Captain Billy's Mississippi Music Hall TV Listings

• 1948-1948
• 1 Season
• CBS
• Comedy, Music

• Watchlist
  Where to Watch

An early variety television series set aboard a Mississippi riverboat, presided over by Capt. Billy Bryant (host Ralph Dumke). The series, named after a real-life Mississippi River showman, began as a special titled 'Captain Billy's Showboat' in August 1948, but the series was forced to change its name under threat of an injunction from Edna Ferber and Oscar Hammerstein II who claimed exclusive copyright to the phrase "show boat". "Show Boat" was the best-selling novel written by Edna Ferber in 1926 which was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1927 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.