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Why couldn't variety shows adapt in the 70s?

Dean Martin's insulting attitude toward the Rolling Stones on Hollywood Palace was another indication of how stuck in the mud many such programs were. Martin began his own long-running show the following year, but I'm pretty sure no rock groups ever made it there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOr2a9oEzGQ

Mike Douglas also had the Stones on his show. While he wasn't as nasty as Dean, he was a bit condescending and he made a fool of himself when he interview them.
 
Mike Douglas also had the Stones on his show. While he wasn't as nasty as Dean, he was a bit condescending and he made a fool of himself when he interview them.

Mike Douglas was an idiot and often made a fool of himself. No surprise, since the show's producer was Roger Ailes. People with an IQ in triple digits watched Phil Donahue.
 
Mike Douglas also had the Stones on his show. While he wasn't as nasty as Dean, he was a bit condescending and he made a fool of himself when he interview them.

Kind of a generational thing, typical of parents talking to people their children's age. Larry King had similar problems with certain modern artists.
 
I have no idea, other than music historians. The WW1 generation is gone now. I know my folks and their contemporaries, who were of the WW2/Korean War era, couldn't stand Welk when he was on ABC. That was their parents' (my grandparents') music.

And for this 51-year-old, Welk is comfort food. I'm guessing you're in my general age group -- the parents had no use for it, but both sets of grandparents considered LW to be appointment TV.

Clearly there are other reasons Welk is still on (obviously -- because for some public TV stations/networks, "The Lawrence Welk Show" prints pledge money!), but one reason, I'm sure, is nostalgia for people my age. I have it on, and I feel my grandparents in the room with me. For 60 minutes - give or take - I'm escaping adulthood. I'll smirk at the pastels, the wide collars, what have you, but I'm also smiling. Warts and all, it's sweet television.

--Russell
 
Mike Douglas was an idiot and often made a fool of himself. No surprise, since the show's producer was Roger Ailes. People with an IQ in triple digits watched Phil Donahue.

And people on the higher side of the bell curve did not watch either.
 
And for this 51-year-old, Welk is comfort food. I'm guessing you're in my general age group -- the parents had no use for it, but both sets of grandparents considered LW to be appointment TV.

Clearly there are other reasons Welk is still on (obviously -- because for some public TV stations/networks, "The Lawrence Welk Show" prints pledge money!), but one reason, I'm sure, is nostalgia for people my age. I have it on, and I feel my grandparents in the room with me. For 60 minutes - give or take - I'm escaping adulthood. I'll smirk at the pastels, the wide collars, what have you, but I'm also smiling. Warts and all, it's sweet television.

--Russell
We had two TVs, so I was able to watch "Hee Haw" while my mother watched Lawrence Welk. When we all stayed together in a motel room on a Saturday, I had to watch Lawrence Welk. But those of you who know my musical taste would expect me to like that show. I missed the comedy but of course it was reruns I was missing. After an ice storm I was staying with an neighbor in her 80s because I didn't have heat, but I would go home to watch the shows I wanted to watch on TV. I did watch "Lawrence Welk" with her.
 
Rosie O'Donnell was going to bring back the Mike Douglas/Merv Griffin style of daytime talk/variety show with her mid-90s effort as the "Queen of Nice".
A line from Man on the Moon (the Andy Kaufmann story) after an appearance on Merv Griffin's show/ "Merv Griffin got hate mail. Merv Griffin doesn't get hate mail!"
Don't forget Ellen DeGeneres. She was an admirer of theirs. Now her dancing and the so-called music she likes to dance to is nothing like what they would have had ...
 
All rather "white, middle America, middle class, middle aged-friendly" acts, unlike the Stones.
Most of this music is pretty tame and some songs by the majority of them (except the country acts that didn't cross over) get played on America's Best Music.

But listening to my former America's Best Music affiliate means hearing The Stones along with whichever of these they will still play.
 
I like the reruns of Carol Burnett on Me TV better because I always liked the comedy skits (especially if Tim Conway was in it) better than the music. It, Laugh-in, and SNL were about the only variety shows I cared anything about watching.
UNC TV is show the best of the show tonight.

Judging from the rest of the programming lineup this week, it's time for a fund-raiser.
 
The last segment of the Carol Burnett Show was always a musical production number. Kind of time to hit the restroom and re-fill the drink before the news.

UNC TV is show the best of the show tonight.

