Groovy Flashback: Variety (July-August 1979)

From: Deep Dish

 When I was fifteen, I kept a scrapbook of articles, reviews, etc., from Variety for almost six months (July 1979 to January 1980) - yes, I was a pop culture enthusiast even back then. And now almost 38 years later, I thought it would be fun to share some of those collected clippings in a series of posts:

 July 25, 1979

 August 1, 1979

Eight is Enough ran for five seasons (1977-81) on ABC

The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts (aka L.A.T.E.R.) was a 1980 syndicated soap opera spoof that ran for 65 episodes.

 The Amityville Horror was the second-highest-grossing film of 1979 in the U.S. (Kramer vs. Kramer was #1).

 August 8, 1979

Here is what happened to the eight NBC series mentioned in the following article:

The Cheap Detective: Only a pilot episode was filmed.

The Facts of Life: It debuted on August 24, 1979, and ran for nine seasons.

Goodbye Girl (aka Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever): Three pilots were filmed (two with Karen Valentine, one with JoBeth Williams).

Good Time Harry: It ran for seven episodes in July-September 1980.

It Takes Two (aka Characters): Only a pilot episode was filmed.

The Sharon Gless Project: No pilot was ever filmed.

Skag: The drama ran for six episodes (including a 3-hour pilot) in January-February 1980.

United States: The half-hour dramedy starring Beau Bridges and Helen Shaver ran for seven episodes in March-April 1980 (13 episodes were filmed).

Unfortunately, for Farrah Fawcett, Sunburn was a box office flop, earning only $2.4 million (her previous film, 1978's Somebody Killed Her Husband, earned $6.1 million).

 Gilda Radner - Live From New York ran for 52 performances on Broadway.

August 22, 1979

Carol Burnett & Company ran for four episodes on ABC in August-September 1979.

 The Muppet Show aired in syndication from 1976 to 1981.

365 Groovy Books Worth Reading

From: Deep Dish

14

Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show 

by 

Coyne Steven Sanders

1990

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the CBS variety series, which ran for 26 episodes in 1963-64.

Classic Television - Prime Time

 The ABC Comedy Hour Presents the Kopycats

The ABC 1972 summer series ABC Comedy Hour Presents the Kopykats consisted of reruns of ABC Comedy Hour from earlier in the year.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Bobby Darin Amusement Company

Original Network

NBC

Original Run

July 27, 1972 - September 7, 1972

Dean Martin Presents: The Bobby Darin Amusement Company premiered on NBC at 10:00pm EDT on Thursday July 27, 1972. It was a variety hour that  co-producers Saul Illson and Ernest Chambers described as "a comedy show with music." 

The supporting cast featured Geoff Edwards (later of The New Treasure Hunt), comedian Rip Taylor, Richard Bakalyan (who was featured with Bobby in the movie Pressure Point) and Steve Landesberg (Barney Miller).

Some of the many characters that appeared on the program included Bobby's Groucho impression; the "Godmother," in which Darin was dressed in drag and interviewed by Geoff Edwards; and "Dusty John Dustin," a hippie poet backed by his drummer Tommy Amato on bongos. Some of other characters on the program were Landesberg's psychiatrist role, in which he comically analyzed Bobby every week; and "Skyway Silverman," a helicopter pilot portrayed by Rip Taylor. One weekly segment, "The Neighborhood" was a popular and significant part of the show, featuring Bobby and Bakalyan as two friends sitting on the front porch stoop of their old Italian neighborhood.

Bobby also showed off his muscial talents that summer too. Backed by his band (which included Terry Kellman, Tommy Amato and Bobby Rosario,) Mr. Darin sang many songs such as "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," "Charade," "That's All," "Artifical Flowers," "Talk to the Animals," and "Work Song." 

Each week during the summer series, Bobby had different guest stars ranging from Burt Reynolds to George Burns to Joan Rivers to Mimi Hines. He also had musical guests including Bobbie Gentry, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Debbie Reynolds. 

Darin's summer series became the highest rated summer replacement show on NBC and received overall good reviews. It returned to the air the following January. 

