THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW

The Andy Williams Show was an American television variety show hosted by singer Andy Williams that ran from 1962 to 1971 (alternating during the summer of 1970 with Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens). It became a half-hour syndicated series beginning in the fall of 1976. The first series began as a summer replacement on CBS in 1959. The weekly year-round series premiered on NBC in 1962, where it ran until 1967, when William reduced his workload to three specials a year. He returned to having a weekly series from 1969 through 1971.

At the beginning of the series The New Christy Minstrels were the backup singers, but on December 20, 1962 The Osmond Brothers appeared on the show, and they became the regular backup performers for the rest of the series run.

In 1967 Williams decided to cut back to three specials per year. However, two years later he returned to weekly television in a revised format that included rock and roll acts and psychedelic lighting.

Starting with the 1969 season more emphasis was placed on comedy. Hungarian acrobat and stuntman Janos Prohaska began appearing in a bear costume, asking for cookies. The bear never got any cookies on the series, but fans began mailing baked goods to Prohaska.

Five years after his second weekly run at NBC had ended, Williams hosted a half-hour syndicated weekly variety show with Wayland Flowers and orchestra leader George Wyle.

 

 

THE !!!! BEAT

The !!! Beat is an American television program that aired in syndication for 26 episodes in 1966. It was hosted by the Nashville, Tennessee based disc jockey Bill "Hoss" Allen, and featured a house band led by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. The show was recorded in color at WFAA, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, which had color facilities, and recorded and syndicated episodes of the program. At that time, none of the Nashville stations had color capability. Guests included: Otis Redding, Little Milton, Esther Phillips, Joe Tex, Etta James, Lattimore Brown, Roscoe Shelton, Carla Thomas, Freddie King, Barbara Lynn, Johnny Taylor, The Radiants, Louis Jordan, The Mighty Hannibal, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, Robert Parker, Joe Simon, Mitty Collier, Jamo Thomas, Z. Z. Hill, Lou Rawls, Bobby Hebb, Willie Mitchell, Don Bryant, The Ovations, The Bar-Kays, Percy Sledge, Garnet Mimms, and Sam & Dave all appeared. Some of the artists would also chart well into the 1970s. In 2005, Bear Family Records released all 26 episodes of the show (on six discs) on Region 1 DVD in the United States.

 

15 EPISODES OF THE !!! BEAT

 

 

 

THE BUDDY DEANE SHOW

The Buddy Deane Show was an American teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston “Buddy” Deane (1924–2003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand.

The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because of a feud Deane had with WJZ-TV regarding the integration of African-American dancers on the program; WJZ-TV wanted virulently to have said dancers booked for his program, but Deane felt that the city of Baltimore had Southern orientations and that its white population would be greatly resistant to the inclusion of those dancers as a result.

Deane's dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was for a time the most popular local show in the United States. It aired for two and a half hours a day, six days a week. Teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as "The Committee". Committee members included Jonas and Joanie Cash, Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Hundreds of thousands of teens learned the latest dances by watching Committee members on the show, copying their personal style, and following their life stories and interactions.

Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on The Buddy Deane Show. Acts that appeared on the show first reportedly were barred from appearing on American Bandstand, but if they had been on Bandstand first they could still be on The Buddy Deane Show. The rivalry with Dick Clark meant that Deane urged all his performers not to mention American Bandstand or visits to Clark in Philadelphia. Although WJZ-TV, owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting (now CBS since January 2, 1995), was an ABC affiliate, the station "blacked out" the network broadcast of American Bandstand in Baltimore and instead broadcast the Deane program, reportedly because Bandstand showed black teenagers dancing on the show (but black and white teenagers were not allowed to dance together until the show was moved to California in 1964). The Deane program set aside every other Friday for a show featuring only black teenagers. For the rest of the time, the show's participants were all white. However, as the civil rights movement gained strength in the United States, WJZ-TV began insisting on the program having a regular lineup of racially-integrated dancers. Deane complied briefly, featuring such a lineup for a few months until protests from segregationists prompted him to have a racially-segregated lineup of dancers again, prompting protests from integrationists. Deane, who believed his program fell victim to the debate over integrated dancing, remarked, on the subject of it being incorporated on his show, that "you're in trouble if you do and in trouble if you don't." WJZ-TV denied that the debate over integration had played a role in the series' cancellation, arguing that the decision was instead brought about by changing musical tastes and declining ratings for the program.

Owing to Deane's mid-South roots and work history, he featured many performers from the ranks of country and western music (e.g., Skeeter Davis, singing "The End of the World" and Brenda Lee singing "Sweet Nothin's"), who then achieved crossover hits among rock and roll fans. Deane also played songs that other disc jockeys, including Dick Clark, refused to present to mostly white teen TV audiences because the acts sounded "too black" (e.g. "Do You Love Me" by The Contours, or "Hide and Go Seek" by Bunker Hill). With an ear for music seasoned by many more years as a disc jockey than Clark, Deane brought to his audience a wider array of white musical acts than were seen on American Bandstand. For example, Carole King appeared on the show playing her single "It Might as Well Rain Until September", nearly a decade before she achieved popularity with her 1970 album Tapestry. Deane also presented British artist Helen Shapiro, who sang her Baltimore hit "Tell Me What He Said" at about the time that she was touring England with The Beatles as one of her supporting acts.

Deane organized and disc-jockeyed dances in public venues across the WJZ-TV broadcast area, including much of central Maryland, Delaware, and southern Pennsylvania where tens of thousands of teenagers were exposed to live recording artists and TV personalities. In several instances, the show went on location to the Milford Mill swim club on the westside of suburban Baltimore County. Almost all dancers wore swimwear and beach attire, with music provided by WJZ-TV. One show was even broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. Participants dressed in "country" style and danced to country and western music as well as pop. Several local art contests were held on the show, with viewers submitting their own art work. Deane held dances at various Maryland American Legion posts and National Guard armories, which were not taped or broadcast on television.

