American TV series or program
The Jimmy Dean Show
is the name of several similar music and
variety series
on American local and
network
television between 1963 and 1975. Each starred
country music
singer
Jimmy Dean
as host.
Daytime
[
edit
]
The Jimmy Dean Show
, initially called
Country Style
, aired live on
WTOP-TV
in
Washington, D.C.
in early 1957.
[1]
It was picked up by the
CBS
-TV network from April 8 to December 13, 1957, under the name
The Morning Show
from 7 to 7:45 a.m. ET Monday?Friday before the station's regular newscast. Guests included
Chet Atkins
,
Jay Chevalier
,
Billy Walker
,
Little Jimmy Dickens
,
George Hamilton IV
, and the Country Lads; Mary Klick was a regular. The producer was
Connie B. Gay
.
CBS then carried
The Jimmy Dean Show
on its daytime schedule from September 14, 1958, to June 1959 from New York, airing from 2 to 2:30 p.m. ET Monday?Saturday. Guests on the variety program included
Hans Conried
and
Jaye P. Morgan
.
Prime time
[
edit
]
The Jimmy Dean Show
aired as a live half-hour summer series from Washington, DC, on CBS-TV from June 22 to September 14, 1957 from 10:30 to 11 p.m. on Saturday nights. Guests included
Johnny Cash
,
Jim Reeves
, and the
Andrews Sisters
.
[2]
The Jimmy Dean Show
was later an hour-long weekly music and variety television show carried by
ABC
for three seasons from September 19, 1963, to April 1, 1966, out of ABC Studio One in New York.
[3]
[4]
Its first season was written by
Peppiatt and Aylesworth
, and
Scott Vincent
was the announcer. Of the eighty-six episodes produced at ABC, ten shows were made on the road: four at the
Ryman Auditorium
in
Nashville
,
Tennessee
; three at ABC Studios in
Hollywood
,
California
; one in
Winter Haven
,
Florida
, and one at
Carnegie Hall
in New York City.
The variety program featured country performers such as
George Jones
,
Buck Owens
and Dean's former band member
Roy Clark
, and pop artists like
The Everly Brothers
and
Gene Pitney
. Comics
Jackie Mason
,
Don Adams
, and
Dick Shawn
also appeared.
Muppet
character
Rowlf the Dog
(performed by
Jim Henson
) debuted as a regular on the show, and during the premiere episode of the series in 1963, Dean interacted with an animated
Fred Flintstone
.
[5]
The Jimmy Dean Show
in 1964 hosted the first television appearance of
Hank Williams, Jr.
, who at the age of fourteen sang several songs associated with his legendary late father,
Hank Williams
.
[
citation needed
]
Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog
[
edit
]
The show introduced
Rowlf the Dog
, his
Muppet
side-kick, who often performed duets with Dean. Introduced each time as Dean's "ol' buddy", Rowlf was
Jim Henson
's first
Muppet
to score a regular spot on a network television show and appeared in 85 of the 86 episodes. While
Don Sahlin
maintained the puppet,
Jerry Juhl
assisted in writing the Rowlf sketches with the help of the show's staff writers and even assisted Jim Henson and Jimmy Dean on occasion. During production on episodes that featured Rowlf the Dog, Jim Henson would perform Rowlf with the Muppet's right arm operated by
Frank Oz
, and later by
Jerry Nelson
.
[6]
Henson was so grateful for the exposure Dean offered on his show that he in turn proposed that Dean take a 40 percent stake in
Henson's company
. Dean refused, however, later saying in 2005, "I didn't do anything to earn that."
[7]
When it came to an episode of
The Ed Sullivan Show
that aired on October 8, 1967, Jimmy Dean and Rowlf the Dog were reunited one final time where they performed "
Friendship
" while doing the "herd of cows" gag.
Influence
[
edit
]
Peppiatt and Aylesworth
, a Canadian duo who wrote for
The Jimmy Dean Show
, noted that while it had a country music star, and rural comedy was extremely popular in the 1960s, the show itself had quite little rural humor. In 1969, Peppiatt and Aylesworth created
Hee Haw
as a way to cater to the rural audience, bringing on two of Dean's most frequent guests as hosts,
Buck Owens
and
Roy Clark
.
[4]
ABC schedules
[
edit
]
Home media and syndication
[
edit
]
The longer-running prime-time series was produced on black and white videotape which was later disposed of by ABC. Eighty-two of the surviving 1960s reference 16mm
Kinescope
copies of the series were salvaged from the UCLA Archives by the Jimmy Dean Estate and restored by Donna Dean Stevens Entertainment in 2016 and 2017. In January 2017, the painstakingly remastered Season 1 of the show, which had not been seen in over 50 years, was released as a DVD set. The set includes exclusive interviews with Merle Haggard, Bobby Bare, Bill Anderson, and Donna Dean Stevens.
[8]
Remastered by restoration producer and editor Steve Boyle, the restored show began broadcast on
RFDTV
on January 1, 2017.
[8]
[9]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
From 1955 to 56, Dean hosted
Town and Country Time
, a weekday afternoon program on the Washington, D.C. ABC-TV affiliate,
WMAL-TV
.
- ^
a
b
Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1992),
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows
, Ballantine Books,
ISBN
0-345-37792-3
.
- ^
Adams, Val (January 1, 1964).
"A.B.C.-TV TO DROP '77 SUNSET STRIP' / Also Discontinuing 3 Other Series Before April"
.
The New York Times
, p.41
. Retrieved
November 18,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
[1]
, The Jimmy Dean Show Official Site - History
- ^
[2]
, The Jimmy Dean Show Official Site
- ^
[3]
, Jim Henson's Red Book entry, November 18, 1965
- ^
[4]
, Craig McDonald interviews Jimmy Dean, 2005
- ^
a
b
[5]
, Jimmy Dean Show Restoration Press Conference
- ^
[6]
, The Jimmy Dean Show on RFDTV
References
[
edit
]
- Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1992),
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows
, Ballantine Books,
ISBN
0-345-37792-3
.
- McNeil, Alex (1996),
Total Television
, Penguin Books,
ISBN
0-14-024916-8
.
- Billboard
, 1957?66
External links
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Television
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