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine

Original channel

ITV (UK)

ABC (USA)

First shown in  

October 1,  1971 (UK)

 April 12, 1972 (USA)

Starring

Marty Feldman

Spike Milligan

John Junkin

Hugh Paddick

Frances de la Tour

Barry Levinso

The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine was a 1971 comedy-variety sketch show starring British comedian Marty Feldman. Co-produced by ATV in the UK and ABC TV in America, and was filmed at Elstree Studios. It featured opening and closing credits by Terry Gilliam, as well as featuring guest appearances by Spike Milligan, John Junkin and Frances de la Tour. It also featured sketches written by Barry Levinson and Larry Gelbart.

Classic Telvision - Prime Time

The Flip Wilson Show

Original channel

NBC

Original run

September 17, 1970 – June 27, 1974

Starring

Flip Wilson

The Flip Wilson Show is an hour long variety show that aired in the U.S. on NBC from September 17, 1970 to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs starring a black person in the title role to become highly successful with a white audience. Specifically, it was the first successful network variety series starring an African American. During its first two seasons, its Nielsen ratings made it the nation's second most watched show.

The show consisted of many skits over an hour. It also broke new ground in American television by using a 'Theatre-in-the-Round' stage format, with the audience seated on all sides of a circular performance area (with some seats located behind the sketch sets on occasion).

Wilson was most famous for creating the role of Geraldine Jones, a sassy, modern woman who had a boyfriend named Killer (who, when not in prison, was at the pool hall). Flip also created the role of Reverend Leroy, who was the minister of the Church of What's Happening Now!. New parishioners were wary of coming to the church as it was hinted that Reverend Leroy was a con artist. Wilson popularized such catchphrases as "What you see is what you get", and "The devil made me do it!".

Geraldine Jones was a huge part of The Flip Wilson Show and was played by Wilson wearing women's clothing. Some of "Geraldine's" most famous quotes are, "The devil made me buy this dress!, Don't you touch me, honey, you don't know me that well!, You devil, you!" and "What you see is what you get!"

In one episode of the show, "Geraldine" and Bill Cosby were in a skit called "The Night Nurse" where Geraldine and Bill were in a hospital. Bill was supposed to be the sick patient and Geraldine was the nurse. "She" was convinced that he was there for a swollen ego. It ends with Geraldine lying in the hospital bed watching her favorite show, Iron Hips, while Cosby leaves. In another, she is with Ray Charles and presents him with a reward from the Ray Charles Fan Club, which is a kiss on the cheek. Ray asks what he can do for her, and she says that she has been rehearsing a song in the shower for the past week that she wanted to sing with him. All in all, Geraldine Jones was a favorite of Flip Wilson Show fans, and a major part of the show and the years that the show was running.

In addition to the skits, Wilson also signed many popular singers to provide entertainment. African-American singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Pointer Sisters, Charley Pride, The Temptations, and The Supremes appeared on the program, as well as many contemporary white entertainers. Usually, the singers also chose to partake in skits with Wilson.

Wilson's clout allowed him to get both the new breakout performers (such as The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, Sandy Duncan, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Albert Brooks, Lola Falana and Melba Moore all of whom became very popular during this period) as well as established singers. In late 1971, gospel legend Mahalia Jackson made one of her last public performances on The Flip Wilson Show.

While The Flip Wilson Show first shared a studio with other television series, Wilson's massive popularity allowed for him to get his own set of soundstages, starting in the fall 1972 season. As the seasons went on, however, the show's ratings slipped; ratings across the variety show genre began a terminal decline in the mid-1970s. This, coupled with Wilson's repeated demands for higher raises in his salary, caused the series to go over its budget and led to its cancellation.

