Today we look at an era (the early '70s) when comedy "troupes" were plentiful. When acts like Credibility Gap and Firesign Theater were known for being funny despite rarely appearing on television.
Here we have Ace Trucking Company - a team that appeared frequently on TV talk and variety shows at the time. This type of act would almost never get booked on the Tonight Show today, but Heeeeere's Johnny giving them nine whole minutes in '74.
That's Fred Willard as Professor Koffka. He's been consistently funny in many things ever since.
The stutterer is Bill Saluga aka Raymond J. Johnson, Jr. (In fact, I think he performed that character with this team).
The other two guys are Michael Mislove and George Memmoli. Memmoli (the heavier of the two) later appeared on Hello, Larry and a few other "lesser" sitcoms. The highlight of the clip might well be when he forgets his lines at around 5:50.
Patti Deutsch - famous for giving screwball answers on Match Game - also performed with Ace Trucking Company, although sadly not in this clip.
