A reader of this blog who often sends me things to share with you, sent me this link to share with you. It's an episode of a short-lived TV variety show called What's It All About, World? This installment ran on 3/29/69.
Here is the story, as I understand it, about What's It All About, World? In '69, CBS was enjoying much success with The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and NBC was doing well with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Both shows had a fair amount of topical humor and since topical humor is usually somewhat liberal, they occasionally offended some people. But since they were very profitable, ABC wanted that kind of show on its schedule.
A problem they had was that there were certain ABC affiliates — not all but enough to have some clout — who were very happy that the network whose shows they carried didn't have any of that disgusting commie pinko trash like Laugh-In and the Smothers Brothers. Using that clout I just mentioned, they got a show called Turn-On — produced by George Schlatter, who also produced Laugh-In — literally canceled the evening its first and only-broadcast episode was broadcast on 2/5/69.
It was not canceled the next day. That would be bad enough but it was canceled after it had aired on the East Coast and while it was airing on the West Coast.
They also got the network to put on a show that was intended to have the appeal of Laugh-In and the Smothers Brothers without all that commie pinko shit. The resultant series was What's It All About, World? and the star of it was Dean Jones, who was known to be a wholesome performer, recently the leading man in several Disney films. Several folks I knew were either producers or writers on the show. One of them, writer Jeffrey Barron, told me that the mandate was to do a show which would never yield even a moment of displeasure to anyone who'd voted for Richard Nixon.
It was kind of an interesting show…interesting enough to be described as "A horror of Right-Wing imbecility" in a review by Harlan Ellison. I suspect my friend Harlan was triggered by the stated intent behind the series, not by what was actually put on the air. I don't recall it being very right-wing…or political…or funny. My memory is that it lasted thirteen episodes. Wikipedia says that it was turned into a show called The Dean Jones Variety Hour but I don't remember that at all.
Mr. Jones went on to make more Disney movies and to have the male lead on Broadway when Company debuted. Famously, he was replaced in that capacity at his own request not long after the show opened. The story is that he was going through a divorce and the theme of the show touched too many then-raw nerves is his life. He went on to star in more Disney movies and to begin appearing in very Christian religious films.
I met him once, not for very long. In 1986, I was hired to cast the voices for a Saturday morning cartoon series of Dennis the Menace. An agent for Mr. Jones sent him in to read for the role of Dennis's father and he arrived in a splendid three-piece suit and tie, which struck me as an odd way to dress when auditioning for a job where no one cares what you look like. He was pleased that I told him I was a fan of a TV series he'd done called Ensign O'Toole and he told me I was the only human being on God's Green Earth who remembered it. I'm sure there are those reading this who do.
He was unduly polite but he read the audition script like it was a scene from Death of a Salesman and didn't get the part. Dan Gilvezan did and he didn't have to put on a suit and tie to get it. Oddly enough, Jones was followed to the audition mike that day by Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island fame. She was there to read for the part of Dennis's mother and she didn't get the job either. Anna Mathias got that part.
Getting back to What's It All About, World?: The supporting cast included Scoey Mitchell, Gerri Granger, Dick Clair, Jenna McMahon, my old pal Ken Greenwald and Dennis Allen, who went from that to the cast of Laugh-In. The show also often featured on-camera, its choreographer, Kevin Carlisle. In this episode, you'll see him at the end of Janet Leigh's song and then he and two dancers dance to a number by musical guests Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Here's the episode. Whoever uploaded this to YouTube was uploading a copy they recorded when the whole series was constantly rerun on the Nostalgia Channel, a cable network whose mission seemed to be to never run anything that would discomfort anyone who'd voted for Ronald Reagan. Here's an hour that shouldn't offend you no matter who you voted for…