The Entertainers is a one-hour American variety show that aired on CBS from September 25, 1964 through March 27, 1965 on the 1964–1965 United States network television schedule. The series, produced by Joe Hamilton, featured three stars, Hamilton's wife Carol Burnett, Caterina Valente, and Bob Newhart. Burnett left her role in the Broadway musical Fade Out - Fade In to star in the series and later was sued by the show's producers for doing so.

Each week, the series, originating from New York, presented comedy sketches and musical numbers performed by a regular repertory company and one or two guest stars (such as Boris Karloff, Phil Silvers, and Chita Rivera). Initially it aired on Friday night at 8:30pm ET/PT. In January 1965 it moved to Saturday night at 9:00pm ET/PT. Newhart and a few of the regular performers left the cast, and Burnett and Valente appeared as co-stars in every remaining episode.

The repertory company included:

Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" (born Michael Barratt, 4 March 1948) is a platinum-selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s. His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw commercial success in his native land. In the UK alone, Stevens has charted 33 Top 40 hit singles.

Michael Barratt, who would adopt the stage name Shakin' Stevens, was the youngest of 11 children born in Ely, a suburb on the outskirts of Cardiff in South Wales to Jack and May Barratt. His father was a First World War veteran who by 1948 was working in the building trade. The oldest of his siblings were born in the later part of the 1920s, and by the time of his birth some of them were already married and had children of their own. Jack Barratt died in 1972 at the age of 75, while May survived until 1984 and the age of 79.

Shaky married his wife Carole on 7 October 1967 and they have three children. At the time of their marriage, his official occupation was a milkman, and they lived in a flat which formed part of an office block in inner-city Cardiff. The office block was demolished several years later.

The Cambridge Buskers were a duo of British musicians, whose career began in the late 1970s and are now called The Classic Buskers, still going strong today.

Michael Copley and Dag Ingram met when they were students at Cambridge University. According to the liner notes of their first recording, their musical association began when they found themselves at the Blackfriars station without enough money for the fare to get home. In an attempt to raise the money from passers-by, they played The Entertainer and Eine kleine Nachtmusik for a while, until they were asked to leave by a London Transport official.

Subsequently, they gained international success with their performances and many recordings, and have performed in over 20 countries and in 15 languages. It is reported that at one point a Japanese comic strip was written about them.

The accordionist is no longer Dag Ingram, but Ian Moore, a talented organist, composer and singer (and a winner of the Doris Wookey Organ prize).

The Classic Buskers still write their own arrangements, primarily of classical works by famous composers. Ian Moore plays piano accordion, uses his voice, and occasionally other percussion instruments or props. Copley plays a variety of woodwind instruments, including flute, recorder, ocarina, and crumhorn.

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s. The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums states Donegan was "Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles. He chalked up 24 successive Top 30 hits, and was the first UK male to score two U.S. Top 10s".

Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his family in 1933 to East Ham, Essex (now in Greater London).

Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in World War II, and he attended St Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.

In the early 1940s he mostly listened to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen in 1945. From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' On the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun". By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.

Roy Frank Drusky Jr., (June 22, 1930 – September 23, 2004) was an American country music singer popular from the 1960s through the early 1970s. Known for his baritone voice, he was known for incorporating the Nashville sound. His highest-charting single was the No. 1 "Yes Mr. Peters", a duet with Priscilla Mitchell.

Drusky was born in 1930, in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother, a church organist, had tried for years to get her son into music as a child, but he was focused more on sports. Originally planning to become a baseball player, he began his music career in the early 1950s performing on a Decatur, Georgia radio station. He began singing while in the US Navy during the 1940s, and later attended Emory University and studied veterinary medicine. During this time, he also played country music with a group he founded, the Southern Ranch Boys.

Drusky also worked as a disc jockey. In 1953, he signed with Starday Records; the first single he released was called "Such a Fool". That same year, he joined the Grand Ole Opry. A couple of years later, he recorded for Columbia Records, but none of his work gained much success.