| The Midnight Special | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Music variety show |
| Created by | Burt Sugarman |
| Presented by | Various guest hosts (1972–1975, 1976–1981) Helen Reddy (1975–1976) |
| Narrated by | Wolfman Jack |
| Opening theme | "Midnight Special" performed byJohnny Rivers |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 350[1] |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Burt Sugarman |
| Producers |
|
| Production location | NBC Studios inBurbank, CA |
| Running time | 90 min |
| Production company | Burt Sugarman Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | August 19, 1972 (1972-08-19) – March 27, 1981 (1981-03-27) |
| Related | |
| Tomorrow | |
The Midnight Special is an American late-nightmusical variety series originally broadcast onNBC from 1972 to 1981, created and produced byBurt Sugarman. It premiered as aTV special on August 19, 1972, and then began its run as a regular series from February 3, 1973, to March 27, 1981.[2] The 90-minute program aired on Saturday mornings at 1 a.m. ET/PT after the Friday night edition ofThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[3]
Like its syndicated late-night cousinDon Kirshner's Rock Concert, the show typically featured guest hosts, except for a period from July 1975 through March 1976 when singerHelen Reddy served as the regular host.Wolfman Jack served as the announcer and frequent guest host. The program's theme song, a traditional folk song called "Midnight Special", was performed byJohnny Rivers.
The Midnight Special featured a collection of live performances, spanning the breadth of popular music of the 1970s, including pop, rock, folk, soul, dance (disco) and nostalgia/oldies acts along with stand-up comedy routines and sketch comedy troupes. Each new episode would be hosted, usually, by one of the artists performing during that program.
Occasional episodes would be shot on location, including two-part episodes shot in London and atWillie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic, and an episode shot at theTulsa State Fair. The show presentedThe 1980 Floor Show, the last performance ofDavid Bowie asZiggy Stardust, on November 16, 1973, from specially-commissioned performances taped a month earlier at theMarquee Club inSoho,London.[4] Select episodes carried themes, such as the "Million Sellers" (clip shows of previous episodes' performances with no host, played in lieu of straight reruns) and genre-specific nights such as "The Midnight Top 40 Special," "The Midnight Comedy Special," "The Midnight Special Country Edition" and theDon Cornelius-hosted "Midnight Disco Special."
Beginning in 1975,Carol Wayne (who had recently married producer Burt Sugarman) was introduced as the host of "Rock Rap," a gossip segment that aired in the middle of each episode.[5]
In 1972,[6] producerBurt Sugarman pitched the program as a means for NBC to capitalize on a potential audience. "Our aim was to reach for the 18-33 age bracket, the young married and daters who attend concerts and movies but don't watch much television," Sugarman said.[7] At the time, NBC's main late-night tentpole,The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, generally limited its musical guests to those who played lighter music, asCarson believed that most television viewers at that hour were attempting to go to sleep and would not appreciate raucous music.[8]
At the time, none of theBig Three television networks had programming on after 1:00 am Eastern time, as common practice by most stations was tosign off after the final program. Despite a lack of competition in that timeslot, NBC initially rejected the idea. The rejection led Sugarman to buy the air time for the premiere on his own as abrokered show, convincingChevrolet to become the show's first sponsor. It premiered with ratings high enough for NBC to reconsider its decision, and the network subsequently bought the program.[1] NBC also reasoned that the additional weekly hour and a half of programming would allow NBC to recoup some revenue lost as a result of thePublic Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned the advertising of tobacco on television effective January 1, 1971.[9]
The pilot for the series aired on August 19, 1972. It was presented as a 90-minute special encouraging young people to vote in theupcoming Presidential election. Nielsen ratings for the premiere episode were a success, with 4.4%, or approximately 5 million television sets "tuned in", and 32% of those watching TV during that time period were watchingThe Midnight Special.[10] Several months later, on February 3, 1973, it premiered as a weekly series.[11] Initially, it was scheduled to run 26 consecutive weeks.[12] Within eight months of its premiere,The Midnight Special had proven that programming in the later time period was viable, and NBC would expand its programming in the time slot to five days a week with the addition of the talk showTomorrow, hosted byTom Snyder, the other four nights.[9]
The Midnight Special's original time slot was on Saturdays from 1:00 to 2:30 a.m. in theEastern andPacific time zones (Midnight to 1:30 a.m.Central andMountain).[13] WhenThe Tonight Show's run time was shortened from ninety to sixty minutes in September 1980,The Midnight Special was moved to 12:30 a.m. (ET/PT)/11:30 p.m. (CT/MT), maintaining its 90-minute run time.[14]
In 1978, at the height of thedisco craze, the set was changed to resemble a disco nightclub complete with a platform dance floor. Wolfman Jack stood behind an elevated DJ booth. By fall 1979, as the genre's popularity waned, the disco set was replaced.[14] The show was canceled in March 1981 and remained on air in reruns until May 1981.[15][16][17]
Some notable guest stars and hosts included:
The show was parodied with a song by comedianRay Stevens in 1974 called "The Moonlight Special" playing Mr. Sheepdog (Wolfman Jack), whose guest included Mildred Queen and the Dipsticks (Gladys Knight), Agnes Stoopa (Alice Cooper and his pet chicken (From the 1969 "Chicken incident" in Toronto)), and Jerry Joe Henly Jimmy (Jerry Lee Lewis).[18]
The show was successful from 1972 thru 1977, but in 1978 ratings began steadily declining. The series was finally canceled in 1981 by NBC at the request ofDick Ebersol as part of a deal for him to take over the then-ailingSaturday Night Live.[19] Because there was no time for NBC to develop a new show from scratch in light of the urgentSNL situation,The Midnight Special was replaced bySCTV, a weekly Canadian sketch comedy series performed by members of theToronto satellite ofChicago'sThe Second City improvisational troupe. That program, in turn, would later be replaced with another music show,Friday Night Videos, in 1983, also produced initially by Ebersol.
In 2006, a DVD collection entitledBurt Sugarman's Midnight Special was made available byGuthy-Renker through television and radioinfomercials. In 2014, an 11-DVD collection entitledThe Midnight Special was released byStar-Vista through standard retail channels.
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