Heroes of the Small Screen

I admit that in this instance, I do not recall watching this guy as a kid (as has been the case with previous posts under this heading). But in doing research over the past few years on comedy in the fifties and sixties, I've watched a lot of his old programs, and become convinced that Steve Allen was among the most inventive and original performers ever to grace the small screen. He was also a great at recognizing and giving a forum to comedy talent of all stripes (he was among the few who were willing to give Lenny Bruce access to a network audience, for example), and deserves a lot of credit for helping launch the careers of such television mainstays as Don Knotts, Tom Poston, and Louis Nye. Here's a clip (which appears to be mislabeled as being from the Tonight Show, of which Allen was the first host) in which he has some fun with rear projection technology: