ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY : January 8th 1966 : The last episode of Shindig! on ABC features The Who and The Kinks. Shindig! was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964-January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy ONeill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles. The original pilot was rejected by ABC. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke and the Righteous Brothers. Shindig! was conceived as a short-notice replacement for Hootenanny, a series that had specialized in folk revival music. The folk revival had fizzled in 1964 as the result of the British Invasion, which damaged the ratings for Hootenanny and prompted that shows cancellation. Shindig! focused on a broader variety of popular music than its predecessor and first aired for a half-hour every Wednesday evening, but was expanded to an hour in January 1965. In the fall of 1965, the show split into two half-hour telecasts, on Thursday and Saturday nights. Later shows were taped in Britain with The Beatles as the guests. The series featured other British invasion bands and performers including The Who, The Rolling Stones and Cilla Black. Shindig continued to broadcast episodes from London throughout its run.Many popular performers of the day played on Shindig! including Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley, and Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown, The Supremes and The Ronettes. Shindig!s success prompted NBC to air the similar series Hullabaloo starting in January 1965 and other producers to launch syndicated rock music shows like Shivaree and Hollywood A Go-Go. In March 1965, Little Eva performed her hit song The Loco-Motion in a live but short version of the song. This is the only known video clip of her singing the song. Shindig! is one of the few rock music shows of the era to still have all of the episodes available to watch. In September of 1965, the show was moved out of its Wednesday-night timeslot (where it gave The Beverly Hillbillies its first serious competition in its time period among younger viewers), and split into two half-hours on new days and times (Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time). The show faced tough competition from Daniel Boone and The Munsters on Thursdays along with Flipper and The Jackie Gleason Show on Saturdays. Additionally, the Saturday edition aired in a time period when many of its potential viewers were going out and thus, not at home to watch television. By October 1965, the show was having ratings problems, and in January 1966, Shindig! was cancelled and replaced in its Thursday time slots by Batman. Heres The Who from the final episode of shindig!, performing I Cant Explain/My Generation.....Enjoy!
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 19:08:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015