| The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy/Variety |
| Written by | Norman Lear |
| Directed by | Bud Yorkin |
| Starring | Tennessee Ernie Ford |
| Composer(s) | Harry Geller's Orchestra |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 121 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Bud Yorkin |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | under 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | Color |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original run | October 4, 1956 – June 29, 1961 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Ford Theatre (1955-1956) |
| Followed by | Great Ghost Tales (1961 summer replacement) Hazel (1961-1962) |
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961.
The Tennessee-born Ford first gained attention as the host of Hometown Jamboree in Los Angeles, California. In 1954, he hosted a brief revival of Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, a quiz show on NBC. His subsequent The Ford Show was frequently among the Top 20 programs. The Ford Show was produced and directed by Bud Yorkin, later the partner of Norman Lear on CBS's All in the Family.[1] Lear was also a writer on The Ford Show. The program was officially named not for the host, but for the show's sponsor, the Ford Motor Company.[2]
Contents |
Despite the objection of studio bosses, Ford closed all but 18 of the 121 episodes of his program with a hymn or other spiritual song.[3][4][5] It became one of the most popular segments of his show. Once in 1959 Gisele MacKenzie became the only guest star to close the Ford program with a hymn.[6]
Ford often used the country refrain, "Bless your pea-pickin' hearts!" In the first season, the choral group called "The Voices of Walter Schumann" served as backup. After Schumann's death, the group was made more contemporary, renamed "The Top Twenty," and performed in the four later seasons of The Ford Show.[5]
On October 8, 1958, Ford introduced the 1959 Ford vehicle models on the program, with the singer/ actress Ann Blyth as his guest.[6]
On January 7, 1960, Ford had two big-name guests, Dean Martin and Jack Bailey, host of the Queen for a Day daytime series. In the skit Martin drops by as Ford and Bailey poke fun at Martin's Rat Pack friends. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was among the many guests on the program.[6]
On June 8, 1961, South African golfer Gary Player, then twenty-five, guest starred in a comedy skit in which Player presumes to give Ford golfing lessons.[6]
On April 28, 1960, Ford presented one of his only five programs without guest stars at Drury College (since University), a Congregationalist institution in Springfield, Missouri. He sang his trademark "Sixteen Tons" and the hymn "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".[6]
In his series finale, Ford had no guests. Therefore, singer Anita Bryant and Joe Flynn, later Captain Binghamton on ABC's McHale's Navy, hold the distinction of having been the final guests on The Ford Show in the episode which aired on June 22, 1961.[6] On March 30, 1961, Flynn had also appeared on The Ford Show in a patriotic episode set at sea aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown.[7]
Greer Garson and Reginald Gardiner were the first two guest stars, having appeared on The Ford Show premiere episode. Two weeks later, Zsa Zsa Gabor made her only appearance. The next week, actor Adolphe Menjou made his only visit to The Ford Show. Charles Laughton appeared several times in comedy skits with Ford. William Bendix of The Life of Riley appeared twice on the program. In the first season English actress Jeannie Carson, who was also starring in her own CBS situation comedy, Hey, Jeannie!, appeared with Ford. Still another first season guest was the actor Pat O'Brien, known for the lead role in Knute Rockne, All American. On March 6, 1958, English actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke was the Ford guest.[6]
Patriotic songstress Kate Smith, a Virginia native, was the only guest to appear in two consecutive episodes, aired on January 15 and 22, 1959. Smith performed "It Was So Beautiful," "Somebody Loves Me," "There's a Goldmine in the Sky", and "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain," which the following year served as the theme song for her short-lived CBS musical series. The Kate Smith Show. Smith and Ford performed duets: "You're Just in Love" and "Hey Good Lookin'." In the second segment, Ford's vocal group, The Top Twenty, performed a western medley, "Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle," "I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande" (from Johnny Mercer), "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (the song of the University of Wyoming), "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", "Wagon Wheels," and "Don't Fence Me In."[7]
Many other singers of various genres of music appeared with Ford: Tony Bennett, Carol Channing, Rosemary Clooney, Nelson Eddy, Gordon MacRae, Jaye P. Morgan, Lily Pons, John Raitt, Jimmie Rodgers, Tommy Sands, Jo Stafford, Merle Travis, and Ethel Waters. Pianists Hoagy Carmichael and Liberace were alswo guests. Bandleader Spike Jones appeared early on the program on November 15, 1956. Tab Hunter appeared on October 27, 1960, only a few weeks after the debut of his unsuccessful NBC situation comedy, The Tab Hunter Show.[6]