"Buddy" Deane was a broadcaster for more than 50 years, beginning his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, moving to the Memphis, Tennessee market, and moving to Baltimore, where he worked at WITH radio. He was one of the early disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock and roll. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003 after suffering a stroke. He was 78.

 

 

THE CLAY COLE SHOW

The Clay Cole Show (1959–1967) was an American rock music television show based in New York City, hosted by Clay Cole. First broadcast on WNTA-TV (now WNET) in September 1959 as Rate the Records, within two months the format was changed, and an hour-long Saturday-night show was added. In the summer months, the show was expanded to an hour, six nights a week, live from New Jersey's Palisades Amusement Park, where Chubby Checker first performed and danced "The Twist". In 1963, the show moved to WPIX-TV, where for five years it was successful, thanks to first-time guest appearances of the Rolling Stones (on a program with one other guest act – the Beatles), Neil Diamond, Dionne Warwick, Simon & Garfunkel, Richie Havens, Tony Orlando, Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Rascals. On the WPIX version's first few months, it was titled Clay Cole at the Moon Bowl and was taped at the Bronx-based amusement park Freedomland U.S.A.. For the first WPIX edition, his guests were Lionel Hampton, Bobby Darin, Joey Dee and the Starlighters.

In 1965 the show was renamed Clay Cole's Discotek. Clay produced a full hour with just one guest, Tony Bennett. Clay's all-star, ten-day Christmas Show in 1960 at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater holds the all-time box-office record for that theater.

Cole was the first to introduce stand-up comics such as Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Fannie Flagg to a teen audience. He was the first to produce a full hour of all-black performers, his historic Salute to Motown. Unlike other teen music show hosts, Cole danced to the music he played on his shows; he was also unafraid to book lesser-known performers.

In December 1967, at the height of his show's popularity, Cole left the show and moved to then-NBC-owned-and-operated station WKYC in Cleveland. He was reportedly unhappy with the shift in pop music to psychedelic acid rock and heavy metal. The final edition of his program in New York aired on December 16, 1967. He hosted the first half hour, featuring live guests Paul Anka and Bobby Vee and a film performance from the Beatles. In the second half hour, he introduced the host that replaced him on WPIX: Canadian singer Peter Martin.

His memoir of the early years of rock and roll and live television, Sh-Boom! The Explosion of Rock 'n' Roll (1953-1968) has been published by Morgan James. Cole died on December 18, 2010.

 

 

HOLLYWOOD A GO GO

Hollywood A Go Go was a Los Angeles–based music variety show that ran in syndication from 1965 to 1966. The show was hosted by Sam Riddle, with music by The Sinners and dancing by The Gazzarri Dancers. It was filmed at the KHJ-TV studios in Los Angeles. Rights to surviving footage of the show (preserved on kinescope film) are now represented by Retro Video, Inc. The program originated as a spinoff of the daily program 9th Street West called 9th Street a Go Go, which aired on Saturdays on KHJ-TV (Channel 9). The show proved to be such a success that it transformed into the nationally syndicated Hollywood a Go Go. The first episode of Hollywood a Go Go aired in February 1965. Its original syndicator was Four Star Television. The show ceased production in 1966, with some television stations airing the show as late as the summer of 1966. In its brief run (52 episodes), the show featured various well-known acts. The Sinners were the house band featuring Eddie Kaplan on lead guitar.

After viewing the debut episode in 1965, a Billboard reviewer wrote:

One gets the feeling of being amidst a Zulu uprising or witnessing a contemporary interpretation of Dante's Inferno. Host Sam Riddle...introduces his guests shouting at the top of his voice to the accompaniment of jungle drums (there must be a message in there somewhere). The set is reminiscent of a speakeasy or a prison yard with its stone wall backdrop...During the lip-synched performances of the guest artists, members of the Gazzarri dancers swing, sway, weave and gyrate with flailing arms from a postage stamp sized stage, step ladders and other lofty perches...The tempo is mostly upbeat with the emphasis on the driving, breast-beating sounds. With more than half of this nation's population seen to be under 25 years of age, there is much practical economics in this programming.

  • Ike & Tina Turner
  • The Rolling Stones
  • The Everly Brothers
  • Frankie Lymon
  • Marvin Gaye
  • Edwin Starr
  • The Ronettes
  • Del Shannon
  • Bobby Vee
  • Peter and Gordon
  • Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
  • The Challengers
  • The Impressions
  • James Brown
  • Jackie Wilson
  • Rick Nelson
  • Lesley Gore
  • Fontella Bass
  • Wilson Pickett
  • James Darren
  • Tommy Roe
  • Booker T & The MGs
  • Bo Diddley
  • Freddy Cannon
  • Sonny & Cher
  • Jackie DeShannon
  • Sam the Sham
  • The Byrds
  • The Turtles
  • The Toys
  • The Beau Brummels
  • Bobby Fuller Four
  • The Knickerbockers
  • The Fugitives
  • Lou Christie
  • Bob Lind
  • Don Julian 
  • The Kingsmen
  • Roy Head
  • Bobby Freeman
  • Billy Joe Royal
  • The Association
  • Glen Campbell
  • P. J. Proby
  • Chuck Berry
  • Aretha Franklin
  • The Clinger Sisters

 

 

 

HOOTENANNY

Hootenanny was an American musical variety television show broadcast on ABC from April 1963 to September 1964. The program was hosted by Jack Linkletter. It primarily featured pop-oriented folk music acts, including The Journeymen, The Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, The Brothers Four, Ian & Sylvia, The Big 3, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Tarriers, Bud & Travis, and the Smothers Brothers. Although both popular and influential, the program is primarily remembered today for the controversy created when the producers blacklisted certain folk music acts, which then led to a boycott by others. After two seasons, the shifting musical tastes of the era- heavily influenced by the British Invasion starting in 1964 - and a decline in the program's variety led to its effective replacement by Shindig!, a similar but more broadly-based and pop music oriented variety program. Hootenanny was created in 1962 by Dan Melnick, Vice President of ABC-TV, and the Ashley-Steiner Talent Agency. The pilot was conceived as a half-hour special. The agency and network hired producer-director Gil Cates to oversee the initial production. It was Cates’ idea to tape the program at a college campus, and to liberally include the student audience on camera, singing and clapping along with the music. Cates staged the show as theater in the round, with the students seated on the floor or in bleachers, surrounding the performers.

