The Pinky Lee Show (1954)

★★★★★ · Out of Breath! · Rush Glick · 2021-09-29

WOW! I had heard of Pinky Lee but was too young to watch him during his early '50s run. I recall when he attempted a comeback in the early '60s, but evidently that was foiled by people who tried to micro manage the show. Just watching Pinky Lee frenetically dancing, running around, and interacting with the audience, running off between skits and animal performances made me mentally out of breath! He was obviously a master of his craft, and, as another reviewer noted, he was obviously an influence on others. I thought of Soupy Sales immediately! "The Pinky Lee Show" preserves a wonderful…

★★★★★ · A talented hoofer · Johnmalden!1 · 2023-01-10

I was just watching a episode of a 1965 broadcast of The Mike Douglas Show on YouTube with Pinky Lee as one of the guests. He did a great rap dance number from a show he was appearing in around that time. He also proved he was a talented hoofer. I was amazed.

★★★★ · Good Stuff · drdee51 · 2009-01-26

What the producers and performers of this show where thinking was to have an entertaining show for children. Pinky Lee was a former burlesque comic and I have to admire his energy and ability to keep the show moving along! I think it was nice of them to gift children of a children's hospital (not an orphanage) with a doll that was popular with children at the time. I cannot find anything "surreal" about this show and cannot imagine how anyone could unless they simply fail to understand this was a life television show, something the current knockleheads doing TV have no idea how to do…

★★★★ · The "incident" · Nat Segaloff · 2012-05-06

In 1955 Pincus Leff (a.k.a. Pinky Lee), a former burlesque comic, suffered what legend has ascribed as a heart attack on live TV and collapsed. According to a corrective interview with Lee in Gary Grossman's superb book "Saturday Morning TV," he insists he collapsed from exhaustion and an infection caused by a nasal drip, and fully recovered. Lee was the bane of New York Times columnist Jack Gould as well as parents who thought his hyperkinetic style of entertaining would affect his young viewers. Instead, it gave them (us) memories.

★★★★ · Pinky, a true original · RoboReview · 2015-11-12

Been hearing about Pinky Lee all my life but am just now getting to see him for the first time, and I must say I'm impressed. The performer's energy connects with the viewer with the intensity of a high-wattage Spotlight. He makes Bozo the Clown look like a rest-home entertainer. Watching Pinky, you can see not only origins of Paul Reubens' Pee Wee Herman, but the inspiration for Soupy Sales, Jerry Lewis and Robin Williams. Whether they all saw him or not, Pinky's DNA is identifiable in what they did as well.

★★★ · The Pinky Lee Show · Karltonthedoorman · 2008-10-25

Fast paced is an understatement. I would use the word frantic. As a side note, should they really be donating a crying doll to an orphanage ?