November 20: This Day in TV History

[Lkeller]

Rick and Ozzie had a 'conflict'?  Never heard this one before.

And Dick Clark and Patsy Cline.....Cline was a country singer.  Why would she be appearing on AB?

She was appearing on AB because two of her biggest hits, "Walking After Midnight" and "Crazy" crossed over from the Country charts into the Pop charts, and were very popular with the Top 40 crowd.

I don't know specifics, but from what little I do understand, apparently having a dispute with Dick Clark is a relatively large club.

I'm still not sure, as I wondered in a much earlier thread, if Clark ever had a British group on either Bandstand or Action. Supposedly, according to legend, the British Invasion of '64 somehow upset his apple cart, and he was allegedly very resentful.

Patsy Cline died a year or two before I was paying attention to the Top 40 - but I can tell you that from about 1964 into the early 70s, there were always anywhere from 3 to 6 country songs on the Top 40 at any one time.  I wasn't a big AB viewer, but it wasn't unusual to see people like Lynn Anderson, Tammy Wynette, Jeannie C. Riley, Kenny Rogers, or Joe South on the local LA dance party programs singing (or lip-synching) their country hits.

RE: Ed Sullivan and naughty lyrics (Light My Fire), I recall seeing the Rolling Stones on the Sullivan Show about 1964 singing "Let's Spend Some Time Together"...instead of Let's Spend the Night Together.

[Ultimajock]

issues.  Dick Clark for example banned Jerry Lee Lewis from doing any of his shows like American Bandstand thanks to Jerry's marriage to his cousin ( I believe the two have since made up though ).

...Jerry Lee's marriage to Myra Gale wasn't the reason for the ban. It was due to Jerry Lee's setting fire to a piano during a Hollywood-based performance of "Great Balls of Fire" -- a piano that had been loaned to Clark's production company by Lawrence Welk...

[RicoGregg]

Patsy Cline died a year or two before I was paying attention to the Top 40 - but I can tell you that from about 1964 into the early 70s, there were always anywhere from 3 to 6 country songs on the Top 40 at any one time.  I wasn't a big AB viewer, but it wasn't unusual to see people like Lynn Anderson, Tammy Wynette, Jeannie C. Riley, Kenny Rogers, or Joe South on the local LA dance party programs singing (or lip-synching) their country hits.

Each and every artist mentioned above had hits that crossed over from the Country charts to the Pop charts. Crossovers in both directions were quite common then.

Growing up watching L.A. television, we teens in Southern California were indeed blessed in that unlike many parts of the nation, we didn't have to settle only for American Bandstand. We had some great, fun local shows like Lloyd Thaxton, Shebang, 9th St. West, Make Believe Ballroom, and others that made Bandstand seem like a school-sanctioned tea party by comparison. In other words, Bandstand, compared to the L.A. shows, was dull like a rounded-off pencil point.

A DVD of Lloyd Thaxton's show will soon be available, and I hope that people who weren't lucky enough to see it will now be able to, and will enjoy it.

[landtuna]

I have MP3's of Thaxton's "Image of a Surfer" and "My Name is Llyod Thaxton" and would be happy to share with anyone who remembers his great show.

[Ultimajock]

Growing up watching L.A. television, we teens in Southern California were indeed blessed in that unlike many parts of the nation, we didn't have to settle only for American Bandstand. We had some great, fun local shows like Lloyd Thaxton, Shebang, 9th St. West, Make Believe Ballroom, and others that made Bandstand seem like a school-sanctioned tea party by comparison. In other words, Bandstand, compared to the L.A. shows, was dull like a rounded-off pencil point.

...it's the smile of the week, just imagining American Bandstand being hosted by The Real Don Steele instead of Dick Clark  ...

[RicoGregg]

...it's the smile of the week, just imagining American Bandstand being hosted by The Real Don Steele instead of Dick Clark  ...

....or even better, imagine Dick Clark trying to survive in L.A. radio during the 50s and 60s. With competition like Hunter Hancock, Art Laboe, Wolfman Jack, Huggy Boy, The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Joe Yocum, Al Jarvis, B. Mitchell Reed, Jim Hawthorne, and so many others I could name, Clark would've turned tail and ran back to Philly. He's lucky to have had Bandstand. He would not have survived in L.A. radio, especially back then.

[Lkeller]

...it's the smile of the week, just imagining American Bandstand being hosted by The Real Don Steele instead of Dick Clark  ...

....or even better, imagine Dick Clark trying to survive in L.A. radio during the 50s and 60s. With competition like Hunter Hancock, Art Laboe, Wolfman Jack, Huggy Boy, The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Joe Yocum, Al Jarvis, B. Mitchell Reed, Jim Hawthorne, and so many others I could name, Clark would've turned tail and ran back to Philly. He's lucky to have had Bandstand. He would not have survived in L.A. radio, especially back then.

Amen to the above. Honorable mention to Sam Riddle, who morphed from a puker" into a quiet low key radio style (almost MOR), but was nevertheless pretty slick as host of 9th St West (starting when he was on KFWB, yet), and Boss City. 

There are 2 or 3 streaming videos of The Real Don Steele Show (entire shows, including commercials) on reelradio.com. They're from 1974 - disco era - and fun to watch not just for the great RDS, but the hair styles, clothing, platform shoes, etc.

Also - Groovy! with Robert W. Morgan, and that oddball Michael Blodgett dance-party show on the beach (might have also been called Groovy, can't remember).

Rhino Video has distributed some Shebang shows (on ABC network, and not really a dance party show)...but they're fun to watch, and Jimmy O'Neill was an LA based DJ.

[RicoGregg]

Rhino Video has distributed some Shebang shows (on ABC network, and not really a dance party show)...but they're fun to watch, and Jimmy O'Neill was an LA based DJ.

Me respectfully thinks that you meant Shindig in lieu of Shebang.

Casey Kasem, another KRLA legend, hosted Shebang, while Jimmy O'Neill hosted Shindig.

Shindig was carried on ABC, while Shebang ran on KTLA, and was produced by Dick Clark. I don't recall whether or not it was syndicated.

[Lkeller]

Rhino Video has distributed some Shebang shows (on ABC network, and not really a dance party show)...but they're fun to watch, and Jimmy O'Neill was an LA based DJ.

Me respectfully thinks that you meant Shindig in lieu of Shebang.

Casey Kasem, another KRLA legend, hosted Shebang, while Jimmy O'Neill hosted Shindig.

Shindig was carried on ABC, while Shebang ran on KTLA, and was produced by Dick Clark. I don't recall whether or not it was syndicated.

Me thinks you are correct.  Pardon the gaffe - I didn't know Shebang on KTLA was produced by Dick Clark, but I do remember that it starred Casey Kasem,also then of KRLA.  Shindig was indeed the ABC program I was referring to.  In fact, if I remember correctly, Jimmy O'Neill's opening on the show was "Hi-de-hi, Shindiggers."

And in case anybody cares, the Michael Blodgett beach dance-party show was called Groovy!.  The Robert W. Morgan show of the same name was the second version, in studio.  Apparently Blodgett (who was an actor), turned to writing later in life, and passed away last year.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Blodgett

[Newname]

 For those who aren't experts in the history of TV music shows, the easiest way to tell Shindig from Shebang is to remember that only Shindig was parodied on The Flintstones, as 'Shinrock, with Jimmy O'Neillstone', while Kasem never did get the Bedrock treatment!