With Cates at the helm, the pilot was videotaped in the fall of 1962 at Syracuse University in New York. Fred Weintraub, owner of The Bitter End, a folk music club in New York's Greenwich Village, served as talent coordinator (and would continue to do so throughout the series’ run), ensuring that performers would not be limited to clients of the Ashley-Steiner agency.

New York radio personality Jean Shepherd was the original emcee, and four folk acts appeared in the pilot: The Limeliters, Mike Settle, Jo Mapes and Clara Ward’s Gospel Singers. Rather than showcase acts once per show, each performer/group would do a song, then yield the stage to another and return later in the program. Occasionally two otherwise unrelated acts would team up for a duet. The final result was so well-received by network executives that the idea of airing the pilot as a stand-alone special was jettisoned, and production on the series began.

Producer Richard Lewine was put in charge and Garth Dietrick assumed the director’s chair. The first thing Lewine did was to replace Shepherd with Jack Linkletter. (When the original pilot aired in June 1963, Shepherd's scenes had been removed and Linkletter was spliced in.) As Shepherd had done, Linkletter would discreetly provide information about the performer(s) and/or the song(s) they would sing as each act took the stage. Linkletter described his role as "an interpreter. The people at home hear what I have to say, but not the ones at the performance. (The feeling is) that the Hootenanny would be going on whether we were there or not." On February 26, 1963, their first two Hootenanny programs were taped at George Washington University in the District of Columbia.

Overall, critical reaction was favorable, although Variety's reviewer felt it "lacked the spark and spirit that is found in 'live' college and concert dates" and predicted the series would do little to increase the popularity of folk music – a prediction that would soon prove erroneous. Most critics agreed with the New York Times’ Jack Gould, who labeled Hootenanny "the hit of the spring."

The Nielsen ratings justified ABC's faith in the concept. The first program garnered a 26% share of the viewing audience; this increased to 32% for the second show. By the end of April, ABC announced that Hootenanny would return in the fall as a one-hour show, provided the ratings held up. They did - Hootenanny soon becoming the network's second-most popular show, after Ben Casey, with a peak audience of 11 million viewers per week.

By the time Hootenanny concluded its first 13 weeks, a craze had been born. A front-page Variety story noted that "the big demand for the folk performers in virtually all areas of show biz (records, concerts, college dates, TV, pix) is stimulating a new folk form that can appeal to a mass audience. Among writers now contributing to the new-styled folk song are Bob Dylan, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton, Shel Silverstein, Bob Gibson, Malvina Reynolds, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie." MGM's Sam Katzman produced Hootenanny Hoot, a motion picture featuring The Brothers Four, Johnny Cash, Judy Henske, Joe and Eddie, Cathie Taylor, The Gateway Trio and Sheb Wooley – all of whom did or would appear on Hootenanny. Record labels from the independent Folkways and Elektra to the mainstream Columbia and RCA-Victor released folk music compilation albums with "Hootenanny" in the title.

Two bi-monthly magazines appeared on newsstands: Hootenanny, edited by Robert Shelton with Lynn Musgrave, and ABC-TV Hootenanny, edited by music critic Linda Solomon. Mainstream magazines such as Time and Look reported on the folk craze, with the latter calling Hootenanny the "final proof that folk music has gone big-time."

Despite its popular appeal - or perhaps because of it - the overall reaction to Hootenanny by serious folk music critics was one of scorn. In an article for Shelton's Hootenanny magazine, Nat Hentoff savaged the program, writing "Aside from the fact that a sizable proportion of each week's cast has been echt fake, the 'Hootenanny Show' aura has also diluted the work of many of its performers with some credentials as folk singers." He also chided the students comprising the audience: "(Be) not deceived that the campus activists for social change are in the majority. If you want to see the moyen American college student, watch the TV 'Hootenanny' show." Editor Shelton, however, eventually acknowledged that "some good performances did sneak through; some obscure musicians won recognition. The TV series probably led millions of its viewers toward quality songs."

When the series resumed in the fall of 1963, it had been expanded to a full hour with a slightly altered format. Although the program continued to primarily showcase folk music, other genres were added to the mix: jazz (represented by such performers as Herbie Mann, Pete Fountain, Stan Getz and Stan Rubin's Tigertown Five), country (artists such as Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Flatt & Scruggs and Homer & Jethro) and gospel (The Staple Singers, Clara Ward, Bessie Griffin and Alex Bradford). The second season also added a spot for stand-up comedy; the best-known participants being Woody Allen, Bill Cosby (in his network TV debut), Jackie Vernon, Pat Harrington, Jr. and Stiller & Meara. Changes in the format continued as the season progressed. Commencing with episodes airing in January 1964, all the artists remained on stage throughout the show, seated behind whoever was performing; and Jack Linkletter no longer made all the introductions - many were handled by the artists themselves, one act introducing another. A permanent theme song was also introduced this season: Hootenanny Saturday Night, written by Lewine and Alfred Uhry. The theme was performed by the artists appearing that particular week; although the Chad Mitchell Trio were the first to sing it, the version performed by The Brothers Four at the University of Pittsburgh was released by Columbia Records as a single.

