Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Carol Burnett, Shirley MacLaine and Red Buttons will be among 1,000 people expected to attend the first Comedy Awards Show Tuesday at the Palladium, according to producer George Schlatter. The show, which airs live on ABC-TV from 9-11 p.m., will celebrate what Schlatter has termed "Comedy as the backbone of the motion picture business, the TV and recording industries."
"Comedy is the phenomenon of the '80s, and this will be the first time it's had proper recognition," said Schlatter, who was a producer of "Laugh-In," the hit comedy of the late '60s, and recently produced the HBO special on Gerald Ford's "Symposium on Presidential Humor" from Grand Rapids, Mich.
