for radio KFAC in Los Angeles, then moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946, talking the station into airing his five-nights-a-week comedy show Smile Time, co-starring Wendell Noble.

His program attracted a huge local following; as the host of a 1950 summer replacement show for the popular comedy Our Miss Brooks,[13] he found himself in front of a national audience for the first time.

With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) laughing uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major plaudits both as a comedian and as a host.

While Today developer Sylvester "Pat" Weaver often is credited as the Tonight creator, Allen often pointed out that he had created it earlier as a local New York show.

It was as host of The Tonight Show that Allen pioneered the "man on the street" comedic interviews and audience-participation comedy breaks that went on to become staples of late-night TV.

Many popular television and film personalities were guest stars, including Bob Hope, Kim Novak, Errol Flynn, Abbott and Costello, Esther Williams, Jerry Lewis, Martha Raye, the Three Stooges, and a host of others.

The show's regulars were Tom Poston, Louis Nye, Bill Dana, Don Knotts, Pat Harrington, Jr., Dayton Allen, and Gabriel Dell.

Other recurring routines included "Crazy Shots" (also known as "Wild Pictures"), a series of sight gags accompanied by Allen on piano; Allen inviting audience members to select three musical notes at random, and then composing a song based on the notes; a satire on radio's long-running The Answer Man and a precursor to Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent (sample answer: "Et tu, Brute."

New cast members were Joey Forman, Buck Henry, the Smothers Brothers, Tim Conway, and Allen's wife Jayne Meadows.

The five-nights-a-week taped show was broadcast from an old vaudeville theater at 1228 North Vine Street in Hollywood that was renamed The Steve Allen Playhouse.

The show was marked by the same wild, unpredictable stunts, and comedy skits that often extended across the side street to an all-night food outlet known as the Hollywood Ranch Market, where Allen had a hidden camera spying on unsuspecting shoppers.

One notable program, which Westinghouse refused to distribute, featured Lenny Bruce during the time the comic repeatedly was being arrested on obscenity charges.

A syndicated version of I've Got A Secret hosted by Allen and featuring panelists Pat Carroll and Richard Dawson was taped in Hollywood and aired during 1972–1973 season.

What appealed to the thousands who wrote, I believe, was that they were actually given the opportunity to hear ideas on television, a medium which otherwise presents only people, things, and actions.

From 1977 until 1981, Allen wrote, produced and hosted the award-winning show Meeting of Minds, which aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

"[24] Most of the female roles (Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, Florence Nightingale, et al.) were portrayed by Allen's wife, the actress Jayne Meadows – over her objections.

A similar Canadian television series called Witness to Yesterday, created by Arthur Voronka, aired in 1974, three years after Allen's local Emmy Award-winning program.

From 1986 through 1988, for NBC Radio, Allen hosted a daily, national three-hour comedy show that featured sketches and America's better-known comedians as regular guests.

His co-host was radio personality Mark Simone, and they were joined frequently by comedy writers Larry Gelbart, of M*A*S*H writing fame; Herb Sargent, perhaps, later on, best known for his writing work on "Saturday Night Live," and Bob Einstein, brother of Albert Brooks and creator and portrayer of the faux stuntman character Super Dave Osborne.

Though it was never a hit, the song was recorded by numerous artists, including Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, Claire Martin and Oscar Peterson.

He wrote many pieces for their publication, Skeptic, on such topics as the Church of Scientology, genius, and the passing of science fiction giant Isaac Asimov.

He produced Gullible's Travels, an audiotape with original music and script that was read and sung by him and his wife "in order to introduce youngsters to the brain and its proper use."

[27] A sample passage from the book that illustrated his view of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God reads: The proposition that the entire human race — consisting of enormous hordes of humanity — would be placed seriously in danger of a fiery eternity characterized by unspeakable torments purely because a man disobeyed a deity by eating a piece of fruit offered him by his wife is inherently incredible.

[38] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Allen recorded a solo piano album for the Pianocorder Contemporary Artists Series, joining such other pop pianists of the day as Liberace, Floyd Cramer, Teddy Wilson, Roger Williams, and Johnny Guarnieri.

[11] In the late 1950s, author and philosopher Gerald Heard worked with psychiatrist Sidney Cohen to introduce intelligent, adventurous people to LSD, and Steve Allen was one of these.

[44] in 1973, he cohosted the America Goes Public telethon, which raised money for the Democratic National Committee, and included a "Meeting of Minds" segment with actors portraying Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Cleopatra, speaking on democracy.

[45] Allen wrote pamphlets on a variety of issues, including problems facing migrant workers, capital punishment and nuclear weapons proliferation.

Despite his liberal position on free speech, he actively campaigned against obscenity on television and criticized comedians such as George Carlin and Lenny Bruce for their use of expletives in their stand-up routines;[11] Allen admired their originality and humor but deplored what he considered their excessive profanity.