Here's a full episode of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast so we get to play our little game, figuring out who was there and who was taped at another time and maybe place and edited in. This is a roast of George Burns and it originally aired on May 17, 1978. Let's start by taking note of who enters from the left to sit on the left side of the dais and who's on the right…
- ENTERING FROM THE LEFT: Gene Kelly, Dom DeLuise, Ronald Reagan, LaWanda Page, Jimmy Stewart, Milton Berle, Don Rickles, Orson Welles, Jack Carter
- ENTERING FROM THE RIGHT: Connie Stevens, Red Buttons, Abe Vigoda, Tom Dreesen, Phyllis Diller, Frank Welker.
That's fifteen people plus Dean and the honoree so they have seventeen people allegedly on the dais. But in the wide shot, there are only fourteen. Rickles, Stewart and Reagan have disappeared. As the show progresses, it's obvious that Stewart and Reagan were taped at another time and place with none of the others present. There's not even a shot of either man with the honoree.
Rickles is only seen on the dais briefly when he's introduced. Ruth Buzzi was not introduced or seated in the opening but later, you see her on the dais occupying a seat.
The way they did these was to first tape the walk-ons. shots of each roaster laughing and shots of most roasters (not all) walking from their seats to the dais. Then as roasters finished their spots at the lectern, they could leave. Frank Welker told me that when he taped his speech, the only folks present were Dean, George Burns and himself — and crew members were surprised Dean stayed as long as he did. Sometimes, director Greg Garrison would record all of Dean's intros at the top in case Dean got bored and wanted to leave.
A friend of mine who's made a careful study of these roasts says that sometimes, they reused footage of someone seated on the dais and laughing from another show. All the men were wearing tuxedos so a shot of, say, Orson Welles laughing at one roast could be reused on another roast.
When I was starting out, I sold five jokes to the show — to Harry Crane, who was then the head writer. Two of them were read off the cue cards by Dean in their roast of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. I asked Mr. Crane about the others they'd paid me (not much) for. He said they were taped but edited out and he was going to switch them to other celebs and use them in other shows but I never saw them on air. That's how patchwork all these shows were…