The puppeteers Edgar Bergen, with Charlie McCarthy, and Shari Lewis (twice in 1960 and 1961) and Lamb Chops were Ford program guests. Peter Palmer, the actor who played Li'l Abner on Broadway, also appeared. Ann B. Davis, while still a cast member of The Bob Cummings Show, guest starred. Dwayne Hickman, another Bob Cummings Show alumnus, appeared with Ford in 1960, after he had already begun his own series, CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.[6]
Ford also accommodated several stars of television detective series as guests, Craig Stevens of Peter Gunn and Roger Smith, the only cast member of ABC's 77 Sunset Strip to appear on the program. Mickey Spillane, the author who created the Mike Hammer series and Darren McGavin, original star of Mike Hammer, both appeared with Ford. Lee Marvin was another guest star who appeared in 1957, as he was launching his own NBC police drama M Squad. Ben Alexander, first co-star with Jack Webb on the NBC Dragnet series, was still another guest.[6]
Walter Brennan, who frequently portrayed the roles of an eccentric "old timer" or a prospector, appeared with Tennessee Ernie Ford on May 30, 1957, some three months prior to the launching of his ABC situation comedy, The Real McCoys.[7] On December 26, 1956, Spring Byington, then seventy, guest starred on The Ford Show while at the peak of her success on CBS' December Bride comedy series. Another older star who appeared with Ford was William Frawley between his stints as Fred Mertz on CBS's I Love Lucy and as "Bub" on ABC's My Three Sons.[7] Versatile actor Cesar Romero appeared on the Ford series on January 16, 1958. Comedienne Eve Arden, still known mostly for her rule as the engaging teacher on Our Miss Brooks, guest starred on the episode which aired on October 3, 1960.[6]
Lee Aaker and Rin Tin Tin and Jon Provost and Lassie appeared in separate segments of The Ford Show. Provost appeared on the only segment which aired on Christmas Day – 1958. On New Years Day 1959, Danny Thomas guest starred with his television children, Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright. A Thomas supporting cast member, Pat Carroll, also guest starred with Ford. In the fall of 1959, Jay North, cast as CBS's Dennis the Menace, appeared with Tennessee Ernie Ford. In March 1959, Sally Brophy guest starred with Tom Nolan, her 10-year-old co-star from the acclaimed children's western series, Buckskin, the 1958 summer replacement series for The Ford Show.[7]
Johnny Cash, before his popularity had skyrocketed, guest starred with comics Homer & Jethro on May 12, 1960. Earlier his wife, June Carter, guest starred on October 28, 1957. On November 6, 1958, Jane Wyman, then host of her own anthology series, guest starred with Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1958. In the skit, she played a wardrobe expert trying to improve Ernie's appearance. Ford and Wyman sang "Hog Tied Over You."[6] Her former husband, Ronald W. Reagan, appeared in October 1959 in a comedy skit in which Reagan lets Ford act as host of Reagan's General Electric Theater so long as Reagan performs as the director.[6] Twenty-five years later, then U.S. President Reagan awarded Tennessee Ernie Ford the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[8]
Irreverent comic Cliff Arquette, before and after he assumed the moniker Charley Weaver, had already guest starred several times on The Ford Show, once with the Country singer and comedian Minnie Pearl, another frequent guest. Lloyd Bridges, still known mostly for his syndicated adventure program Sea Hunt, was the Ford guest on January 8, 1959.[6]
Andy Devine, an Arizona native, western star, and comic sidekick of Guy Madison on the syndicated and later network series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, was a frequent guest too.[6]Dale Robertson of NBC's Tales of Wells Fargo appeared with Ford in a 1960 segment. On December 3, 1959, Allen Case, who had begun his role as "The Deputy" in the Henry Fonda NBC series entitled The Deputy, appeared with Ford.[7]Robert Horton, who played the scout Flint McCullough in the early years of NBC's Wagon Train, appeared several times on The Ford Show. On October 31, 1957, John Payne, a Virginia native and the star of the NBC western The Restless Gun, was the guest star. Guy Williams, during his time as the swashbuckling Zorro! on ABC, was still another Ford guest.[6]
From January 3, 1955, to June 28, 1957, Ford also hosted an NBC daytime program with Country singer Molly Bee, a native of Oklahoma City. Bee had also appeared several times on the prime time The Ford Show. After the prime time program ended in 1961, Ford joined ABC and hosted another half hour daytime program, based from San Francisco, with Anita Gordon and Dick Noel, which aired from April 2, 1962, to March 26, 1965. The ABC series was produced and directed by William Burch.[1]
In the summer of 1961, The Ford Show was replaced by Great Ghost Tales. On the 1961-1962 NBC schedule, the vacant Ford Company time slot was filled by Hazel, starring Shirley Booth, Don DeFore, Whitney Blake, and Bobby Buntrock, also sponsored by Ford Motor Company.
In its first season, The Ford Show was preceded on the NBC schedule by Jackie Cooper's The People's Choice sitcom; in its last season, by another comedy, John Forsythe's Bachelor Father.[9] Cooper and Forsythe had also been guests on The Ford Show.