The Big Show

With the confidence and skill of a high-wire cyclist, Max Liebman each week whips together a 28-man, 1 1/2 hour musical revue called Your Show of Shows (Sat. 9 p.m., E.S.T., NBC-TV). This week, 48-year-old Producer-Director Liebman displays his real virtuosity by riding two vehicles at once: he is putting on another 1 1/2-hour musical, the Easter special Star-Spangled Revue (Sun. 5:30 p.m., E.S.T., NBC-TV), sponsored by Frigidaire and featuring Bob Hope, Beatrice Lillie, Dinah Shore and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., plus his own company.

Liebman accomplishes his production miracles by working with a veteran team, many of whom have followed him from summer theater to Broadway (The Straw Hat Revue, Tars and Spars, Make Mine Manhattan), "We're hep," he explains. "We simplify things by avoiding too many props and cutting down on un-essentials like sound effects. We lose very little time."

With hardly any waste motion behind the scenes, Liebman gets plenty of movement on the TV screen. In 27-year-old Sid Caesar he has a TV-raised multi-dimensional comedian who is equally convincing as a slot machine, a head-lolling infant, a British general or a Freudian psychiatrist just off the plane from Vienna. Caesar's comedy partner is pint-sized Imogene Coca ("No one knows how old she is"), who can switch from a prim Victorian to a stripteaser to a Wagnerian Valkyrie without missing a nuance or a laugh.

Caesar and Coca are supported by such guest stars as Gertrude Lawrence, Rex Harrison or Jose Ferrer, and by a chorus and well-trained ballet. To "add a sprinkling of cultural items," Liebman pairs off the Metropolitan Opera's Baritone Robert Merrill and Soprano Marguerite Piazza, in neatly scissored scenes from light and grand opera.

NBC is more than satisfied with Liebman's press notices on the Show of Shows, which have generally been raves. But the network has not yet figured out how to sell the package. At present, one half-hour is cooperatively sponsored by Swift & Co., RCA and United Fruit Co. More sponsors are needed* before the $40,000 weekly price tag can be met.

Liebman confidently expects that these financial headaches will be eased by the aspirin of top-notch entertainment. CBS has already shifted the Ed Wynn Show, the Saturday Night Revue's strongest competitor, to Tuesdays. "We're trying to make people feel that they're eavesdropping on a Broadway show," says Liebman. "I think we can do it, too." There was only one evidence of self-doubt: "I just hope NBC doesn't expect us to keep this up 52 weeks a year."

*NBC's problems are further complicated by the sponsorless Jack Carter Show, an hour-long variety program telecast from Chicago (Sat. 8 p.m., E.S.T., NBCTV) and linked to Your Show of Shows under the generic name of Saturday Night Revue.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.