Judging from the rest of the programming lineup this week, it's time for a fund-raiser.
 
That was my theory....comfort food, and a reminder of when parents and grandparents were still with us. A lot like listening to 50 year old Christmas songs by Andy Williams.

And for this 51-year-old, Welk is comfort food. I'm guessing you're in my general age group -- the parents had no use for it, but both sets of grandparents considered LW to be appointment TV.

Clearly there are other reasons Welk is still on (obviously -- because for some public TV stations/networks, "The Lawrence Welk Show" prints pledge money!), but one reason, I'm sure, is nostalgia for people my age. I have it on, and I feel my grandparents in the room with me. For 60 minutes - give or take - I'm escaping adulthood. I'll smirk at the pastels, the wide collars, what have you, but I'm also smiling. Warts and all, it's sweet television.

--Russell
 
That was my theory....comfort food, and a reminder of when parents and grandparents were still with us. A lot like listening to 50 year old Christmas songs by Andy Williams.

Christmas songs by Williams, Percy Faith, Spike Jones, Mitch Miller, Elvis, and the Beach Boys are orders of magnitude better than most of what's been called "Christmas music" released in the last 30 years. There are exceptions, such as the Mannheim Steamroller albums, and even the Dr. Demento collection, of the mid/late '80s and early '90s, but they are not common.

Bing Crosby's White Christmas is still played all the time on the Housewife Rock... er, I mean Soft AC... stations during their Halloween-to-Christmas Day extravaganzas, despite being originally released in 1942. And it wasn't even a Christmas song, per se.
 
We've sort of ignored the concept of DAYTIME variety shows, such as Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin. I'd consider Live With Kelly & Michael to be a variety show. In that same way, the morning shows like Today and Good Morning America have incorporated some of the variety elements, as have the night shows like Kimmel, Fallon, and Colbert.

Plus the many of local daytime variety shows too such as the "AM ( insert name of city )". Of course some of them probably didn't get much in the way of national music acts but I am pretty sure Debby Harry ( Blondie ) did sing some of her tunes on WKBW-TV's AM Buffalo" back in the early 80s. Never saw the telecast but I do remember the old WKBW radio promoting it though. When Maury Povich hosted "Panorama" on DC's WTTG channel 5 back in the 70s I do seem to remember seeing Elton John on that. My dad claims he saw David Bowie singing on a local Norfolk, VA talk show back in the early 80s. Probably either Dick Lamb or that short lived early evening variety show WVEC-TV did back around 1982 or so. Did Bob Braun when he hosted his regional show back in the day ever had any national acts ??
 
When you're a national touring act, there are two ways to sell tickets: Buy advertising and do local media like radio and TV. Doing media is a lot cheaper. So if you were coming into a town and still had a few thousand tickets to sell, you talked to Maury or Dick or Bob.
 
Regarding Dean Martin...I love the Stones, but I also love Dino, and him ripping on them on "Hollywood Palace" was funny (especially the eyeroll!) Someone posted that most of the guests listed for Dean's show were not that far from MOR. Petula Clark and Herman's Hermits were about as tame as the British Invasion got, and having his kid's band on the show was probably a no-brainer. As far as the country acts listed, I'll bet a lot of them were on his "Music Country" summer replacement show that ran one year in the early 70s. I can even remember some country singers being shoehorned in amongst the Vegas comics on his roasts.
 
Christmas songs by Williams, Percy Faith, Spike Jones, Mitch Miller, Elvis, and the Beach Boys are orders of magnitude better than most of what's been called "Christmas music" released in the last 30 years. There are exceptions, such as the Mannheim Steamroller albums, and even the Dr. Demento collection, of the mid/late '80s and early '90s, but they are not common.

Bing Crosby's White Christmas is still played all the time on the Housewife Rock... er, I mean Soft AC... stations during their Halloween-to-Christmas Day extravaganzas, despite being originally released in 1942. And it wasn't even a Christmas song, per se.

"...but it's December the 24th and I'm longing to be up north." In what alternate reality is "White Christmas" not a "Christmas song"? Now, I'll give you "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" but "White Christmas"? I can't believe I'm talking about this in June!
 
"...but it's December the 24th and I'm longing to be up north." In what alternate reality is "White Christmas" not a "Christmas song"? Now, I'll give you "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" but "White Christmas"? I can't believe I'm talking about this in June!

White Christmas is not The Christmas Song. The Christmas Song is the one that begins "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."
 
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