| Hullabaloo | |
|---|---|
Michael Landon as a guest star, 1965. |
|
| Genre | Musical variety |
| Written by | John Aylesworth Frank Peppiatt |
| Directed by | Steve Binder Bill Davis |
| Narrated by | Johnny Holliday |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 48 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Gary Smith |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes (January 1965–August 1965) 45–48 minutes (September 1965–August 1966) |
| Production company(s) | The Gary Smith Company Hullabaloo Enterprises |
| Distributor | NBC Universal Television Distribution (2004-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white Color |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original run | January 12, 1965 – August 29, 1966 |
Hullabaloo is an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12, 1965 through August 29, 1966. Similar to Shindig! it ran in prime time in contrast to ABC's American Bandstand.
Contents |
Directed by Steve Binder, who went on to direct Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, Hullabaloo served as a big-budget, quality showcase for the leading pop acts of the day, and was also competition for another like-minded television showcase, ABC's Shindig!. A different host presided each week—among these were Sammy Davis, Jr., Petula Clark, Paul Anka, Liza Minnelli, Jack Jones, and Frankie Avalon—singing a couple of his or her own hits and introducing the different acts. Chart-topping acts who performed on the show included Dionne Warwick, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Sonny & Cher, the Supremes, Herman's Hermits, The Animals, and Marianne Faithfull. Many early episodes included segments taped in the UK and hosted by Brian Epstein.
Many of the programs in the series were videotaped at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Others were taped in New York City at NBC's Studio 8H (built for Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra and which would later house Saturday Night Live) , and in NBC's studio in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Much of the series' color videotaped footage was later dubbed over to kinescope on film - as such copied in black and white. Only three half-hour episodes are known to exist in their original videotaped form.
The show was choreographed by David Winters, who selected and choreographed the Hullabaloo Dancers. The Hullabaloo Dancers were a team of four men and six women who appeared on a regular basis. Two of them, Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, went on to achieve considerable fame on Broadway. Dancer Patrick Adiarte, who also attempted to launch a solo singing career on the series, went on to play Ho-Jon in the television series M*A*S*H. Another female dancer, model/actress Lada Edmund Jr. was best known as the caged "go-go girl" dancer in the "Hullabaloo A-Go-Go" segment near the closing sequence of the show. She also had a brief recording career with the singles "I Know Something" and "The Larue." She later co-starred with Jon Voight) in the 1969 film Out of It and in Act of Vengeance released in 1974. Dancer Suzanne Charney also had some degree of fame on Broadway as the lead frug dancer in Sweet Charity, reprising her role in the 1969 film as well. David Winters went on to direct or produce over 200 TV shows, specials and films.
The series was originally a one-hour broadcast, airing from 8:30 - 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday. In June 1965, it shifted to the 10 p.m. slot (featuring selected repeats of the first season), but three months later, the network cut the show to thirty minutes and moved it to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, where it remained to the end of its run, whereupon it was replaced by the sitcom The Monkees. In the 1965-1966 season, Hullabaloo preceded the NBC sitcom The John Forsythe Show. It was featured opposite the military drama Twelve O'Clock High on ABC.
Highlights of many of the segments have been compiled for release in VHS and DVD formats.