I read Yael Kohen’s We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy a couple of months ago, and according to Kohen at least The Carol Burnett Show was the last major variety show. There were other variety shows after that, but none anywhere near so popular or long lasting.
While not variety shows, last year there were three primetime shows on major networks that combined scripted drama/comedy with musical numbers: Glee, Smash, and Nashville. (Smash has since been cancelled.)
Would Muppets Tonight count?
That’s because it was more of a sketch-comedy show than a traditional variety show. The latter, in addition to having comedy sketches, would also feature music acts and numbers. Ullman did have musical numbers on her show but they were comedy-oriented.
Now that I think about it, however, wasn’t Carol Burnett’s show almost entirely sketch-comedy? Other variety shows of that era would often have on then-hot music acts to perform their then-hot songs but I don’t remember seeing any on Burnett’s. You also didn’t see too much of another type of common variety show guest–the stand-up comic performing an acceptable-for-prime-time-television version of his routine. I remember seeing George Carlin doing one of his bits when he guested on the Carol Burnett Show but I can’t think of anyone else.
Yeah, Wayne had a show just like Carol Burnett. He even came out and answered questions at the end.
It wasn’t very funny, though.
One thing that killed variety shows, besides a segmenting public, was the fact they were awful. In the sixties shows were typically hosted by veteran performers like Dean Martin and Andy Williams. In the seventies it seemed anyone could get one; anyone remember the Keane Brothers, the Starlight Vocal Band, or the Hudson Brothers? Plus they didn’t even pretend to keep up with the music scene, although it is doubtful the likes of Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles would have showed up anyway. Trust me such atrocities like the Brady Bunch Variety Hour or Pink Lady and Jeff weren’t much worse than other 70s variety shows.
I don’t think there’s a magic formula for skit v. song in order to qualify for “Variety Show.”
The Carol Burnett Show was not mostly skits, though to young pikers who might have seen the cut-down reruns which had only the skits would think so. Carol had on the leading vocalists from stage, lounge acts, and pop and would do straight song numbers with them. They would also do comedy musical numbers, too. And then she’d have on a guest do to skits with her ensemble.
And so, it seems to me that the last three popular and successful prime-time variety shows were:
Muppets Tonight
Tracey Ulmann Show
Carol Burnett Show
All three are worth getting copies of and watching in full.
The interesting part about it was that it was almost entirely ad libbed. Unfortunately, that led to stretches that where little happened.
Starland Vocal Band. C’mon, they were bland, they were derivative, they had exactly one hit song that made the Carpenters sound like heavy metal, they were as faceless as a phalanx of riot cops and ephemeral as mayflies… but they deserve to be remembered by the correct stupid name.
Okay, so I really liked the song. It was 1975, what can I say.
Well, in the Sixties, all the really big rock bands DID appear regularly on variety shows. The Beatles, Stones, Doors, et al., DID appear on ***The Ed Sullivan Show. *** The Who DID perform on the Smothers Brothers’ show. Simon and Garfunkel DID sing with Andy Williams. The Jefferson Airplane DID perform on Perry Como’s show. In the Sixties, even BIG rock groups saw getting on a major variety show as a coup, as a great vehicle for selling their latest single.
By the Seventies, though, a truly BIG rock band wouldn’t be caught dead on the Sonny & Cher, Captain & Tennille or Tony Orlando & Dawn variety shows.
Leading country acts DID still show up on Hee Haw til the end, though.
It don’t think it’s been mentioned yet but another thing that killed variety shows was the fact that no matter how successful they were, they were nearly impossible to sell as syndicated reruns. “The Carol Burnett Show” had some success by cutting the original shows into easily-slotted 30-minute doses and you still see Best of Ed Sullivan during PBS pledge drives but, on the whole, TV stations were reluctant to set aside one full hour of programming for a rerun of an old variety show featuring music acts and comedians whose pop cultural shelf life had long since expired.
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One thing that killed variety shows, besides a segmenting public, was the fact they were awful. In the sixties shows were typically hosted by veteran performers like Dean Martin and Andy Williams. In the seventies it seemed anyone could get one; anyone remember the Keane Brothers, the Starlight Vocal Band, or the Hudson Brothers? Plus they didn’t even pretend to keep up with the music scene, although it is doubtful the likes of Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles would have showed up anyway. Trust me such atrocities like the Brady Bunch Variety Hour or Pink Lady and Jeff weren’t much worse than other 70s variety shows.
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The lack of the era’s big rock acts appearing on prime time variety shows during the 70s was due to a mutual antipathy that had developed between network programmers and the music industry at the time. I’ll go into this in more detail later as I have an appointment to go to.
When I think of a variety show, I think of shows where one or two people provided the “face” of the show, with sketches and music to follow. That may not be technically correct, but it draws a line for me between SNL and Carol Burnett.