In the decade prior to hosting the show, Richard "Red" Skelton had a successful career as a radio and motion pictures star.
Red Skelton's network television program began at the start of the 1951 fall season on NBC (for sponsor Procter & Gamble).
[1][10] The program was produced at Desilu Productions and CBS Television City in Hollywood, and over five years, from 1955 through 1960, was telecast in color approximately 100 times.
[14] By 1960, CBS no longer manufactured television sets (unlike its rival NBC's parent company, RCA) and pulled the plug on colorcasts.
With the exception of a few specials and some yearly broadcasts of The Wizard of Oz, CBS would not colorcast again on a regular basis until the 1965–66 fall season, when the network could no longer avoid public demand amidst rising sales in color television sets.
Instead of a traditional opening title card, announcer Art Gilmore would intone, “From Television City in Hollywood,” and Skelton would perform a brief comedic blackout sketch, ending with the show's resident vocal group (the Skeltones) singing the words "The Red Skelton Hour" (beginning in the 1964–65 season, Skelton would simply stand alone, smiling and waving at the camera, spotlighted on a darkened stage as the shot zoomed in (dressed in some seasons as one of his various characters), as Gilmore would announce the title, and (in later seasons) the singers sang the title), leading into a brief musical "song and dance" number (about 90 seconds long) performed in lyrical song by several smiling male and female dancers as they danced and moved cheerfully across the large stage.
The monologue often lapsed into character humor, including "Gertrude and Heathcliff, the Two Seagulls", which he performed by crossing his eyes and sticking his thumbs into his armpits for "wings".
Another British Invasion band, The Kinks, appeared in early 1965 (shortly before the American Federation of Musicians banned them from touring in the US for the next four years).
Other musical guests included Bobby Rydell, the Lettermen, Vikki Carr, Horst Jankowski, Gloria Loring, the New Christy Minstrels, the Doodletown Pipers, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, the Association, Lulu, Johnny Mathis, Tom Jones, Matt Monro, Lou Rawls and Dionne Warwick.
The sketches were usually built around one of Red's many characters, including "Deadeye", an incredibly inept sheriff in the Old West; "San Fernando Red", a shady real estate agent (named for the San Fernando Valley, which was still a largely rural area when the show began); "Cauliflower McPugg", a punchdrunk boxer; "George Appleby", a hen-pecked husband; "Junior, the Mean Widdle Kid" (whose trademark line was, "If l dood it, l get a whippin'.........l DOOD IT!
[citation needed]) After "The Silent Spot", the show closed with Red looking into the camera and saying sincerely, "Good night and may God bless.
"[18] The Tom Hansen Dancers would return in their costumes from the pre-opening song-and-dance number and invite the audience to join the show the following week, singing to the tune of "Holiday for Strings" as the closing credits appeared.
This apparently marked the beginning of one of several attempts by CBS to downplay programming (even shows gaining relatively strong Nielsen ratings) whose primary appeal was to "Middle America", an audience more rural and also somewhat older than that generally desired by network television advertisers.
A repertory company of young, comic actors and actresses was added as well as veteran performers such as Eve McVeagh and The Burgundy Street Singers (previously seen after an abortive comeback on network television by 1950s folk singing star Jimmie Rodgers on ABC two years earlier.)
[18][20] Skelton continued to make appearances for many years afterwards, increasingly as a nostalgic figure, but was never again a regular feature of network television programming.