The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...

, which ran from 1952 to 1970.
Gleason's first variety series was aired on the DuMont Television Network

DuMont Television Network

The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...

 under the title Cavalcade of Stars. The show's first host was Jack Carter

Jack Carter (comedian)

Jack Chakrin , known by his professional name of Jack Carter, is a Jewish-American comedian, actor and host. Brooklyn Born Carter had long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid pace contemporaries Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam...

, who was followed by Jerry Lester. After Lester quit the show in June 1950 (soon to become the star of NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's first late-night series, Broadway Open House

Broadway Open House

Broadway Open House, network television's first late-night comedy-variety series, was telecast live on NBC from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight...

), Gleason—who had made his mark on the first television incarnation of The Life of Riley

The Life of Riley

The Life of Riley, with William Bendix in the title role, is a popular American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a long-run 1950s television series , and a 1958 Dell comic book...

sitcom—stepped into Cavalcade on July 15, 1950, and became an immediate sensation.

The show was broadcast live, in front of a theater audience, and offered the same kind of vaudevillian entertainment common to early-TV revues.