The Judy Garland Show
The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963–1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star. Garland, who for years had been reluctant to commit to a weekly series, saw the show as her best chance to pull herself out of severe financial difficulties. Despite it being cancelled relatively early on, it is now revered and considered an important piece of television history.
The Judy Garland Show
United States
1
26
60 mins
Kingsrow Enterprises, Inc.
September 29, 1963 –
March 29, 1964
Production difficulties beset the series almost from the beginning. The series had three different producers in the course of its 26 episodes and went through a number of other key personnel changes. With the change in producers also came changes to the show's format, which started as comedy and variety but switched to an almost purely concert format. (In fact, as of episode 20, the on-screen title of the show became Judy Garland In Concert.)
While Garland herself was popular with critics, the initial variety format and her co-star, Jerry Van Dyke, were not. The show competed with NBC's Bonanza, then the second most popular program on television,[1] and consistently performed poorly in the ratings. Although fans rallied in an attempt to save the show, CBS cancelled it after a single season.
TV Guide included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".[2]
Garland and CBS[edit]
Garland's history with CBS prior to the series was a checkered one. She had previously headlined several specials for the network. The first was the inaugural episode of the Ford Star Jubilee which aired in 1955.[3] The special, the first full-scale color telecast on CBS,[4] was a ratings triumph, garnering a 34.8 Nielsen rating.[5] This success led to Garland's signing a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only a single special aired, a live General Electric Theater episode in 1956, before the pact was terminated.[6] The relationship between CBS and Garland and her then-husband and manager, Sid Luft, dissolved in acrimony in 1957, after they and agent Freddie Fields were unable to come to terms with the network over the format of her next special.[7] Garland filed a US$1.4 million lawsuit against CBS for libel and breach of contract. (CBS filed a counterclaim) that was not settled until 1961, when Garland and CBS each agreed to drop their claims and negotiations began for a new round of Garland specials for the network.[8]
The first of two specials under this new relationship aired on February 25, 1962.[9] The Judy Garland Show special,[a] guest starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, was nominated for four Emmys.[11] Its success led to CBS signing Garland in December 1962 for her weekly series, premiering in fall 1963.[12] Garland's second special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, was presented in March 1963.[13] Alternately promoted as a preview and a pilot for Garland's upcoming regular series,[12] this special was also nominated for an Emmy.[13][14]