The Comedy Channel (United States)

The Comedy Channel was an all-comedy cable television network owned by Home Box Office, a division of Time Warner. It premiered on November 15, 1989 and merged on April 1, 1991 with Viacom's HA! to become Comedy Central. Programs were originated from the HBO Downtown Studios on East 23rd Street in Manhattan.

Programming

The format prior to the merger included several original and unconventional programs such as "Onion World" with Rich Hall and "Mystery Science Theater 3000", as well as laid-back variety/talk shows hosted by stand-up comedians, including "The Sweet Life" with Rachel Sweet, "Tommy Sledge, Private Eye", "Night After Night with Allan Havey", "Sports Monster" and "The Higgins Boys and Gruber", the latter of whom performed sketches in between showings of vintage television serials like "Supercar", "Clutch Cargo", and "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp".

tandard format

The standard format for these shows usually involved the various hosts introducing clips culled from the acts of stand-up comedians as well as classic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s, such as "Young Frankenstein" and "Kentucky Fried Movie", presented in a style similar to music videos. In the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without "host segments" were dubbed "Short Attention Span Theater". In 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced.

In the final months before the merger, the channel developed an eight-hour programming block that was shown three times during a 24-hour period, including such things as reruns of "Monty Python's Flying Circus".