| Shindig! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Musical variety |
| Created by | Jack Good |
| Written by | Jimmy O'Neill |
| Directed by | Richard Dunlap Selwyn Touber Dean Whitmore Jørn Winther |
| Presented by | Jimmy O'Neill |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Selig J. Seligman Leon Mirell |
| Producer | Phillip Browning |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 24–26 minutes (September 1964–January 1965) 48–52 minutes (January–Fall 1965) |
| Production companies | American Broadcasting Company Selmur Productions Circle Seven Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 16, 1964 (1964-09-16) – January 8, 1966 (1966-01-08) |
Shindig! is an Americanmusical variety series which aired onABC from September 16, 1964[1] to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted byJimmy O'Neill, adisc jockey in Los Angeles,[2] who created the show along with his wifeSharon Sheeley, British producerJack Good,[3] and production executive Art Stolnitz.[4] The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then executive producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starringSam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode.
Shindig! was conceived as a short-notice replacement forHootenanny, a series which specialized infolk revival music. The folk revival had fizzled in 1964 as the result of theBritish Invasion, which damaged the ratings forHootenanny and prompted that show's 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.
The premiere episode was actually the second pilot ofShindig!, and it featuredSam Cooke,The Everly Brothers, andThe Righteous Brothers. Later shows featured performances taped in Britain: a set was used at Twickenham Film Studios, where British acts performed live for the cameras, with the resultant footage flown back to the United States, to be shown on the program. The first UK episode hadThe Beatles as the guests. The series later featured other "British invasion" bands and performers includingThe Who,The Rolling Stones, andCilla Black.Shindig! continued to broadcast episodes with footage shot in London throughout its run.[2] This meant many acts were seen on U.S television before they actually went to America (The Who in particular, who performed a unique early version of "My Generation" live, two months before the single version was recorded).
Many other popular performers of the day played onShindig! includingTina Turner,Lesley Gore,Bo Diddley,[5]Sonny and Cher,The Beach Boys,James Brown,Jackie Wilson,The Supremes, andThe Ronettes.
Shindig!'s success promptedNBC to air the similar seriesHullabaloo starting in January 1965 and other producers to launch syndicated rock music shows likeShivaree andHollywood a Go-Go.
In March 1965,Little Eva performed a live but short version of her hit song "The Loco-Motion". This is the only known video clip of her singing it.
Toward the end of the program's run,The Mamas and the Papas appeared in an episode featuringBarry McGuire. Although serving as his backup singers, the group introduced "California Dreamin'" on that program, which launched its career.
Shindig! is one of the few rock music shows of the era to still have all episodes available to watch.[citation needed]
In September 1965, the show was moved out of its Wednesday-night time slot (where it gaveThe Beverly Hillbillies its first serious competition in its time period among younger viewers[citation needed]), 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 fromDaniel Boone andThe Munsters on Thursdays along withFlipper andThe 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 (Time magazine said "early-season tide [was] running against the teen scene"),[6] and in January1966,Shindig! was cancelled and replaced in its Thursday time slots byBatman.[2]
Shindig! also featured a dance troupe choreographed byDavid Winters and André Tayir, who accompanied the music acts of the week (Winters later worked on the competing NBC showHullabaloo). One of the regular dancers wasTeri Garr, who went on to find success as an actress. Others includedAnita Mann, Maria Gahva,Lorene Yarnell (later of the mime team Shields and Yarnell), Diane Stuart, Pam Freeman, Gina Trikinis, Marianna Picora, Virginia Justus, Rini Jarmon and Carol Shelyne, who always wore glasses while she danced. Occasionally, a small group of dancers who sang would get a featured spot; this rotating group was billed as The Shindig Girls. The assistant choreographer was Antonia Basilotta, better known asToni Basil, who later gained fame with her 1980s hit song "Mickey" and appeared inEasy Rider. Both Garr and Basil were dance students of David Winters at the time and worked with him on most of his choreography projects.[7]
The series house band was supposedly known as "The Shin-diggers", but that was actually the name host Jimmy O'Neill used to refer to fans of the show. At first, TV credits identified the musicians simply as the Shindig Band. By early 1965, they'd been renamed Sir Rufus Marion Banks and his Band of Men, but the generic name had returned by the time "Shindig" went off the air. The rhythm section was spun off into a featured group and named theShindogs. It includedJoey Cooper on bass,Chuck Blackwell on drums,James Burton on lead guitar,Delaney Bramlett on rhythm guitar andGlen D. Hardin on keyboards. Cooper and Bramlett traded off lead vocal duties. The larger band featuredJerry Cole on lead guitar,Russ Titelman on rhythm guitar,Larry Knechtel on bass,Leon Russell on piano,Julius Wechter on percussion andRitchie Frost on drums. Later,Billy Preston took over keyboards and performed as a singing regular.Glen Campbell was not a regular member of this band but a frequent guest performer.Ray Pohlman was the musical director, and he was also one - as was Campbell, Knechtel, Wechter and Russell - of the collection of first-call pop studio musicians that would later be known as "The Wrecking Crew". In some instances when one of the guitarists was unable to work, Pohlman would bring in Bill Aken to fill in.
The Righteous Brothers,Dick and Dee Dee,Jackie and Gayle,Donna Loren,Willy Nelson (not the famous Country singerWillie Nelson) andBobby Sherman were regular vocalists on the series.[7] Up until July 1965, when he quit the show, producer Jack Good was also a regular, wearing a bowler hat and improvising comedy routines with Jimmy O'Neill at the close of each episode.
The Blossoms, an all-female vocal group featuringDarlene Love, backed up many of the performers and were occasionally featured in spotlight performances.The Wellingtons were a trio of male singers who performed on their own, and as backup singers. Another male group, The Eligibles, sometimes alternated with The Wellingtons on backup.[8][9]
In 1991 and 1992,Rhino Entertainment andWEA released a series ofShindig! PresentsVHS videos featuring highlights from the series.[15]
Meanwhile ABC, which closed the gap on the competition in the overall prime-time race for the first time the previous season, momentarily dropped out of contention again, primarily for riding too long with fading favorites. The network was caught with seven of the bottom 13Nielsens, including the eight-year-oldDonna Reed Show and the 13-year-oldOzzie and Harriet. With the early-season tide running against the teen scene, the two segments of Shindig are being cancelled andBen Casey's slide to 73rd seemed to indicate that the doctor series are sickening unto death.
1964: Cash tapes an episode of the ABC musical-variety program Shindig!