Half-hour versions of the series aired on TV Land from 1997 to 2005. In 2011, the show began airing on TV One.  As of July 2012, half-hour versions of the show have been featured on the Aspire network.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show

Original Run

March 21, 1972 - August 12, 1972

Original Network

ABC

Starring

Ken Berry

Free-form comedy/variety show starring singer/comedian Ken Barry, this 1972 summer replacement series also featured such soon-to-be-famous performers as Steve Martin, Terri Garr, and Cheryl Ladd as cast members. Off-beat sketch comedy was the order of the day on this short-lived but well-remembered series.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The John Byner Comedy Hour

Original Network

CBS

Original Run

August 01, 1972 - September 12, 1972

Starring

John Byner

John Byner had his own show in 1972 called the "John Byner Comedy Hour", where the character Super Dave was first introduced

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Jerry Reed When You're Hot, You're Hot Hour

Original Network

CBS

Original Run

 June 20, 1972 -  July 25, 1972

The Jerry Reed When You're Hot, You're Hot Hour was comedy and country music with the singer whose tune `When You're Hot You're Hot' had been a hit. And in 1972, Reed was red hot: He won a 1972 Grammy for the song, and, in 1970 and '71, had been voted the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year. He was also a regular on the show that this summer outing replaced, `The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.'

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

Original channel

CBS

Original run

August 1, 1971 – May 29, 1974

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is an American variety show starring American pop-singer Cher and her husband, Sonny Bono. The show ran on CBS in the United States, when it premiered in August 1971. The show was canceled May 1974, due to the couple's divorce, though the duo would reunite in 1976 for the identically-formatted The Sonny & Cher Show (a title sporadically used during the run of the Comedy Hour), which ran until 1977.

In 1971, Sonny and Cher had stopped producing hit singles. Cher's first feature film, Chastity, was not a success, and the duo decided to sing and tell jokes in nightclubs across the country. CBS head of programming Fred Silverman saw them one evening and offered them their own show. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was originally supposed to be a summer replacement series, but high ratings gave Silverman sufficient reason to bring it back later that year, with a permanent spot on the schedule. The show was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood.

The show was a Top 20 hit in the ratings for its entire run. Each episode would open with the show's theme song, which would segue into the first few notes of "The Beat Goes On". Every episode, Sonny would exchange banter with Cher, allowing Cher to put down Sonny in a comic manner. Comedy skits would follow, mixed in with musical numbers. Three of the regular cast members who regularly appeared in sketches were Teri Garr, Murray Langston (who later found brief fame as "The Unknown Comic" on The Gong Show), and Steve Martin (who also served as one of the show's writers). At the end of each episode, Sonny and Cher would sing their hit "I Got You Babe" to the audience, sometimes with daughter Chastity Bono in tow.

Among the many guests who appeared on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour were Carol Burnett, George Burns, Glen Campbell, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin, Phyllis Diller, Farrah Fawcett, Merv Griffin, The Jackson 5, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ronald Reagan, Burt Reynolds, The Righteous Brothers, Dinah Shore, Sally Struthers, The Supremes, Teri Garr, Chuck Berry, and Dick Clark.

The show was scheduled to return for a fourth season in October 1974. However, Sonny and Cher separated that fall, resulting in the cancellation of the show.

In 2004, selected episodes from The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour were released in a three-disc set on Region 1 DVD.

Recurring routines

The Vamp Sketch: This was a sequence featuring at least three mini-skits, each one preceded by Cher (sitting or lying on top of an old-style upright piano with Sonny pretending to play) singing one verse of the song (the lyrics usually set up the next mini-skit), followed by the chorus, "She was a scamp, a camp and a bit of tramp, she was a V-A-M-P, vamp". It ended with all the characters from each skit (even Sonny and Cher, via camera trickery, in their respective costumes) all converging to sing the final chorus together.

Sonny's Pizza: Sonny as the owner of a pizza restaurant whose food, according to almost everyone except Sonny himself, is not fit to be eaten. (The logo on the front door is augmented with the slogan, "You won't believe you ate the whole thing", a play on the then-popular Alka-Seltzer commercial.)

Mr. & Ms.: Gender-bending sketch with Cher as the bread winner in the household, working as a business executive and wearing a three-piece suit. She would come home to Sonny, a beleaguered house-husband who usually complained about how bad his day had been.

