amateur hour

, the host of Major Bowes Amateur Hour which was broadcast on the radio in the US from 1934 to 1945]] Probably from the names of series of US radio and television programs such as Major Bowes Amateur Hour (broadcast on the radio 1934–1945) and The Original Amateur Hour (on the radio 1948–1952, and on television 1948–1970).

• "Two years into its first term the [Jimmy] Carter Administration developed a foreign policy that seems in perfect continuity with its six predecessors. […] Little change has taken place during what has been called "the amateur hour" except for a slight quickening of the Cold War pulse."
• "The First World War may have brought, as Dos Passos maintained, an end to "the bully amateur's world," but amateur hour was already closing down as American soldiers struggled up San Juan Hill. Three books written between 1897 and 1899 are flashes that streaked the sky at the moment "the boy culture" of volunteers was displaced (and absorbed) by the "dirtywork" of regulars committed to the culture of management."
• ""It's the kind of foul-up that suggests that his [Rudy Giuliani's] campaign team isn't functioning as well as it should," the G.O.P. source said. "Presidential campaigns are not the time for amateur hour.""
• "Next week, at some place in Indianapolis where time has been instructed to stand still, Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association], will convene what is being called, without irony, a "retreat." Assembled will be about 50 college presidents, pledged, it seems, to make sure that college athletics continue to remain firmly in the past, in the antiquated amateur hours."