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The Dorsey Brothers, Tommy and Jimmy saw the rock'n'roll handwriting on the wall back in 1956. The big banders invited Elvis Presley onto their television show. It was Elvis's first TV appearance and it created a sensation.

Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen and the other "straight" TV show hosts also brought rockers to television in the early days. Later "kids" got their own rock showcases, like "Hullaballoo", "Shindig," "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" and others.

Still, the comedy/variety shows of that era, like "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" were happy to showcase the up and comers, from The Mamas and the Papas to The Byrds to The Doors. Some were just lip-synched extravaganzas, but on other shows the groups played live.

If you've been paying attention to the video reissues of these shows you may have thought they've all been exhumed from the archives and released but wait! Theres' more!

Reelin' in the Years Productions has recently licensed the music footage from "The Red Skelton Hour", which aired on CBS from 1962-1971. The show was the first, and for a very long time, the only CBS show to be broadcast in color.

The performances have not been seen since they originally aired. The production company has begun cataloging the performances and making clips available for documentaries but eventually (hopefully) there will be DVDs (can't see the need for Blu-ray) on this.

As you'll see and hear in these YouTube clips, the footage goes from black and white mono to color stereo but some, if not much or all of it, unfortunately, sounds lip-synched (the first one with Manfred Mann sounds live).

Most every major UK act, other than the Beatles, appeared on the program. In addition to The Rolling Stones (before their first Ed Sullivan appearance), other artists include The Kinks, The Animals, The Hollies, Manfred Mann, The Searchers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Dusty Springfield, Peter & Gordon, The Honeycombs, Chad & Jeremy, and Freddie & The Dreamers.

One interesting thing: the clip of The Rolling Stones singing "It's All Over Now" is in real stereo. Back then, the LP version was electronically reproduced for stereo, so either they were playing live on that one (doesn't sound like it, or the sound was more recently dubbed in from the later, stereo mixes. Hmmmmm.

Still, the images are fantastic!

By the way, for you youngsters, Clem Kiddlehopper was one of Red Skelton's Komedy Karacters