Bud Abbott and Lou Costello came to television fairly late, mostly thanks to the fact that they had healthy film careers into the early 1950's, but when they finally got to the small screen, they went over big, and got their own television series in short order--alas, the resulting Abbott and Costello Show used up most of their best routines very quickly, and it was downhill from there.

But their debut on THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR showed the team near its peak, doing several of their most well known bits ("Mustard" aka "Hole in the Wall," "The Sanitarium," "Find the Lemon") live, with all of the spontaneity that this implies. Singer Evelyn Knight stands in for Hillary Brooke, as a sultry singer who falls all over Costello. Other guests include Hal Le Roy, Paul Remos and His Toy Boys, and the Jimmy Ford Four. The show is followed by a beautiful copy of the Abbott and Costello 1952 appeal for Christmas Seals, co-starring Charles Laughton, who was co-starring with the duo in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kid, arguably the last of their good costume adventure/comedies.