comedy show had to be half an hour, Marconi? Ida Cantor?" In 1949, Lewis had a 30-minute sustaining program that was broadcast on CBS Monday - Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The Ames Brothers and Eugenie Baird were regular performers, and the Howard Smith Orchestra provided music. In addition to Lewis's comedy, the show also included audience participation as several people in the studio answered a question posed by Lewis. A review in the trade publication Variety called Lewis "a bright spot on the afternoon spectrum". Future talk-show host and producer Merv Griffin often sang on Lewis's network radio show. Besides his many guest appearances on variety programs and game shows in the early years of television, Lewis's favorite medium as host continued with radio, first for CBS and later as a disc jockey in Los Angeles. One of his radio series, Robert Q.'s Waxworks, was devoted to playing old records, setting a pattern that later radio personalities like Dr. Demento would follow. His interview-based program was heard locally on KFI, Los Angeles, in 1972. Television Lewis was an early arrival on network television, presiding over more than one series at a time. The Robert Q. Lewis Show had a six-month run on CBS's Sunday night television lineup from July 16, 1950, to January 7, 1951. At the same time he also hosted CBS's TV talent-search variety program The Show Goes On from January 19, 1950, to February 16, 1952. He also had two daytime variety shows on CBS. The first, Robert Q's Matinee, was a 45-minute daily show, which lasted 14 weeks, from October 16, 1950, to January 19, 1951. The second, more successful The Robert Q. Lewis Show ran on CBS-TV from January 11, 1954, to May 25, 1956. Lewis was often recruited to fill in for performers who were ill or otherwise unable to perform. He frequently sat in for Arthur Godfrey, who was considered his tutor. Lewis often credited Godfrey with giving him his first big breaks in show business. Jackie Gleason invited "Robert Q. Lewis and His Gang" to take over his American Scene Magazine time slot while he was away. These emergency replacements became part of Lewis's comic monologue; he'd tell of how he phoned his mother to watch him on CBS, only to hear her say, "Oh? Who's sick?" Robert Q. became a fixture on television quiz shows in the 1950s and