The Big Show is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comedy-variety-musical television series produced and broadcast by NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 for several months in 1980.

The series aimed to revitalize the moribund variety television genre, which had been in a downward spiral since the cancellations of the Ed Sullivan Show and The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...

several years earlier. The Big Show took its title seriously, using a huge stage set (complete with a live audience and a swimming pool) and filling a 90-minute time-slot (one of the only variety programs in American television history to run this length), with at least one two-hour instalment broadcast.

Although the first broadcast received high ratings, poor reviews and low ratings of succeeding episodes resulted in the program being cancelled after only a few months. The series nonetheless was nominated for six Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Costume Design.

Regular performers included Joe Baker

Joe Baker

Joseph Henry "Joe" Baker was an England international footballer. Born in Liverpool, England, he spent virtually his entire childhood growing up in Motherwell, Scotland...

, Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman

Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...

 (of Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

), Mimi Kennedy

Mimi Kennedy

Mimi Kennedy is an American actress, author and activist.-Early life:Kennedy was born Mary Claire Kennedy in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Nancy Helen and Daniel Gerald Kennedy. She got her start in theater with the Rochester Community Players, appearing in Agatha Christie's "Spider Web"...

 and Pamela Myers

Pamela Myers

Pamela Myers is an American actress who made her Broadway debut as Marta in Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. For this role, in which she introduced the show-stopping number, "Another Hundred People," she was nominated at the 1971 Tony awards for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical...

. Guest hosts included Steve Allen

Steve Allen (comedian)

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent...

, Nell Carter

Nell Carter

Nell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin, as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television...

, David Copperfield

David Copperfield (illusionist)

David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...

, Dorothy Hamill

Dorothy Hamill

Dorothy Stuart Hamill is an American figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion in Ladies' Singles and 1976 World Champion.-Early life:...

, Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Richard Holder is a Trinidadian actor, choreographer, director, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist.-Early life:...

, Gary Coleman

Gary Coleman

Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...

, and Sid Caesar

Sid Caesar

Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...

.