Comedy Archaeology: Unearthing The Unproduced Episodes of Iconic Sitcoms as Well as Unmade Comedy Pilots, Specials, and Movies

Do you remember seeing an episode of Bewitched that guest starred comedian Red Skelton, or The Honeymooner's story where Ralph and Alice adopt a puppy, or the Life with Lucy Christmas episode? If you answered "no" to these questions, you are correct. Despite scripts or treatments being written for these shows, none of the episodes were ever produced.

Comedy Archeology not only includes descriptions of unproduced episodes of several classic situation comedies but also summarizes never-made comedy pilots and specials like 1975's Jack Benny's Special Special, a proposed animated pilot called Manor House featuring characters made famous by Jackie Gleason on his variety series, and television host, Steve Allen's proposed science fiction comedy, The Little Woman. The book also details many unmade comedy movies that would have starred the likes of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the Road to India and the Road to the Fountain of Youth, John Belushi in Noble Rot, the four Marx Brothers in Up Spoke the Captain, and others.


Richard Irvin has written several books about television comedy including The Forgotten Desi and Lucy TV Projects, Spinning Laughter, and Forgotten Laughs – all from BearManor Media.