The second season also saw the debut of Hootenanny's "home-grown" creation, The Serendipity Singers. "Discovered" by talent coordinator Fred Weintraub, the Serendipities were a nine-member folk chorale closely patterned after The New Christy Minstrels. The group appeared in eight of the 30 shows produced that season, and had a major hit in spring 1964 with "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)". The group, with various member changes, continued for decades after Hootenanny's demise.

Even before it reached the airwaves, Hootenanny created controversy in the folk music world. In mid-March, word circulated that the producers would not invite folk singer Pete Seeger, nor Seeger's former group The Weavers, to appear on the show. Both Seeger and the Weavers were alleged to have overly left-wing views; in Seeger's case, he had been convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to discuss his political affiliations with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1955 – although the conviction had been overturned on appeal in May 1962.

Variety broke the story in its March 20, 1963, issue, reporting that folk singer Joan Baez had refused to appear on the show because of the blacklisting. That same week, several folk artists gathered at The Village Gate in New York City to discuss forming an organized boycott, but opted instead to send telegrams of concern to ABC executives, producer Lewine and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Although Seeger and the Weavers were also banned from NBC and CBS variety shows, the Hootenanny issue rankled because Seeger and his long-time associate Woody Guthrie were the first to popularize the term ‘hootenanny’ as a gathering of folk musicians.

Seeger encouraged his fellow artists not to boycott but to accept Hootenanny invitations, so as to promote the popularity of the folk genre. Nevertheless, by the end of March three other folk acts had joined Joan Baez in boycotting the show: Tom Paxton, Barbara Dane and The Greenbriar Boys, a bluegrass trio. Some weeks later, Guthrie disciple Ramblin' Jack Elliott announced he, too, was boycotting Hootenanny.

Over the years, other arguably better-known folk performers have been associated with the Hootenanny boycott; these include Dylan (who mentioned the show in his song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues"), Peter, Paul & Mary, Phil Ochs and The Kingston Trio. However, the ones who specifically announced their participation in the boycott at the time were Joan Baez, Barbara Dane, Tom Paxton, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and The Greenbriar Boys. The Greenbriar Boys eventually appeared on the October 19, 1963, broadcast, backing Los Angeles folk and country singer Dian James. However, John Herald, the band's guitarist and lead vocalist, did not participate. Some artists who had performed on the show would refuse future Hootenanny appearances for creative, rather than political, reasons; these include Judy Collins and Theodore Bikel.

With the expansion of Hootenanny to one hour weekly, effective with the broadcast of September 21, 1963, the producers made overtures to Pete Seeger. However, there was a caveat, spelled out in a letter from network executives: "ABC will consider Mr. Seeger’s use on the program only if he furnishes an affidavit as to his past and present affiliations, if any, with the Communist Party, and/or with the Communist front organizations. Upon doing so, the company will undertake to consider his statement in relation to all the objective data available to it, and will advise you promptly [if] it will approve the employment of Mr. Seeger." Seeger, naturally, refused to provide anything that smacked of a loyalty oath, and his manager, Harold Leventhal, made the story public - which only encouraged others to refuse appearances.

ABC tentatively renewed Hootenanny for a third season, but a major shift in popular music brought about a last-minute reversal. The 1964 British Invasion eclipsed the folk music craze among younger viewers, resulting in a decline in Hootenanny’s viewership to about seven million by the end of April 1964, prior to the start of reruns. Not only viewers, but musicians, were affected by the Invasion; performers such as Gene Clark (The New Christy Minstrels), John Phillips (The Journeymen), Cass Elliot (The Big 3) and John Sebastian (The Even Dozen Jug Band) - all of whom had appeared on Hootenanny's second season - abandoned folk music to form very successful pop-rock groups including The Byrds (Clark), The Mamas & the Papas (Phillips and Elliott) and The Lovin' Spoonful (Sebastian).

There were other factors that contributed to Hootenanny's demise, not least of which was repetition of both songs and artists. Eventually, it seemed that audiences were likely to see The Serendipity Singers, or The New Christy Minstrels, or The Brothers Four every time they watched; occasionally, they would see two of these three acts. Faced with a dwindling talent pool, growing viewer indifference, and competition in the time slot from the Jackie Gleason Show airing on CBS, ABC announced on June 8 that Hootenanny would be canceled. Another series with youth appeal, The Outer Limits, moved into its Saturday evening timeslot, and ABC added a hastily scheduled Wednesday-night show with more broadly focused music: Shindig!

The network erased its videotapes of the show many years ago, but kinescopes of several Hootenanny segments survive and were used to compile the Best of Hootenanny DVD set from Shout! Factory.

 

 

 

MALIBU U

Malibu U  is an American variety show that aired in the summer of 1967 on ABC. The series starred Ricky Nelson, and aired on Friday evenings from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. On the series, Nelson starred as the "Dean of the Drop-Ins" of a fictional college called Malibu U. Regulars included Robie Porter as "President of the Student Body" and the Mali-beauties dancers.

In each episode three well-known performers, called "Visiting Professors," sang. Two of the performers were filmed on the beach, and the third was filmed in another unusual location. On the July 28, 1967 episode Leonard Nimoy sang the novelty song The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. Other guest stars included Annette Funicello, Don Ho and The Four Seasons with Frankie Valli.

Some of the classes taught at Malibu U were surfing and sunbathing. A newspaper article stated that the series would "present the new fads, fashions and foibles of the young world."

