Her first television special to feature guest-stars, The Belle of 14th Street celebrates, in ways both comedic and heartfelt, "The Golden Age of Song". A marvelous showcase for such evergreens as Sophie Tucker's "Some Of These Days", "How About Me" (written by "a young new talent" Irving Berlin), the poignant "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", and the sublime "My Buddy" - all classics of the vaudeville era, reinvented by "the greatest star" of our time.
Harry Styles performs new tracks from his number one debut album as a solo artist, alongside covers of classic songs. He's accompanied by his band and performs in front of a live studio audience.
A musical tribute to brothers George and Ira Gershwin
The 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place on March 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Def Leppard, Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, Roxy Music, the Zombies and the Cure make up the Class of 2019. They were inducted by a star-studded group of peers including Brian May of Queen, Harry Styles, David Byrne, Simon Le Bon and John Taylor of Duran Duran, Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. An artist is eligible for the hall of fame 25 years after their first commercial release. The nominating committee creates a shortlist, according to the Hall's official website, and then sends the ballot to "more than 1,000 historians, members of the music industry and artists — including every living Rock Hall inductee." The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has selected the top five vote-getters for induction in the past, but this year seven artists were inducted (Janet Jackson also made the final cut; she was inducted by Janelle Monae).
High Tor is a 1936 play by Maxwell Anderson. Twenty years after the original production, Anderson adapted it into a television musical with Arthur Schwartz. Anderson first considered a musical adaptation of High Tor for television in 1949. He and John Monks Jr. adapted the play as a made-for-television musical fantasy in 1955, with music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Anderson. High Tor was filmed in November 1955 by Desilu Productions at the RKO-Pathé Studio and broadcast March 10, 1956 on the CBS television network, as a 90-minute episode of the series Ford Star Jubilee. Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, Nancy Olson, Hans Conreid, and Keenan Wynn starred in the film, produced by Arthur Schwartz, and directed by James Neilson.
The ultimate collection of song and dance performances from Gaynor's classic network television specials - unseen for three decades - MITZI GAYNOR: RAZZLE DAZZLE! THE SPECIAL YEARS is a new documentary that celebrates a landmark career through new interviews with Mitzi and many others that worked with her. A reflective and entertaining glimpse into the television variety show at its zenith, taking viewers on a nostalgic trip through Gaynor's TV years.
The program was the first so-called "Television Spectacular". Ford presented the show without commercial interruption. It is believed to be the first time that Edward R. Murrow appeared on NBC in a professional capacity. Also, in 1953, it was necessary for Ford to buy time on two networks to ensure maximum coverage of US TV households - at the time, neither CBS nor NBC reached 100% of them. The famed 1953 television special celebrating the Ford Motor Company's 50th anniversary brought together two of the greatest leading ladies Broadway has ever known. The highlight of the program is Merman and Martin’s 13-minute duet medley, where they sing the songs that made them famous, plus much more. On their own, Merman sings “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Mademoiselle from Armetières” and Martin performs a brilliantly comic routine about changes in fashion over the first half of the 20th century.
The electrifying FutureSex/LoveShow finds Justin Timberlake stunning a sold-out crowd at New York's Madison Square Garden. Fans seeking pulse-pounding versions of "My Love," "Rock Your Body," "Cry Me a River" and "SexyBack" will not be disappointed.
A Wild West cow town is starving for entertainment and it falls upon Calamity Jane, a rowdy, gun-toting tomboy, to go to Chicago to bring back a famed stage actress. She brings instead the star's maid, who settles in the town, but Jane's "Secret Love" falls for her. This television special was based on a stage adaptation of the film that was playing regional circuits at the time it aired.
While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.
After the success of the live 1957 Cinderella on CBS (with Julie Andrews), the network decided to produce another television version. The new script hewed closer to the traditional tale, although nearly all of the original songs were retained and performed in their original settings. Added to the Rogers and Hammerstein score was "Loneliness of Evening", which had been composed for South Pacific but not used.
Lynda Carter stars in her fourth musical TV special with guests George Benson, Tony Orlando, and Frank Stallone.
Grammy-winning artist Sam Smith gives an intimate, soulful and chilling performance at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. This experience features songs from their third album and more.
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers payed up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
Filmed at their Royal Albert Hall debut gig in September 2000, Bond Live is a slick showcase for four classically trained, ex-session musicians and their fusion of string quartet and rock music. Whatever the hype (four beautiful women wearing scanty tops and dancing with violins while backed by a five-piece rock combo and a small, rarely seen string section), it has nothing to do with making classical music cool and everything to do with sex. In "Duel," first and second violins Haylie Ecker and Eos trade licks "guitar-hero" style, and most of the tracks are new instrumentals written for the album Born, though "The 1812" does manage to reduce Tchaikovsky's overture to a five-minute dance number. With rock-show lighting, synthesizers, dance beats, and a finale involving the "James Bond Theme" followed by a Rio-style fiesta for the closing "Victory--Carnival Mix," this is camp, melodramatic, sexy fun.
