"The Comedian" is a 1957 live television drama written by Rod Serling from a novella by Ernest Lehman, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Mickey Rooney, Edmond O'Brien, Kim Hunter, Mel Tormé and Constance Ford.
[4][5] "Live — from Television City in Hollywood — Playhouse 90 — Tonight starring Mickey Rooney, Edmond O'Brien, Kim Hunter, Mel Tormé, Constance Ford.
"The Comedian" is the work of two distinguished writers, the author of the original story, Ernest Lehman, who has written the screenplays for such popular motion pictures as The King and I, Somebody Up There Likes Me and Executive Suite.
The adapter, Rod Serling, whose long list of original television dramas includes the award-winning Patterns, Forbidden Area and Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Egomaniacal television comedian Sammy Hogarth (Rooney) routinely makes fun of his brother Lester (Tormé) on the air, and is constantly bullying his writers for better material.
[6] Kim Hunter later recalled that during rehearsals Rooney often varied his performance dramatically, so that "no two days were alike," which might create problems during a live broadcast.
[6] The model for the central character has been a subject of much speculation over the years, and has included Milton Berle, Red Buttons and Arthur Godfrey.
[8] The film has parallels to Sweet Smell of Success, also originating from an Ernest Lehman story, with the same milieu and including one of the same characters in both works, columnist Otis Ellwell.