Classic Television - Prime Time

The Leslie Uggams Show

Original channel

CBS

Original run

September 28, 1969 – December 14, 1969

Presented by

Leslie Uggams

Starring

Johnny Brown

Lincoln Kilpatrick

The Leslie Uggams Show is an American variety television series starring actress/singer Leslie Uggams. The series aired on CBS as part of its 1969 fall lineup, and was the second variety series to feature an African American host since 1956's The Nat King Cole Show.

The Leslie Uggams Show gave Uggams, who had first come to wide public notice as a singer on the early 1960s hit Sing Along With Mitch, her own program to showcase herself and other black performers; unlike other early variety programs which were hosted by black entertainers but featured a large number of whites in the cast, only one of Uggams' regulars, comedian Dennis Allen, was white. A recurring feature of the program was the ongoing series of sketches entitled "Sugar Hill", which dealt with the lives of middle class black family in a large American city.

The series took over the time slot of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that CBS pulled due to its controversial content. Scheduled against the venerable Western Bonanza, which was still a massive hit for NBC, and a series of fairly recent (by the standards of the era) movies on ABC, The Leslie Uggams Show had difficulty developing an audience and was cancelled in December 1969.