  1. July 21: guest stars Frankie Valli, Don Ho, Annette Funicello
  2. July 28: guest stars Leonard Nimoy, Buffalo Springfield, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bobby Rydell, Mrs. Miller
  3. August 4: guest stars James Darren, Harper's Bizarre, Frankie Randall, The Happenings
  4. August 11: guest stars The Turtles, Lou Rawls, Lesley Gore, Don and the Goodtimes
  5. August 18: guest stars John Astin, The 5th Dimension, The Sunshine Company, Roger Williams
  6. August 25: guest stars The Doors, Marvin Gaye, Chad & Jeremy, Lou Christie
  7. September 1: guest stars Dionne Warwick, The Breed, Peter and Gordon, Sandy Posey

 

 

THE MUSIC SCENE

The Music Scene is a television series aired by the ABC Television Network in its Fall 1969 lineup, featuring primarily rock and pop music. The 45-minute program aired Mondays at 7:30 pm. It was paired with a second 45-minute program, The New People, to form a 90-minute block intended to compete with the more popular offering on NBC, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.  The Music Scene was conceived as a musical-variety show with rotating hosts and contemporary rock and pop artists. It led a completely revamped Monday night schedule, reflecting ABC's effort to balance programming that targeted younger viewers with legacy shows catering to an older audience, such as The Lawrence Welk Show.

The odd 45-minute length of the show was designed to break what ABC called the viewers' "almost automatic inclination" to tune in to NBC at 8:00 pm for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. The theory was that when The Music Scene was over at 8:15 pm, the network would go immediately into The New People, and Laugh-In would be forgotten.

According to producer Ken Fritz, The Music Scene was to be centered around the latest chart hit records, previewing new artists and their recordings as based on information supplied by Billboard magazine. Stan Harris was director and co-producer. Carl Gottlieb, who had worked on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the previous television season, was lead writer.

As originally conceived, the broadcast was to showcase popular recordings topping the charts in every major category, which ABC classified as Long Playing Records, Country-and-Western, Rhythm and Blues, Easy Listening, and Comedy Albums. It was later clarified that the show would bridge all formats, including rock. The West Coast comedy troupe The Committee was early slated to serve as host and guide. However, hosting duties subsequently were handed to improvisational comedians, to weave the broadcast of top hits with topical humor. David Steinberg, Chris Ross, and Lily Tomlin were originally selected, with Steinberg signed on as a regular staff writer. Three additional comedians were subsequently chosen to share hosting, Chris Bokena, Larry Hankin, and Paul Reid Roman. Ultimately, Steinberg was named the regular host, and the focus of the comedic element changed to individual humor rather than skit comedy. He was joined by a guest host each week, a performing artist such as Tommy Smothers or Bobby Sherman.

In April 1969, producer Ken Fritz previewed The Music Scene to industry executives attending the International Music Industry Conference at Paradise Island, The Bahamas. He made the promotional film available to record companies and other industry organizations for preview showings at record distributor meetings, to highlight the program's ties to the record business. The conference was sponsored by Billboard magazine, which provided the program with chart information on weekly top hits.

Two weeks prior to the television premiere of The Music Scene, a live preview performance of the show was staged in the ABC Television Center, Hollywood. It featured Janis Joplin, John Mayall, Roger Miller, and Three Dog Night. Much of the two-hour concert was recorded for later use on the TV show.

Premiering September 22, 1969, The Music Scene, said Billboard magazine, went “into high gear rapidly with the greatest soul singer of them all—James Brown—performing World.” Performances followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Buck Owens; Oliver; Three Dog Night; and Tom Jones. The program included a special film segment from The Beatles involving their (censored) performance of The Ballad of John and Yoko, and concluded with a comedic sketch built around the No. 1 tune in the nation, Sugar, Sugar.

Critical reaction to the broadcast was generally favorable. Jack Gould of The New York Times said, “The show was clearly designed for a specific generation, something that apparently may be prevalent in the coming season.” The New York Post’s Bob Williams characterized the show as “a latter day version of The Hit Parade, drawing as it did on the new top pop tunes.” Similarly, Rick DuBrow of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch labeled the broadcast “Hit Parade 1969, sharply aimed at record buyers, a unique, brave attempt to be with it musically.”  Billboard’s Claude Hall concluded, “No other show on TV this season contains the same possibilities of communicating with the nation’s youth as does The Music Scene.” Chart movement of songs raised the prospect of repeat performances, and Three Dog Night repeated Easy to Be Hard in the second broadcast of The Music Scene, in a different setting. Other artists to appear that week included Eydie Gorme, Merle Haggard, Janis Joplin, Gary Puckett, and Lou Rawls. Harry Nilsson’s Everybody's Talkin' was featured via a film clip from the motion picture Midnight Cowboy.

Appearing in succeeding broadcasts were Bobby Sherman, Roger Miller, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Dells, The Rascals, Steve Lawrence, Richie Havens, Jerry Butler, Herbie Mann, Moms Mabley, Sonny James, Smith, Judy Collins, Isaac Hayes, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ten Years After, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, R. B. Greaves, Joe Cocker, Johnny Cash, Lulu, and Della Reese.

The sustained appearance of Sugar, Sugar on the charts led music director Pat Williams to compose a gospel-style arrangement for the second repeat of the song. He recruited a chorale of local gospel singers for the performance. The appearance led Warner Bros. Records to record The Music Scene Gospel Singers’ rendition of Sugar, Sugar, as well as When I Die, which had been a top hit for Motherlode earlier in the year.

Despite the level of talent presented, The Music Scene did not fare well in Nielsen ratings. The show and its 90-minute block companion, The New People, faced stiff, entrenched competition from the ratings leader, NBC. On September 22, 1969, the evening of the program’s premiere, The Music Scene confronted a triple-barrel offering from ABC's chief competitor. NBC's immensely popular Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In led off its prime time schedule, followed by hour-long comedy specials featuring Bob Hope and Flip Wilson. The Laugh-In juggernaut continued through the fall. In the New York Nielsen ratings for the week October 2–8, Laugh-In pulled a 31.5 rating, 47 share, compared with the results for The Music Scene: a 9.8 rating and 16 share.

