By the mid-1950s, the practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year – far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series – had created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired. By 1954, the American
television industry had begun to consider the idea of packaging these unsold pilots in
anthology series and airing them during the summer, providing 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.
New Comedy Showcase was a summer replacement for
Hennesey and consisted entirely of unsold pilots for
situation comedies. Stars appearing in the series included
Leon Ames,
Jack Carson,
Dick Van Dyke,
Wayne Morris,
George Murphy,
Margaret O'Brien,
Janis Paige,
Martha Scott,
Walter Slezak, and
Gil Stratton. ==Broadcast history==