It was commonplace back in the day for networks to have summer series in place to keep the schedules fresh. Back in those days, variety shows were more common.
One such example was Make Your Own Kind of Music, which gets its name from a song that had been recorded by artists such as Mama Cass Elliott. The Carpenters were the series hosts for this 7 week NBC entry, which might've been a vacation replacement for Dean Martin, though I can't be sure.
There are no complete episodes online. Richard Carpenter holds the rights to the series, and, likely due to sentimental value after Karen's passing nearly 40 years ago, has not seen fit to release the show on DVD. This compilation features the siblings' mentor and boss at A & M Records, Herb Alpert, performing his solo hit, "This Guy's in Love With You", plus the Carpenters perform "We've Only Just Begun". The show also includes comedy writers Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses, the Doodletown Pipers, Al Hirt, and cameos in this clip from Don Knotts and Ed McMahon.
No rating.
This was the summertime fill-in for Don Knotts's variety show, which had just completed its single season on NBC.
ReplyDeleteThis accounts for Knotts's appearance herein; this is how networks maintained a sort of continuity back then.
By the way, Dean Martin's summer sub in '71 was The Dean Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone,from the summer of 1967.
Normally, Dino and his producer Greg Garrison did a whole new show each summer, but this year they skipped for some unknown reason.
(They came back in Summer of '72 with a new one - but that's another story …)
Thanks for filling in the blanks, Mike.
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