As The Music Scene remained in the bottom third of audience ratings, ABC announced in early November that it was canceling the show (and its companion, The New People). The Music Scene’s 17th and final broadcast aired January 12, 1970.

Two DVDs of highlights from the show have been released.

 

 

RAINBOW QUEST 

Rainbow Quest (1965–66) was a U.S. television series devoted to folk music and hosted by Pete Seeger. It was videotaped in black-and-white and featured musicians playing in traditional American music genres such as traditional folk music, old-time music, bluegrass and blues. The show's title is drawn from the lyrics of the song by Seeger "Oh, Had I A Golden Thread". The program was produced on a low budget funded by Seeger and his co-producer, Sholom Rubinstein. Seeger's wife, Toshi Seeger, given the title "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" in the closing credits after each show, actually functioned as the director by dint of the fact that she continually made suggestions to Rubinstein that he passed along to the camera operators. Eventually the cameramen simply followed her instructions without waiting for Rubinstein to repeat them.

The shows were unrehearsed and there was no studio audience even though Seeger's metier was leading his audiences in song. Songs were traded between Seeger and his guests and Seeger often joined in while his guests performed. One show was dedicated to Woody Guthrie and another to Lead Belly. Lead Belly had died long before and Guthrie was incapacitated with Huntington's disease. Both shows featured film clips of the legendary singer/songwriters who had been close friends of Seeger's. Many of the other shows featured film clips made by the Seegers during their travels in the U.S. and elsewhere, including a demonstration in Mexico of guitar-making and another in the West Indies of making a steel drum.

Altogether 39 shows, each 52 minutes long, were recorded in 1965–66 at WNJU-TV (Channel 47), a New York City-based UHF station with studios in Newark, New Jersey. The shows were broadcast by Channel 47, primarily a Spanish-language outlet, to a very limited audience because only televisions equipped with a UHF antenna and tuner could receive them, and reception was difficult in an age prior to cable. For a few years in 1967–68, the shows were repeated on public television station WNDT (Channel 13, now WNET).

Among the guests featured on the program's 39 episodes were The Beers Family, June Carter, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Cousin Emmy, Reverend Gary Davis, Donovan, Richard Fariña and Mimi Fariña, Roscoe Holcomb, Mississippi John Hurt, Sonia Malkine, Mamou Cajun Band, Shawn Phillips, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Patrick Sky, The Stanley Brothers, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Doc Watson, and Hedy West. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and Tom Paxton appeared on the first show of the series on short notice because Seeger felt ill, as he explained on camera. Of the Clancy Brothers, only Paddy and Liam appeared, along with Makem. No explanation was given for Tom Clancy's absence from the group. A clip of Tommy Makem singing "The Butcher Boy" during this initial episode appeared in Martin Scorsese's Grammy-winning documentary about Bob Dylan and the early influences on him, No Direction Home. In many instances, recordings of their Rainbow Quest appearances are the only widely-available, or the best-available, video of these performers.

 

ALL EPISODES

 

 

 

SHIVAREE

Shivaree was a Los Angeles-based music variety show that ran in syndication from 1965 to 1966. It was created and hosted by KFWB-AM personality Gene Weed, LA's top nighttime DJ at the time, who in later years became a producer for Dick Clark Productions. In its brief run, the show featured numerous well-known acts, including The Mamas & the Papas, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, Glen Campbell, Dusty Springfield, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Jay and the Americans, Ronnie Dove, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Ronettes, Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Toys, The Bobby Fuller Four, Allan Sherman, The Reflections (Detroit band), Lesley Gore, and Gary Lewis & the Playboys, and was taped at KABC-TV's studios in LA. It began in syndication in April 1965 and ran through May 1966 in more than 150 markets in the U.S. and seven countries internationally. Although it was a syndicated series, Shivaree was produced and owned by the ABC network.

In addition to the host, the show also featured dancers (go-go girls), including Teri Garr, Cathy Austin, Joane Sannes, and Kay Parks, who danced on elevated platforms behind the bandstand while guest artists performed. Audience members surrounded the bandstand and also stood on a balcony behind the dancers.

Rights to surviving footage of the show (which was produced in black-and-white) are now owned by Research Video.

 

ALL LIVE PERFORMANCES 

 

 

UPBEAT

Upbeat is a syndicated musical variety show produced in Cleveland, Ohio at ABC affiliate WEWS-TV 5 that aired from 1964 to 1971 (the last five years airing nationally in first run syndication).  Originally titled as The Big 5 Show, the series began as a local program when it premiered in 1964, the name was a reference to WEWS Channel 5 and the 5 to 6 p.m. time slot on Saturday afternoons. When the program became syndicated nationally, the name of the show was changed to Upbeat, and as stations had the option of airing the program at different times, the program's title change was necessary.

The introduction of the program commenced with a studio musician shouting "hey let's go with the Upbeat show!" as the in-house band, Dave C and the Sharptones, would play the introductory theme song with the program's main title logo, slowly exploding and coming back together again in a quasi-animated frame by frame fashion as the performers were announced for that particular episode. The series was aired in black and white from 1964 until 1967, then broadcast in color from 1967 until the series demise in 1971.

The program's host, Don Webster, was a familiar face to WEWS viewers. In addition to hosting "Upbeat," Webster was also WEWS' weatherman on their nightly newscasts.

Upbeat was inducted into the inaugural class of the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in August 2013.

