THE DAVE GARROWUNWAY SHOW

THE TODAY SHOW
NBC 1954-present

THE DAVE GARROWUNWAY SHOW
MAD #26, November 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis

The first incarnation of The Today Show hosted by Dave Garroway, previously a news anchor on radio. Television was mostly a new luxury few people had and shows like this were mostly watched from the street in windows of stores that sold television sets. Sometimes the streets were shown on TV, similar to how they are on the program today.

Also like now, the show was a combination of news and entertainment, with Garroway often upstaged by a chimpanzee named J. Fred Muggs.

A few years later, MAD had J. Fred Muggs do the cover, with a behind-the-scenes explanation of how it was done.

Unlike the humans both involved and portrayed, J. Fred Muggs is known to still be alive as of this writing.