The Fortune Teller: Cher inside a fortune-telling vending machine. When Sonny would insert a quarter to hear his fortune, she would give bad news or insults, but anyone else, particularly a given week's guest star, would get a good fortune that would almost immediately come true.

At The Laundrette: Laundromat sketch with Cher as Laverne, a housewife with tacky fashion sense cracking jokes to straight-woman Olivia, played by Garr.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The ABC Comedy Hour

Original channel

ABC

Original run

January 12, 1972 – April 5, 1972

The ABC Comedy Hour is an American television variety series that aired on ABC in 1972. Seven of the 13 episodes featured a guest host and a team of comedy impressionists known as The Kopycats (Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, Joe Baker, Marilyn Michaels, Fred Travalena, Charlie Callas and George Kirby). Guest hosts included Steve Lawrence, Orson Welles, Ed Sullivan, Raymond Burr, Robert Young, Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis. The remaining six episodes were variety specials and included two Friars Club roasts and a revival of the musical Hellzapoppin' starring Jack Cassidy.

The show originally aired on Wednesday at 8:30 PM. Summer reruns of the seven Kopycats episodes were aired under the title The ABC Comedy Hour Presents the Kopycats. The same episodes aired in Great Britain simply as The Kopycats.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone

Original Run

Summer 1967

Summer 1971

Original Network

NBC

Starring:

Vic Damone

Vic Damone is a singer in the 1940s & the 1950s. In 1967, He hosted the summer variety show for the vacationing Dean Martin and in 1971, the show returned for 6-7 week period on NBC-TV.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Dean Martin Show

Original channel

NBC

Original run

September 16, 1965 – April 5, 1974

Presented by

Dean Martin

The Dean Martin Show, also known as The Dean Martin Variety Show, is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by entertainer Dean Martin. The theme song to the series was his 1964 hit "Everybody Loves Somebody."

Classic Television - Prime Time

Kraft Music Hall

Original channel

NBC

Original run

October 8, 1958 – September 1, 1971

Kraft Music Hall is an umbrella title for several television series aired by NBC in the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s in the musical variety genre, sponsored by Kraft Foods, the producers of a well-known line of cheeses and related dairy products. Their commercials were usually announced by "The Voice of Kraft", Ed Herlihy.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Red Skelton Hour

Original channel

NBC

(1951–1953; 1970–1971)

CBS

(1953–1970)

Original run

September 30, 1951 – August 1, 1971

Presented by

Red Skelton

The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke (1955–1975) and third to The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971) in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than fifteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Don Knotts Show

Original channel

NBC

Original run

15 September 1970 – 6 July 1971

Presented by

Don Knotts

The Don Knotts Show was a variety program aired by NBC as part of its 1970-71 lineup.

Long relegated to the role of sidekick, which he had portrayed for many years in several television series and films, Don Knotts was the headliner here. Each week, he and his guests put on standard TV variety fare of the era. Two recurring features were a skit about the effort involved in putting a weekly television series on the air, much in the spirit of The Jack Benny Show, and The Front Porch, in which Don and a guest would sit in rocking chairs and quietly discuss their philosophies of life. Notable regulars in his cast included Elaine Joyce and Gary Burghoff, who had previously portrayed "Radar O'Reilly" in the film version of M*A*S*H and was about to achieve his greatest fame in reprising that role for the television version of it.

Classic Television - Prime Time

The Carol Burnett Show

Original channel

CBS

Original run

September 11, 1967 – March 29, 1978

Starring

Carol Burnett

Harvey Korman

Vicki Lawrence

Lyle Waggoner

Tim Conway

Dick Van Dyke

The Carol Burnett Show (also Carol Burnett and Friends in syndication) is an American variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33. The series won 25 prime time Emmy Awards, was ranked No. 16 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002 and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All Time."

