Circus Time was a variety program presented in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by television network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

 ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 as part of its 1956-57 season.

Circus Time was not an actual circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 broadcast but rather a circus-themed program, in which both traditional circus acts and more traditional mainstream forms of entertainment were presented. The host, or "ringmaster" in the show's parlance, was ventriloquist

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...

 Paul Winchell

Paul Winchell

Paul Winchell was an American ventriloquist, voice actor and comedian, whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s...

, who was "assisted" by his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. Mainstream musical guests appearing on the program at times included Mickey and Sylvia and the Dell Vikings.