After a short stint on the radio, in the late 1940s,
Spike Jones began to see that there might be potential in the fairly new medium of television. With this potential in mind, Jones along with
Edward F. Cline filmed two half-hour pilots in the summer of 1950;
Foreign Legion and
Wild Bill Hiccup. Neither were broadcast. Jones then decided to try live television bringing his wife
Helen Grayco and his band,
The City Slickers with him. For them, live television proved to be a success. The basis for
The Spike Jones Show came about after an episode of
The Colgate Comedy Hour on
NBC. The episode, entitled "The Spike Jones Show", was originally broadcast on February 11, 1951. Three years after that telecast, NBC offered Jones, Grayco and his band their own slot on television. ==Original version (Jan.–May 1954)==