In 1967, Carol Burnett had been a popular veteran of television for 11 years, having made her first appearances on the video tube in 1956 on such programs as The Paul Winchell Show and the sitcom Stanley starring the comedian Buddy Hackett. She then began to be seen more often on television as a guest on such series as Pantomime Quiz; The Tonight Show hosted by Jack Paar; The Jack Benny Program; and The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1959, she became a regular supporting cast member on the CBS-TV variety series The Garry Moore Show. During her three-year run on the program, Burnett became a television favorite and won her first Emmy Award. During her time on Moore's series, Burnett also starred first off-Broadway and then on Broadway in the musical Once Upon a Mattress. She also guest starred on the CBS-TV interview program Person to Person (with her sister Christine) hosted by Charles Collingwood; an episode of The Twilight Zone ("Cavender Is Coming"); and headlined, with British singer-actress Julie Andrews, a highly praised CBS-TV special called Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, which resulted in Burnett winning her second Emmy Award. Also, during this period, Burnett had the opportunity to display her talents as a singer by recording two albums for Decca Records and, during the 1961-1962 season, while appearing as a regular on The Garry Moore Show, she sang and hosted a CBS radio show.

In the spring of 1962, Burnett left The Garry Moore Show to pursue other projects which included not only television, but also Broadway and films. Her Broadway career came to a halt in 1964 when right after the opening of the musical Fade Out, Fade In, Burnett was injured while riding in a taxi on her way to the theater, and started missing performances. As a result, ticket sales suffered and the musical closed soon after, a midst a great deal of legal hassling and acrimony that was unsettled for quite some time. That same year, she was signed to star in a CBS variety series, The Entertainers, which failed to catch on with the public. In the meantime, Burnett had made her not-so-auspicious motion-picture debut opposite Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery in the romantic comedy, Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963). During this transitional time, Burnett continued to appear on CBS specials with such stars as Robert Preston and Rock Hudson. Burnett also starred in television adaptations of the musicals Calamity Jane in 1963 and Once Upon A Mattress in 1964. In addition, she occasionally appeared on Garry Moore's series as a guest star and was also featured as a guest on such programs as Get Smart, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Gomer Pyle USMC, and The Lucy Show.

It was on the latter series in 1966 when Lucille Ball, who had become a mentor to the young comedienne, reportedly offered Burnett her own sitcom called Here's Agnes, to be produced by Desilu Productions. Burnett declined the offer, not wanting to pin herself down into a situation comedy, much less a weekly series. However, when Ball appeared on Burnett's variety special, Carol + 2 in March 1966, the show was such a critical and ratings success that CBS decided that Carol Burnett should be on television more often. So, instead of renewing her contract to continue performing in a series of specials for the next several years, CBS gave Burnett an ultimatum. Starting in the fall of 1967, she could either star in a situation comedy or a variety series. Faced with this decision, Burnett and her husband producer-director Joe Hamilton reluctantly decided on the latter format.

Classic Television -- Prime Time

The Andy Williams Show

Original channel

NBC

Original airing

1962

Presented by

Andy Williams

The Andy Williams Show is an American television variety show that ran from 1962 to 1971 (alternating during the summer of 1970 with Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens), and a short-lived run in syndication, beginning in the fall of 1976. It was hosted by crooner Andy Williams.

Classic Televison - Saturday Mornings

American Bandstand

Original channel

WFIL-TV (1952–1957)

ABC (1957–1987)

Syndicated (1987–1988)

USA Network (1989)

Original run

September 1952 – October 7, 1989

Presented by

Bob Horn (1952–1956)

Lee Stewart (co-host, 1952–1955)

Tony Mammarella (1956)

Dick Clark (1956–1989)

David Hirsch (1989)

American Bandstand was an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110.

The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.

NPH And Hunky Gymnast Get Physical During “Best Time Ever

Harris continues to prove he's the perfect host.
From: NewNowNext

In case you haven’t been watching Best Time Ever, it really kind of has been the best time ever.

Host Neil Patrick Harris has made each week consistently entertaining, even surprising audience members watching at home by having them suddenly appear on the show live to compete in karaoke competitions from their living rooms.

But it’s his “End of the Show Show,” where he often performs a musical number with intense choreography, that really highlights how talented NPH actually is.

This week’s was no exception, and was also pretty hot.

Harris performed a very physical dance number with a sexy gymnast, and you can see them using every muscle in their bodies to pull it off.

Check out the amazing performance below.