Thursday, April 12, 2018

Classic TV: The Jimmy Dean Show (1963)

Before he became a sausage baron, Jimmy Dean parlayed the success of hits like "PT-109" & "Big Bad John" into a couple of self-titled series, one on CBS, the other on ABC. It's the 1963-6 ABC series we'll be looking at.

Now, I was but a wee lad when the show first ran. I barely remember seeing any of it back then. Currently, RFD-TV (check listings) has the rights, and runs it usually on weekends. It was Jimmy who introduced America to a piano-playing Muppet named Rowlf (Jim Henson). Writers Frank Peppiatt & John Aylesworth would later develop Hee Haw, which was a far more successful series than either of Dean's.

Let's take a look at a sample clip, shall we?



Rowlf would later move on to CBS' Our Place, then disappear for a few years before Henson brought him back for The Muppet Show. Meanwhile, as previously documented, Dean would join the cast of Daniel Boone, but all of his previous endeavors seem to have been eclipsed by his reinvention as a businessman. What started as a simple sausage company mushroomed into a whole cottage industry that's still going today.

Rating: A.

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