Remembering Steve Allen

2027 will be here before you know it, and as each new year takes us further away from the earliest days of television, the likelihood intensifies of its pioneers being forgotten. It’s unfortunate that this happens with television but not with movies. In the Criterion Closet videos on YouTube you’ll see celebrities in their 20s honoring films older than their grandparents. Whether it’s Fellini or Bergman, Chaplin or Tati, Kubrick or Kurosawa, they know the movies and why they should be known.Why should television be different? Maybe it’s because so much of the work of its first generation of stars has been lost, as it was never deemed important enough to be preserved in the first place. But there’s still plenty left to attest to the talent of these creators, and their impact on the medium. Steve Allen belongs on everyone’s short list of TV’s most influential figures.He had the ingenuity of Ernie Kovacs, the quick wit of Robin Williams and, like Johnny Carson, he had the ability to…