LIVE TELECAST PLANNED FOR 1ST COMEDY AWARDS

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.

Though actual comedy acts will be prominently featured, the ceremony itself will award one out of five nominees in each of 14 comedy categories, selected from a poll of 1700 people in the entertainment industry. Whoopi Goldberg, George Carlin, Steven Wright, Bob Goldthwaite and Sam Kinison will also be on hand. There will also be Lifetime Achievement Awards given in categories for both men and women.