Music & Variety TV Shows

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Mary's Incredible Dream {1976}

A music/variety special featuring Mary Tyler Moore in a musical story featuring dream sequences about the creation, fall from grace, and rebirth of humanity. Featuring Ben Vareen, The Manhattan Transfer, & Doug Kershaw.

 

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Night Train {1964-1967}

Night Train premiered in 1964 as one of the first music series to feature an all-black cast, presented by WVOL executive Noble Blackwell, and a house band led by musical director Bob Holmes. Produced in Nashville at WLAC-TV, Night Train predates the Chicago-based Soul Train by five years. Jimi Hendrix, swaggering in a backing band called the King Kasuals, is believed to have made his very first TV appearance. Noble Blackwell was particularly proud of the contribution he feels the show made reaching out to and working with local people:

"It was a period of the 60s, you had demonstrations going on in Nashville, but Night Train offered ... [more than] ... a good entertainment vehicle. We had very good artists, and of course it highlighted the local artists, who were very talented, and a lot of hard work went into it because we would practise at various community centers in Nashville. The Nashville Housing Authority allowed us to use the community centers where we would practise..."

All Aboard The Night Train, Ray F. Caldwell (engineer), 2 episode DVD, Country Music Hall Of Fame

 

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Leslie Uggams 2016 interview

In her two-hour interview, Leslie Uggams describes her childhood growing up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan and how she began performing at the Apollo Theater at the age of nine. She talks about her appearances on early television shows including Beulah, The Milton Berle Show, and The Paul Whiteman TV Teen Club throughout her childhood and teenage years, and being discovered by Mitch Miller on Name That Tune. She goes into detail about working with Mitch Miller on his show Sing Along with Mitch, including the pushback Miller got about having an African American performer on the show and how Miller stood behind her. For Sing Along with Mitch, Uggams also describes the filming process, including the fact that the cast lip-synced their songs. She describes television appearances through the 1960s and tells stories of The Leslie Uggams Show, which made her the first African American woman to headline her own variety series. She shares recollections of the performers she worked with from Frank Sinatra to Jimmy Durante. Uggams describes how she was cast as "Kizzy Reynolds" on Roots, and shares stories of the filming of the show, meeting Alex Haley, working with her castmates, and the on-going impact of the groundbreaking miniseries. She touches on later television appearances of the 80s and 90s before describing more recent acting gigs on The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Empire and in the 2016 film "Deadpool." She concludes by describing career highlights and regrets and giving advice to aspiring actresses. Adrienne Faillace conducted the interview on June 3, 2016 in New York, NY.

 

[barbee0715]

I've watched a lot of these American Television interviews (so good) including this one. I had forgotten that she was on Mitch Miller, but I was so young then, all I really remember is the bouncing ball.
I guess that must be where I first saw her. I remember being surprised at her as Kizzy because I didn't realize she was an actress too. She's so great.

Mitch was certainly a pioneer with the Civil Rights movement. Thank God for people like him.

 

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Playboy After Dark (1969-1970)

Hugh Hefner's weekly soiree was on a set made to look like a penthouse, where he (along with Playboy Bunnies usually in tow) partied with guests, including Marvin Gaye, Mel Torme and the Smothers Brothers. Playboy After Dark did well in urban areas, but had difficulty getting on the air in much of the country, and lasted just one season. Ten years earlier in Chicago, Hef hosted a similar show titled Playboy's Penthouse (1959-1961). Comedian Lenny Bruce was his first guest.

 

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By Dave McNary October 1, 2018 Variety

Network Entertainment is teaming with Burt Sugarman on a documentary about the musical variety television series “The Midnight Special.”

Sugarman produced the series, which ran for 450 episodes between 1972 and 1981, and featured performances by James Brown, The Jackson 5, Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Rod Stewart, Ike & Tina Turner, Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, AC/DC, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Helen Reddy, Linda Ronstadt, The Beach Boys, Tanya Tucker, Billy Joel, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Prince, Diana Ross, and the Bee Gees. Stand-up comedians Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin also appeared.
The show typically featured guest hosts, and Helen Reddy served as the regular host for parts of 1975 and 1976. Wolfman Jack was the announcer and frequent guest host.

The pilot for the series aired in 1972 as a 90-minute special encouraging young people to vote in the upcoming presidential election. It premiered as a weekly series in 1973 in the 1 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. slot, then was moved up to 12:30 a.m., when Johnny Carson cut his own show from 90 to 60 minutes. The series established the viability of programming in the post-midnight hours at a time when the networks usually signed off at 1 a.m.

Sugarman and Mary Hart will executive producer along with Network Entertainment’s Derik Murray, Frank Anderson, Paul Gertz, and Brian Gersh.

Network Entertainment, producers of the documentaries “Facing Ali,” “Johnny Cash: American Rebel,” and “I Am Heath Ledger,” will document the show’s cultural significance. The producers have full access to “The Midnight Special” archives, and will feature original footage and music in the documentary, blended with interviews with artists who performed on the show and current artists who were inspired by the series.

“I’m excited to be working with Network Entertainment’s award-winning team to produce this important retrospective on ‘The Midnight Special,'” Sugarman said. “In addition to appealing to those who were fans back in the day, this is a wonderful opportunity to introduce new generations to the remarkable artists whose music left an indelible mark that continues to influence the musical landscape of today.”

Network Entertainment is repped by UTA.

Hart said, “Not only will the documentary provide an incredible window into the music and artists of the period, it will also be a fitting tribute to Burt, whose original thinking and perseverance turned a broadcaster’s ‘Not Interested’ into a revolutionary television series and cultural phenomenon that ran for nearly a decade.”

 

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Stevie Wonder (in Rio de Janeiro) (1970)

 

[zinniabooklover]

Stevie Wonder (in Rio de Janeiro) (1970)

COOL!!!

I think I've seen the For Once In My Life segment but all the rest looks new to me. But I wanna start with that Night Train thing you posted upthread. That looks awesome. So cool that they focused on local artists.

Night Train {1964-1967}
Night Train premiered in 1964 as one of the first music series to feature an all-black cast, presented by WVOL executive Noble Blackwell, and a house band led by musical director Bob Holmes. Produced in Nashville at WLAC-TV, Night Train predates the Chicago-based Soul Train by five years. Jimi Hendrix, swaggering in a backing band called the King Kasuals, is believed to have made his very first TV appearance.

My man, Jimi.

 

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new interview with Donnie Simpson who was the host of Video Soul in the 1980s & 1990s