In addition to such local talent as The People's Choice, Ivan and the Sabers, Rapid Transit, the GTOs, the Grasshoppers, the Baskerville Hounds, Bocky and the Visions, the Damnation of Adam Blessing, the James Gang and Raspberries founder Eric Carmen, many regional performers gaining national exposure also appeared on the show including Question Mark & the Mysterians, Terry Knight and the Pack, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the Chylds, the Bob Seger System, Cleveland's the Outsiders and Canton's O'Jays . During years when "Go-Go" was popular, the show featured its own go-go girls made up of area young ladies dressed in the popular outfits and footwear of that period.

Some of the original dancers included: Jeff Kutash, Sue Dubbs, Danny Butler, Judy Kaye, Joan Kuchta, Sandy Salamone, Ginna Sloane, Dr. John Grove, Kathy Watson, Sandy Ashmun, Barbara Chapman, Linda Wike, Lynne Krause, John Harrison and Dave Carter.

Prior to 1966, Upbeat was televised locally. By 1968 it was nationally syndicated in over 100 cities. The dancers during that period (1968–71) included: Joanne Zelasko, Jean Hagadorn, Arlee Gibson, Arline Burks, Linda Wike, Beverly Jones, Constance Gibson, Diane Rini, Jacquelyn Carson, Diane Friedl, John Magill, Kim Havrilla, Kathee Stiber, Jimmy Stallard, Linda Mulcahey, Mary Lynn Curnayn, Michael Ray, Patty Rutti and Peggy Miller.

 

  • Saturday's Crowd performing "Do I Still Figure In Your Life"
  • ? and the Mysterians
  • James Brown
  • Jackie Wilson
  • The 5th Dimension
  • The Box Tops
  • The Who
  • Stevie Wonder
  • John Denver
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Raven
  • The Fifth Estate 
  • The First Edition
  • B.B. King
  • The Miracles
  • Steve Britt 
  • Steppenwolf
  • The Impressions
  • Bobby Sherman
  • Love
  • The Left Banke
  • The Incredible Fog
  • The Lemon Pipers
  • The Vogues
  • The Volcanics
  • The Monkees
  • The Easybeats 
  • Otis Redding with the Bar-Kays (Appeared on December 9, 1967; Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays died in a plane crash the next day)
  • The Yardbirds
  • Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
  • The O'Jays
  • The Barbarians
  • Blue Cheer
  • Jefferson Airplane
  • Ronnie Dove
  • Little Anthony and the Imperials
  • Inez & Charlie Foxx
  • Lesley Gore
  • Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
  • Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Paul Revere and the Raiders
  • The Shadows of Knight
  • The Music Explosion
  • Richard and the Young Lions – two appearances
  • The Shangri-Las
  • The Velvet Underground (1969) This is believed to have been the band's only national TV appearance.
  • Jerry Butler
  • Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan
  • Funkadelic
  • Keith and the Wild Kingdom
  • Wilmer and the Dukes
  • Chubby Checker
  • The Mob
  • The Outsiders
  • The Ides of March
  • The Buckinghams
  • The New Colony Six
  • The Mauds
  • The Cryan' Shames
  • The American Breed
  • The Epic Splendor
  • The Epitome Of Sound
  • The Gurus
  • The Blue Jays
  • Blood, Sweat & Tears
  • Spanky and Our Gang

 

 

 

SHINDIG!

Shindig!  was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles, who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley, British producer Jack Good, and production executive Art Stolnitz. The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then executive producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode. Shindig! was conceived as a short-notice replacement for Hootenanny, a series that had specialized in folk revival music. The folk revival had fizzled in 1964 as the result of the British Invasion, which damaged the ratings for Hootenanny and prompted that show's cancellation.

Shindig! focused on a broader variety of popular music than its predecessor and first aired for a half-hour every Wednesday evening, but was expanded to an hour in January 1965. In the fall of 1965, the show split into two half-hour telecasts, on Thursday and Saturday nights.

Shindig!'s premiere episode was actually the second pilot, and featured Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, and The Righteous Brothers. Later shows featured performances that were taped in Britain - A set was used at Twickenham Film Studios, where British acts performed live for the cameras, with the resultant footage flown back to be shown on the program. The first UK episode had The Beatles as the guests. The series later featured other "British invasion" bands and performers including The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Cilla Black. Shindig! continued to broadcast episodes with footage shot in London throughout its run. This meant many acts were seen on U.S television before they actually went to America (The Who in particular, who performed a unique early version of "My Generation" live, two months before the single version was recorded).

Many other popular performers of the day played on Shindig! including Tina Turner, Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley, Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes, and The Ronettes.

Shindig!'s success prompted NBC to air the similar series Hullabaloo starting in January 1965 and other producers to launch syndicated rock music shows like Shivaree and Hollywood a Go-Go.

In March 1965, Little Eva performed a live but short version of her hit song "The Loco-Motion". This is the only known video clip of her singing it.

Toward the end of the program's run, The Mamas and the Papas appeared in an episode featuring Barry McGuire. Although serving as his backup singers, the group introduced "California Dreamin'" on that program, which launched its career.

Shindig! is one of the few rock music shows of the era to still have all of the episodes available to watch.

In September 1965, the show was moved out of its Wednesday-night time slot (where it gave The Beverly Hillbillies its first serious competition in its time period among younger viewers), and split into two half-hours on new days and times (Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time). The show faced tough competition from Daniel Boone and The Munsters on Thursdays along with Flipper and The Jackie Gleason Show on Saturdays. Additionally, the Saturday edition aired in a time period when many of its potential viewers were going out and, thus, not at home to watch television. By October 1965, the show was having ratings problems (Time magazine said "early-season tide [was] running against the teen scene"), and in January 1966, Shindig! was canceled and replaced in its Thursday time slots by Batman. Shindig! also featured a dance troupe choreographed by David Winters and André Tayir, who accompanied the music acts of the week (Winters later worked on the competing NBC show Hullabaloo). One of the regular dancers was Teri Garr, who went on to find success as an actress. Others included Maria Gahva, Lorene Yarnell (later of the mime team Shields and Yarnell) Diane Stuart, Pam Freeman, Gina Trikinis, Marianna Picora, Virginia Justus, Rini Jarmon and Carol Shelyne, who always wore glasses while she danced. Occasionally, a small group of dancers who sang would get a featured spot; this rotating group was billed as The Shindig Girls. The assistant choreographer was Antonia Basilotta, better known as Toni Basil, who later gained fame with her 1980s hit song "Mickey". Both Garr and Basil were dance students of David Winters at the time and worked with him on most of his choreography projects.

