Comedy Theater is an American anthology television series that aired on NBC in the summer of 1981. The 30-minute episodes consisted of unsold television pilots for situation comedies.
The practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year â far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series â 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 Theater was one of these series, aired by NBC in the summer of 1981, and it consisted of unsold pilots for situation comedies. Stars appearing in the series included Ted Danson, Tony Lo Bianco, and Jeffrey Tambor.
Comedy Theater ran for seven episodes over the course of seven consecutive weeks in the summer of 1981, airing on NBC from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday evenings. It premiered on July 17, and its last episode aired on August 28.
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