Comedy Playhouse (American TV series)

Comedy Playhouse is an American anthology television series that aired on CBS in the summer of 1971. The 30-minute episodes consisted of unsold television pilots.

Background
The practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year – far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series – created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired. Packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer provided television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them. Comedy Playhouse was one of these series, aired by CBS in the summer of 1971, and it consisted of unsold pilots for four situation comedies and one hidden camera reality television show. Stars appearing in the series included Janet Leigh, McLean Stevenson, Phil Silvers, Elke Sommer, Michael Landon, Dick Martin, Rose Marie, and Peter Marshall.

Broadcast history
Comedy Playhouse ran for five episodes over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1971, airing on CBS from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday evenings. It premiered on August 1, and its last episode aired on September 5. The episode scheduled for August 15 was preempted by an address by President Richard Nixon and was rescheduled for September 5.

Episodes
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