The Bill Dana Show

(L-R) Adams, Harris, and Dana

The character of José Jiminez was conceived by a Steve Allen Show writer and comedian, Bill Dana. This legendarily un-PC (and hilarious) character became a staple of Steve Allen's "Man in the Street" segment on The Tonight Show. After appearing on the Danny Thomas Show as a bellhop, José spun off and got his own show, The Bill Dana Show.

José was employed by New York City's Park Central Hotel and, much to the annoyance of grouchy hotel manger Mr. Phillips (played by Jonathan Harris -who was even more crotchety as Dr. Smith in Lost in Space), José regularly managed to fall into precarious predicaments. Aiding him in his ridiculous exploits was the hotel's moronic house detective, Byron Glick (played by Don Adams in his pre-Get Smart years). Other members of the crew were Susie the waitress (Maggie Peterson) and Eddie the bellhop (Gary Crosby).

The Bill Dana Show aired on Sunday nights from 1963-1965 and was quite funny. José's naivety was endearing, but when he was paired with Glick -all comedic heck broke loose! Watching this show is... pure stomach pain simply because Adams' and Dana's respective characters are uniquely and blissfully idiotic!

The Bill Dana Show was made available on VHS -er.. kinda. It was released on VHS in 1993 by Madacy Music Group. A few sites had it for sale circa 1997-98 -one of which was this one: http://www.ccvideo.com However, it presently lists the videos, but claims that, except for the boxed set, they are all unavailable. My suggestions on finding these videos are Ebay or snail mailing the company at:

Madacy Music Group
P.O. Box 1445,
ST-Laurent Québec Canada H4L 4Z1

Bill Dana (left) during his tenure on the Steve Allen show, posing with Louis Nye, Steve Allen, Don Knotts and Pat Harrington, Jr.

Check out the rest of my Bill Dana stuff by clicking on these links:

Bill Dana Sound Bites

José and Byron's Picture City!