recommend me some variety specials

A tangent in the latest Bob Stanley book lead me to Burt Bacharach's 1971 special on YouTube and now I want more! Garish sets, super fake showbiz patter with special guests, a lame comedy sketch or two, perhaps a bewildered looking Beat band included so the middle aged host can tell us how they are "down with the new generation", that kind of stuff. Anyone have any recommendations?

The Star Wars one?

plus interesting ones from The Monkees, Morecambe & Wise every Xmas and a few others.

Oh I've of course watched the Star Wars one ages ago, don't even think of it as a variety special even though it totally is, well spotted.

The Good Old Days hosted by Andrew 'Manuel' Sachs' dad though don't think it had beat groups on.

The Good Old Days is horrible and completely unwatchable. IMO.

There are quite a few complete Dean Martin shows on YouTube. Joey Heatherton! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-OEMyXYl4

(xp) Also Leonard Sachs and Andrew Sachs were not related.

Lol, Dan.

Just got a copy of the Lowbrow Reader book. Wonder if there is anything about that stuff in there.

Several decades of Royal Variety Shows. Though a load are probably wiped.

I think Ed Sullivan followed the format though I've only seen a selection of the musical bits.

I think Opportunity Knocks was a competitive version and that idea may be the ancestor of things like the Voice which are still popular.

I don't watch Michael McEntire and animal acts are presumably a thing of the past. Is his show a contemporary version?

the much-mocked game show 3-2-1 was conceived as a crossover with Saturday night variety shows. not sure i'd recommend it as such but it's a vivid portrait of its era

TS Joey Heatherton vs. Susan Anton

Raquel!] from 1970 starring Raquel Welch. Also featuring Tom Jones and John Wayne. I own this on DVD.

the much-mocked game show 3-2-1

I used to love watching this show as a kid. I was aware that it was a bit naff and it was chock full of non-sensical elements but it didn't matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFU0ROYFwh4

i used to see a lot of these too

that ep looks banging btw, Lena Zavaroni, Roy Hudd, Keith Harris, "Two Ton" Tessie O'Shea and some stand-up i have no memory of

xxxp Tom Jones had his own TV show, 'This Is Tom Jones', and he'd regularly duet with guests, including Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, Cher, Janis Joplin, etc.

All of Cher's solo variety shows from 1975-1976 are great, based on what I've seen you can just assume that. There are 29 of them. And then there's a 1978 one-off with her and Dolly Parton called Cher... Special.

Paul Lynde Halloween Special

Even Scott Walker had his own TV show, but then who didn't? Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Nana Mouskouri, Dusty Springfield... actually seems it was mostly women!

Not from Scott's show but a cool picture of Scott, Tony Hatch, Jackie Trent and Matt Monro:

https://mikeypowell.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ScottandMatt.jpg

Paul Lynde Halloween Special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVaOOFNdcQs

PLayboy After Dark was the ultimate in sophistication when I was a preteen.

I was aware of Playboy After Dark as a music series of like 1/2 hour shows with some interesting groups on. Grateful Dead (who spiked everything they could with acid), Mendocino era Sir Douglas Quintet and a few others.
Was there more variety.

The Monte Carlo Show is the one that haunts the fringes of my memory. When I was 7 or 8 I was obsessed by… I'm going to need to look this up… 'Ploom the Caterpillar', a wiggling white puppet who co-presented.

The Good Old Days is horrible and completely unwatchable. IMO.

― Aw naw, no' an Antonioni wan oan noo an' aw (Tom D.), Saturday, January 7, 2023 1:38 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

A punishing watch. This thread did not have legs

The rolling "The Good Old Days" BBC4 revival thread

(In which I make that same Leonard/Andrew Sachs mistake)

I watched Raquel! Some of the scenes of her singing mid versions of 60's Pop while going around exotic locations in amazing outfits feel like a 70's bande dessinee brought to life, great stuff. The Little Richard medley with Tom Jones is truly atrocious, as are the "comedy" bits with John Wayne and Bob Hope, though at one point Hope says "hasta la vista baby", earliest known usage in media says wikipedia.

