I'll stop with the Bilko shows soon but here's another one. This aired first on October 16, 1956 and it should be noted that that is before they stopped having a live audience in the studio for the filming. It was called "The Face on the Recruiting Poster" and it has a great punchline at the end which that audience loved.
As was not uncommon for this show, there are a lot of actors with speaking parts who later became famous. One of them is a young Tom Poston. At the time, he was hosting a local TV show in New York and he had the lead role in the Broadway play, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, replacing its original star, Orson Bean. This was before Poston joined the company of comedians on Steve Allen's TV show and before Poston became a panelist on the game show, To Tell the Truth along with Orson Bean.
Poston though was not really involved in that great punchline, nor was actor Eric Fleming, who you may spot in a bit part. He later became well known in the TV western, Rawhide.
Phil Silvers told me a story about this episode but it will kill that punchline if I repeat it here. I posted it on this blog back in the Stone Age of the Internet, all the way back in May of 2001. So if you're inclined to watch the episode, watch it and then click this link to go read that story…
