In 1969, George Schlatter and Ed Friendly — then riding high on TV as the producers of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In — produced a special/pilot for NBC called Burlesque is Alive and Living in Beautiful Downtown Burbank filled with old sketches and the style of a hoary burlesque review. The show featured Goldie Hawn, Bobby Darin, Carl Reiner, Henny Youngman, Sheldon Leonard, Nancy Austin, Joe Besser, Sid Gould, Bettina Brenner, Jack Burns, Eric Christmas, Pepper Davis, Barbara Heller, Tommy "Moe" Raft, Jerry Collins, Breck Wall and one of my favorite comedians, George Carl. Mr. Carl, like many of those folks, had very little to do on the show.
It was supposed to air on November 24 of that year but it did not. Reportedly, the network thought the whole thing was too risqué for prime-time television at the time…which makes you wonder why they okayed it in the first place. It can't be because the movie The Night They Raided Minsky's (released the previous Christmas) was a huge hit because it wasn't. Oddly enough, Jack Burns' role in the pilot/special is playing basically the same character he played in that film and delivering similar material.
Parts of the show do look awkwardly edited, especially a striptease number Goldie Hawn performs that involves Joe Besser and some odd cutaways to the audience. (Side Note: A month after the show was supposed to air but didn't, the film Cactus Flower was released, making Ms. Hawn a pretty big movie star.) But parts of it have a nice energy and there are clever songs by Billy Barnes and striking costumes by Bob Mackie. Make of all this what you will…