This post is Jason Hare’s fault. You see, if it wasn’t for his Chart Attack! of last week (which featured Glen Campbell’s “Southern Nights”), I probably wouldn’t have posted this. What brought it all home that I’m really a dinosaur nowadays is when Jason said the following:
Man, remember when Glen Campbell was just huge? Because I don’t. I’m not even sure how many people my age will know much about him other than his unflattering mugshot a few years ago.
Well, you see Glen had a pretty good career (which any music lover who has an Internet connection can find out). But the one thing I remember was his variety hour that we (“We,” meaning my family) watched on TV back in the day. 🙂
The whole variety hour phenomenon came up when J and I were taking our dog for a walk the evening. I started talking about the song “Southern Nights, ” which sparked spontaneous singing by both of us, and then it quickly dovetailed into “Remember when Glen Campbell had a show?” Followed by, “Yeah, do you remember Mac Davis and his show?” Then the list started to grow:
1. Sonny and Cher
2. Jim Stafford
3. Hee Haw
4. The Brady Bunch
5. Donny and Marie
6. Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in
7. The Smothers Brothers
I’m sure there are other shows I’m missing, but the point is the variety hour format of “songs, bad sketch comedy, and more songs” was quite the ratings grabber back in the 70s. If you want a rough comparison, just think of the multitude of reality shows on TV nowadays. That’s what the variety hour was like back then — except you only had 3 channels and one TV everyone had to share.
So, here we go with a short list of singers/celebs who, once upon a time, had a weekly TV gig:
First up: Glen Campbell singing his big hit “Galveston”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6avCIOd8LY[/youtube]
And then Donny and Marie Osmond wanted the clean fun to continue with their show. This is really corny stuff, but at least they look like they were having a good time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tsNR8Jvegc[/youtube]
And what do you do with the Brady Bunch after the show goes off the air? Well, duh! You give them a variety show that completely sucked (even suckier when you see that “fake Jan” is in the cast).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U35yN0TRz4[/youtube]
And you gotta go out on a high note! So why not go out with the song that closed the good times on the Sonny and Cher Show (Complete with “Goodnight everybody” from Chastity).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw9phpym614[/youtube]
See? TV completely sucked back then, too!
–PK
13 thoughts on “The Variety Hour”
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Four terrifying words for you:
Pink Lady And Jeff
I love any post that starts out with that sentence. Usually, though, it ends with “…and now I’m single.”
Great clips. I am still scouring the world for clips from the Starland Vocal Band variety show…starring a then-unknown David Letterman!
I do seem to remember that show — or maybe it was a VH1 special. But yeah, Letterman certainly did his fair share scut work before finally making it.
I loved that song Southern Nights! Great clips of some really corny but fun stuff. Brings back good memories.
In a lot of ways, I find “reality” shows to be very similiar to variety shows. Meaning, really popular at the time, but so bad in retrospect.
Fun post, and yeah, just like reality shows, these things kinda sucked. 😉 In a fun way, though!
Oh God, Donnie and Marie! I have to check these out!
Fun post Py. I really like the Jim Safford show. He was, and probably still is, a really good guitar player. I used to enjoy the part of the show where he would play the guitar.
I’m not sure if it was Mac Davis or Jim Stafford, but there was one segment where Mac, or Jim, or Buddy or whatever would ask the studio audience to call out random words, and he would compose a song with the random words on the spot. Good times….
I wasn’t a big fan of the Brady Bunch Variety Show. However I really loved the Donny and Marie Show and thankfully have many of them on VHS which I transferred to DVD. Even my kids thought the show was great. I also liked the Sonny and Cher Show. Watching those two interact with one another was to funny.
I think TV was a lot of fun to watch in the 70’s.In fact it’s to bad they don’t bring some of it back. It’s far better than all the killing, sex, and drugs, that is in our childrens faces every time the TV goes on.
I would be remiss if I didn’t expose one of Hubba-hubba’s deepest, darkest secrets. As a young boy (5 or 6 ish) he LOVED the song “Rhinestone Cowboy” and he had the entire thing memorized, made his mom buy him a special outfit, and even slept on Rhinestone Cowboy sheets.
I don’t know which is worse, that he adored the song so much, or that they acutally MADE those sheets.
LOL Like a Rhinestone COWBOY! ahhh the 70’s. I’d say let’s permanently erase that decade but then I wouldn’t be here. Watched it all. I loved LOVED Sonny and Cher. I was just mesmerized by Cher. How tall and beautiful she was. I must have always known I’d end up a Sonny. BWAHAHAHA
I remember all those shows and enjoyed watching them. It was better than the news. Let’s see Glen Campbell and Tanya Tucker were a big item, then he broke her heart and she went into a crisis mode.
Donny and Marie was a stupid fun show. Now I look back at that and I think Marie had signs of an eating disorder. Well that is Hollywood.
The Brady Bunch was my all time favorite. I made a wish they would be on everyday and guess what they are on everyday now in 2007. Just goes to show wishes do come true but not always in your time frame.
I loved to watch Sonny and Cher. I liked to watch Cher hair swish back and forth and her fancy outfits. I wonder if Cher even has hair to swish back and forth today.