The series house band was supposedly known as "The Shin-diggers", but that was actually the name host Jimmy O'Neill used to refer to fans of the show. At first, TV credits identified the musicians simply as the Shindig Band. By early 1965, they'd been renamed Sir Rufus Marion Banks and his Band of Men, but the generic name had returned by the time "Shindig" went off the air. The rhythm section was spun off into a featured group and named the Shindogs. It included Joey Cooper on bass, Chuck Blackwell on drums, James Burton on lead guitar, Delaney Bramlett on rhythm guitar and Glen D. Hardin on keyboards. Cooper and Bramlett traded off lead vocal duties. The larger band featured Jerry Cole on lead guitar, Russ Titelman on rhythm guitar, Larry Knechtel on bass, Leon Russell on piano, Julius Wechter on percussion and Ritchie Frost on drums. Later, Billy Preston took over keyboards and performed as a singing regular. Glen Campbell was not a regular member of this band but a frequent guest performer. Ray Pohlman was the musical director, and he was also one - as was Campbell, Knechtel, Wechter and Russell - of the collection of first-call pop studio musicians that would later be known as "The Wrecking Crew". In some instances when one of the guitarists was unable to work, Pohlman would bring in Bill Aken to fill in.

The Righteous Brothers, Dick and Dee Dee, Jackie and Gayle, Donna Loren, Willy Nelson (not the famous Country singer Willie Nelson) and Bobby Sherman were regular vocalists on the series. Up until July 1965, when he quit the show, producer Jack Good was also a regular, wearing a bowler hat and improvising comedy routines with Jimmy O'Neill at the close of each episode.

The Blossoms, an all-female vocal group featuring Darlene Love, backed up many of the performers and were occasionally featured in spotlight performances. The Wellingtons were a trio of male singers who performed on their own, and as backup singers. Another male group, The Eligibles, sometimes alternated with The Wellingtons on backup.

 

ALL EPISODES 

 

 

 

WHERE THE ACTION IS

Where The Action Is is a music-based television variety show that aired in the United States from 1965 to 1967. It was carried by the ABC network and aired each weekday afternoon. Created by Dick Clark as a spin-off of American Bandstand, Where the Action Is premiered on June 28, 1965. The show was another step in the then-current trend of entertainment programs that targeted the teenage audience by focusing on pop music, following in the footsteps of Shindig! (premiered in the fall of 1964, also on ABC) and Hullabaloo (premiered January 1965 on NBC). Dick Clark's voice could be heard doing the artist introductions, and he sometimes did filmed interviews. The show was hosted by Linda Scott and Steve Alaimo, who sang numbers between guest performances. Ms. Scott had a few hit singles as a teenager in the early 1960s; she was only 20 when "Action" premiered. Also appearing were Keith Allison (a Paul McCartney look-alike who later became a member of Paul Revere and the Raiders) and Laura Nyro. Typically, the show featured two or three performers lip-synching their recent hits with a bunch of teenagers clapping and swaying in the background, and a dance segment featuring the Action dancers. There would occasionally be an interview segment. A few episodes featured only one performer, such as Herman's Hermits or James Brown.

Originally intended as a summer replacement and broadcast at 2 P.M. EDT, the show was successful enough for it to continue throughout the 1965–66 TV season, with a change in time period to 4:30 P.M. Eastern time following the horror soap opera Dark Shadows. Both programs attracted a young audience who watched the shows after school. It was in black and white. The show's theme song, "Action", became a hit single for Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, peaking on the charts (#13) in September 1965. Most of these black-and-white telecasts were taped at various locales in Southern California. A handful of segments were taped elsewhere around the US. The theme song was written by Steve Venet and Tommy Boyce. Later, Boyce co-wrote songs for The Monkees.

The program had its own stable of performers, most notably Paul Revere & the Raiders, who served as the de facto house band. Easily identified by their Revolutionary War costumes, the band had several Top 40 hits in the '60s thanks in part to the exposure they received on "Where The Action Is". Their lead singer, Mark Lindsay, with his signature ponytail, became one of the most popular teenage idols of the decade, gracing the covers of countless teen magazines. The Raiders also recorded the "Action" theme song for their 1965 album "Just Like Us" for which Dick Clark wrote the liner notes. When the group departed the show in 1966, they were replaced by The Robbs and The Hard Times. Other regular performers on Action included the dance troupe Pete Menefee and the Action Kids. Individual episodes featured a wide range of guest performers, as detailed below. Tina Mason was a regular singer being promoted by Dick Clark on the show. She met on the set and later married Phil Volk, the bass player for Paul Revere and the Raiders. They married on the second anniversary of the show's premiere, June 27, 1967.

The weekday program was canceled on March 31, 1967, with the network giving its local affiliates the time slot. However, members of the program's mainstay band Paul Revere and the Raiders (with lead vocalist Mark Lindsay) hosted very similar follow-up shows: both Revere and Lindsay hosted Happening '68, a Saturday afternoon follow-up to American Bandstand, and a weekday version of the same show, It's Happening, from 1968 to 1969. Both shows were produced by Dick Clark's production company for ABC.