1965-66 Television Season 50th Anniversary Tribute - Hullabaloo

Our final group of television shows that we'll look at for our review of the great 1965-1966 television season will be the variety programs. There were many variations including:

The Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace
The Red Skelton Hour, The Andy Williams Show, Perry Como Kraft Music Hall, The Dean Martin Show
The King Family Show, The Lawrence Welk Show
Jackie Gleason and his American Scene Magazine

and finally two pop music shows that had a variety flair to them:

Hullabaloo and Shindig!

We'll look at Hullabaloo and Shindig today, and the Dean Martin Show tomorrow, with a glimpse of the Ed Sullivan Show (and many others) on Sunday to wrap up our spring look at the 50th anniversary of the 1965-66 season.

Hullabaloo, on NBC, featured pop and rock music recording acts of the mid 1960's, and was similar in look and sound to the other youth oriented music show that season, Shindig! on ABC.

Hullabaloo ran from January 12, 1965 to April 11, 1966. It featured hosts such as Peter Noone, Frankie Avalon and Trini Lopez and was considered the 'lessor' of the two youth programs.

Shindig!, with host Jimmy O'Neill (for season 1) was considered the superior of the two series, and ran from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. By season two, after Jimmy O'Neil had left the series (he and ABC were battling over booking African American singers), Shindig started booking guest hosts such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hedy Lamarr and Boris Karloff. This approach may not have set well with the younger audience, so ratings fell and the show didn't last beyond mid-season/winter 1966.

There was one other youth oriented music show on television around that mid-60s era, called 'Hootenanny', which ran on ABC from April 13, 1963 to March 14, 1964. It had a more folk music and comedian acts vibe compared to the more rock and roll oriented Hullabaloo and Shindig! All three series are available on DVD packages - check out tvshowsondvd.com for more details, or visit Amazon or B&N. Great opportunity to own these classic series of music from the mid 1960s!

By the summer of 1966 (50 years ago now), all three programs were off the air... music and the pop culture of the day was changing rapidly, and the Beatlemania era in music (1964 to the summer of 1966) was in a transformational mode that would completely up end the music world (again) in 1967.

This video clip is presented here on YouTube for the entertainment and informational value of the viewer, and no copyright infringement is intended. This clip is from a 2013 special on PBS celebrating Hullabaloo and its 50th anniversary television debut.

Enjoy!