Editing Jonathan Winters (section)

==Early career==
{{Moresources | section|date=June 2024}}
[[File:Jonathan Winters Gambrinus Beer.jpg|thumb|"Johnny" Winters promoting Gambrinus Beer in the early 1950s for [[August Wagner Breweries|August Wagner Breweries, Inc.]] on [[WBNS-TV]] in Columbus, Ohio]]
Winters's career started from a lost wristwatch about six or seven months after his marriage to Eileen in 1948. The newlyweds couldn't afford to buy another one; then Eileen read about a talent contest in which the first prize was a wristwatch and encouraged Jonathan to "go down and win it." She was certain he could, and he did.<ref name="beverly"/><ref>''Person to Person'' interview by [[Edward R. Murrow]] (March 14, 1958)</ref> His performance led to a disc jockey job, where he was supposed to introduce songs and announce the temperature.<ref name="beverly"/> Gradually his [[ad lib]]s, personae, and antics took over the show. He began acting along with developing comedy routines while studying at [[Kenyon College]] in [[Gambier, Ohio]]. He was also a local radio personality on [[WING]] (mornings, 6 to 8) in [[Dayton, Ohio]], and at [[WIZE]] in Springfield, Ohio. He performed as "Johnny Winters" on [[WBNS-TV]] in [[Columbus, Ohio]], for {{frac|2|1|2}} years. Jerome R. "Ted" Reeves, then program director for WBNS-TV, arranged for his first audition with [[CBS]] in [[New York City]].<ref name="YT"/>

After promising his wife that he would return to Dayton if he did not make it in a year, and with $56.46 in his pocket, he moved to New York City, staying with friends in Greenwich Village. After obtaining Martin Goodman as his agent, he began stand-up routines in various New York nightclubs. His earliest network television appearance was in 1954 on ''[[Chance of a Lifetime (1950s TV series)|Chance of a Lifetime]]'', hosted by [[Dennis James]] on the [[DuMont Television Network]], where Winters again appeared as "Johnny Winters".{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Winters made [[History of television|television history]] in 1956 when [[RCA]] broadcast the first public demonstration of color [[videotape]] on ''The Jonathan Winters Show''. Author [[David Hajdu]] wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' (2006), "He soon used video technology 'to appear as two characters,' bantering back and forth, seemingly in the studio at the same time. You could say he invented the video stunt."<ref name="Huffingtonpost obit" />

His big break occurred (with the revised name of Jonathan) when he worked for [[Alistair Cooke]] on the [[CBS Television]] Sunday morning show ''[[Omnibus (US TV series)|Omnibus]]''.<ref name="YT">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Mndv-c6JTyY Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130422034121/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mndv-c6JTyY&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mndv-c6JTyY|publisher=[[YouTube]]|title=A Jonathan Winters story that you've never heard (@ 2:55)}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 1957 he performed in the first color television show, a 15-minute routine sponsored by Tums.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=429304222782773803|title=Archive of American Television Interview with Jonathan Winters, Part 2 of 5|publisher=Google Video}}</ref>
[[File:Jonathan Winters 1956.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Winters performing a routine on ''[[The Colgate Comedy Hour|The NBC Comedy Hour]]'' (1956)]]
From 1959 to 1964, his voice was heard in a series of popular television commercials for [[Utica Club]] beer. In the ads, he provided the voices of talking beer steins named Shultz and Dooley. Later, he became a spokesman for [[Hefty]] brand trash bags, for whom he appeared as a dapper [[Waste collector|garbageman]] known for collecting "gahr-bahj," as well as "Maude Frickert" and other characters.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObGR5AaqLkc&NR=1| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130200821/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObGR5AaqLkc&NR=1| archive-date=2014-01-30 | url-status=dead|publisher=YouTube|title= 1970's Hefty Scrap Bags (Jonathan Winters) Commercial}}</ref> Winters also appeared in commercials as a spokesman for other brands such as Good Humor ice cream and the California Egg Commission.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Staff |title=Manic comic Jonathan Winters dead at 87 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-us-jonathanwinters-idUSBRE93B0V220130413/ |website=Reuters |access-date=January 9, 2025}}</ref>

Winters recorded many classic [[comedy album]]s for the [[Verve Records]] label, starting in 1960. Probably the best known of his characters from this period is "Maude Frickert", the seemingly sweet old lady with the barbed tongue (reportedly named for comedic actress [[Maudie Prickett]]). He was a favorite of [[Jack Paar]], who hosted ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' from 1957 to 1962, and appeared frequently on his television programs, even going so far as to impersonate then U.S. president [[John F. Kennedy]] over the telephone as a prank on Paar.