I've also been watching a fair bit of 3,2,1 via Limmy streams. There was a version of that show playing in Portugal in the early 90's, I remember they had a boot instead of Dustie Bin. The host later went to jail for child molestation, light entertainment v much in character.

The Good Old Days is entirely dependent on the acts tbh, 70%+ is v bad but the right guest can be great.

Shirley Bassey's show was repeated recently and it's batshit crazy at times - Shirl serenades her Old English Sheepdog while driving a speedboat behind which it's waterskiing?

I've just finished the Morecambe & Wise BBC set and the musical turns get old very quickly, especially Kenny Ball. There's also an exceptionally tiresome Irish brother and sister folk act for two whole series.

I was surprised that no-one had mentioned the Wheeltappers & Shunters Social Club, but then Episode 1 Series 1 starts with Bernard Manning singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jChufJu7fo

... and continues with Freddie Garrity, "Two Ton" Tessie O'Shea and some dancing/singing Cossacks ... and others.

Episode 2 Series 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m1Y93Hhuw8
including The Three Degrees, The Krankies, Bill Haley & The Comets (!)

Pink Lady and Jeff (1980):
featuring special guests Blondie, Sherman Hemsley and Bert Parks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qyoWHvSg-0

Wasn’t Letterman on that show as either writer or writer/performer or am I getting confused with The Starland Vocal Band?

I am one of an undoubtedly minuscule demographic who watched all five aired episodes of Pink Lady and Jeff as they originally aired, somehow finding entertainment in them.

I probably watched all of them too but I watched a lot of television in general back then and there weren’t as many options as nowadays.

It was like that Seinfeld joke, the reason you watched it was because it was on TV

xps Letterman acted on/wrote for Mary Tyler Moore's variety show

Forgot about that! Have heard that fact over the years but retain no memory of it.

I’m pretty sure I saw Jeff Altman do standup at Caroline’s in the late eighties although I have zero memory of his act, which was overshadowed by another guy named Bob Nelson’s bit about brain-damaged football players that is pretty tacky to watch now.

I was aware of Playboy After Dark as a music series of like 1/2 hour shows with some interesting groups on. Grateful Dead (who spiked everything they could with acid), Mendocino era Sir Douglas Quintet and a few others.
Was there more variety.

― Stevolende, Saturday, January 14

A lot of comedy too. I don't know how much is available online though.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063940/fullcredits/

I seem to remember the comedians being second-tier combover flopsweat types but I guess I could be wrong.

My link is a list of all guests, lots of big name artists.

Josefa, I’ll see your Pink Lady and raise with “I watched and enjoyed all 4 episodes of The Manhattan Transfer summer replacement (for Cher) series.” I had forgotten this, but internet says Episode 2 of the series featured the American television debut of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

!

Lock thread?

Another part of the phenomenon of “we watched it because it was on TV” is an outsized memory of summer replacement shows.

Yeah I had the three networks, an independent station, and public television. I’d watch anything music related. I watched Donny and Marie. Manhattan Transfer came at a time when I was discovering I actually liked Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller, and the whole retro Fred Astaire/Art Deco vibe of the show resonated with me. All 4 eps are on YouTube but I’ve only rewatched snippets thus far.

I might try to rewatch. I know a guy who has recently been on tour with them, perhaps I should bring it up with him.

I seem to recall reading the whole tv schedule in advance in the Sunday paper to plan out the week’s viewing. The toughest part was the wee hours if I got up early enough which I often did and the only thing on was Sunrise Semester.

My girlfriend and I just finished The Brady Bunch Hour (which is up at archive.org, with some including vintage commercials) and it's as entertainingly baffling as its reputation suggests. Well, except when Rip Taylor is on screen. I was unfamiliar with him prior to his, so don't know what his other work is like, but found him to be unbearably grating and aggressively unfunny--was confounded to see on wikipedia that he was quite popular!

Grating and unfunny you say?

https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/scale_small/3/34651/2712272-rip.jpg

He was slightly redeemed by his appearance near the end on some SNL Game Show Network parody.

If for some reason you hate yourself and want to watch several dozen episodes of Noel's House Party, this guy's got you covered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videos

^^^ that was supposed to be a link to the channel. Here's series 1 episode 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5yxUmXVkdA