Winters had a dramatic role in ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[A Game of Pool (1961)|A Game of Pool]]" (episode 3.5 aired on October 13, 1961). He also recorded [[Ogden Nash]]'s ''[[The Carnival of the Animals]]'' poems to [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]'s classical opus.

On ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' (1962–92), Winters usually performed in the guise of some character. [[Johnny Carson|Carson]] often did not know what Winters had planned and usually had to tease out the character's backstory during a comedic interview. Carson invented a character called "Aunt Blabby", who was similar to and possibly inspired by "Maude Frickert".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jonathan-winters-dead-groundbreaking-improv-comic-was-87/|title=Fox News obituary|work=Fox News|access-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Trailer10.jpg|thumb|''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'' (1963)]]
Winters appeared in more than 50 movies and many television shows, including particularly notable roles in the film ''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'' and in the dual roles of Henry Glenworthy and his dark, scheming brother, the Rev. Wilbur Glenworthy, in the [[The Loved One (film)|film adaptation]] of [[Evelyn Waugh]]'s novel ''[[The Loved One (book)|The Loved One]].''<ref name="beverly"/> Fellow comedians who starred with him in ''Mad World,'' such as [[Arnold Stang]], said that in the long periods while they waited between scenes, Winters entertained them for hours in their trailer by becoming any character that they suggested to him.

From December 1967 to June 1969, Winters helmed his own hour-long weekly variety program on CBS (similar to the then-popular [[Red Skelton]] and [[Carol Burnett]] shows on the same network). ''The Jonathan Winters Show'' featured guest stars of comedy and music (e.g. [[The Doors]]), recurring sketches (often featuring Winters characters such as Maude Frickert, rural Elwood P. Suggins, drunk Harold Nermlinger, Norwegian Yorny Bjorny); and an audience-request section where Winters did impressions of persons, animals, etc. in various situations, ''e.g.'', John Wayne on the Moon. Choice bits from the latter were collected and released on a 1969 Columbia LP, "Stuff 'n' Nonsense".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Jonathan-Winters-Stuff-N-Nonsense/release/1748094 |title=Jonathan Winters - Stuff 'N Nonsense (1969, Vinyl) |website=Discogs.com |access-date=2020-03-18}}</ref> He later participated in [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[The American Sportsman]]'', hosted by [[Grits Gresham]], who took celebrities on hunting, fishing, and shooting trips to exotic places around the world.<ref name="Sportsman">{{cite web | title="The American Sportsman" Ernest Borgnine, Jonathan Winters (TV Episode 1974) | website=IMDb | date=6 January 1974 | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26376397/ | access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref>

Winters made memorable appearances on both ''[[The Dean Martin Show]]'' and ''[[The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast]]'', as well as being a regular on ''[[The Andy Williams Show]]''. He also performed regularly as a panelist on ''[[The Hollywood Squares]]''. In the mid-1970s, he appeared on ABC's ''[[Good Morning America]]'' doing humorous reviews of films.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/CjLJ0bmMqtI Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190929173248/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjLJ0bmMqtI&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|author=Mike Rogers |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjLJ0bmMqtI&list=PLLcRf8RFxrRmxWhuweD1SDZrf5SYf8B8C |title=KABC-7 Nov-14-1975 Good Morning America | date=June 10, 2018 |publisher=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2020-03-18}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

During the late 1960s, Winters acted in several film comedies, most prominently ''[[The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming]]'' (1966), and ''[[Viva Max!]]'' (1969).<ref name="beverly"/> Additionally, he was a regular (along with [[Woody Allen]] and [[Jo Anne Worley]]) on a Saturday morning children's television program ''[[Hot Dog (TV series)|Hot Dog]]'' in the early 1970s. He also had his own [[Broadcast syndication|syndicated]] show called ''The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters'' from 1972 to 1974, the music director of which, [[Van Alexander]], was nominated for a [[25th Primetime Emmy Awards#Winners and Nominees|1973 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction of a Variety, Musical or Dramatic Program]].<ref name=IMBD.Com>{{cite web|title=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000223/1973|work=Primetime Emmy Awards|access-date=December 25, 2013}}</ref>