The King Family Show

Last updated
The King Family Show
King Family Show (ABC).jpg
The King Family on the cover of their 1965 Christmas album
Genre Musical variety
Directed byMarc Breaux
Starring The King Sisters, Alvino Rey, Robert Clarke, Tina Cole, Lex de Azevedo, Cam Clarke, Chris Conkling, Ric de Azevedo
Theme music composer Richard Rodgers
Oscar Hammerstein II
Opening theme"The Sound of Music"
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes39
Production
Executive producerNick Vanoff
ProducerSaul Ilson (1965-66)
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running timeHour long (Jan-June 1965)
Half hour (Sept 1965-Jan 1966)
Half hour (1969)
Production companyKingFam Productions
Original release
Network ABC
ReleaseJanuary 23, 1965 (1965-01-23) 
September 10, 1969 (1969-09-10)

The King Family Show is an American musical variety series that featured The King Sisters and their extended musical family. The series first aired on ABC from January 23, 1965, to January 8, 1966. [1] The series was revived in 1969, airing from March to September of that year. [2]

Contents

Background and premise

After an appearance on The Hollywood Palace in May 1964 drew a reported 53,000 letters[ citation needed ], ABC decided to give the Kings their own hour-long special. The Family is King aired on August 29, 1964 to great ratings. More letters poured into ABC and the King Family was given their own hour-long weekly musical variety series (replacing The Outer Limits ), debuting on Saturday, January 23, 1965 (the King Family made a third Hollywood Palace appearance a week before the debut of their own series in order to promote it). Bing Crosby introduced the premiere episode. The series was full of songs from Broadway, film, The Great American Songbook and contemporary pop hits of the day. The show starred the Grammy nominated vocal group The King Sisters (Yvonne, Alyce, Luise and Marilyn), along with their husbands, siblings, and children and The Alvino Rey Orchestra. In all, some thirty-nine members of the King family, ranging in age from seven months to 79 years, appeared on the show. Yvonne King's daughter Tina Cole, later featured on My Three Sons , also regularly appeared. At the beginning of the series, King Family patriarch William King Driggs appeared in every episode, but suffered a stroke on set and died a week later on April 6, 1965.

The series crew consisted of director and choreographer Marc Breaux with choreographer Dee Dee Wood (known for Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music ) and costumer Bob Mackie. This series was Bob Mackie's first credit on his own.

While the show was somewhat successful in its initial season, the network trimmed it to a half-hour on September 18, 1965 and the ratings declined—up against Jackie Gleason on CBS and I Dream of Jeannie on NBC—but the show did inspire an intensely loyal following. One letter to ABC enthused, "the King Family was beautiful, talented, and completely entertaining. We are buying [the sponsor's products] Wisk and Clairol tomorrow." Still, the show was cancelled in January 1966. [2]

Season One consisted of 22 hour-long episodes from January to June 1965. Season Two consisted of 17 half-hour episodes from September 1965 to January 1966.

During the run of the initial show in 1965, Warner Bros. Records released six albums, The King Family Show,The King Family Album,The King Family Live! In the Round,Christmas with the King Family,Sunday with the King Family, and The New Sounds of the Fabulous King Sisters.

Members of families

Revival

After observing the successes of the King Family syndicated television specials, in March 1969, after the extremely controversial program Turn-On was cancelled after a single airing, ABC brought back a somewhat pared-down version of the King Family Show that focused on a sub-group of the family, the Four King Cousins (which consisted of family members Tina and sister Cathy Cole, and their cousins Candy Brand and Carolyn Cameron). This new color half-hour program occupied the Wednesday 8:30-9:00 timeslot until September of that year. [2] 13 episodes were produced and aired from March 12 thru June 11, 1969 then the entire run of the series was repeated from June 18 until September 10, 1969.

Television specials

The King Family began producing their own syndicated holiday specials beginning with Thanksgiving with the King Family, which first aired on November 19, 1967. In all, the King Family produced 17 specials from 1964 to 1974:

List of television specials

Unaired pilots

Discography

The King Family recorded albums that reflected the songs presented in the shows. Some of the albums were balanced out with performers regularly associated with the television show.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Brady Bunch</i> American sitcom

The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three girls. After its cancellation in 1974, the series debuted in syndication in September 1975. Though it was never a ratings hit or a critical success during its original run, the program has since become a popular syndicated staple, especially among children and teenage viewers.

<i>The Waltons</i> American 1972–1981 television series

The Waltons is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain and the 1963 film of the same name. The series aired from 1972 to 1981.

The year 1969 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1969.

<i>The Banana Splits</i> American variety television series

The Banana Splits is an American television variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four costumed animal characters in red marching band hats with yellow plumes. The costumed hosts of the show are Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desilu</span> American production company

Desilu Productions, Inc. was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Mannix, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Until 1962, Desilu was the second-largest independent television production company in the United States, behind MCA's Revue Studios, until MCA bought Universal Pictures and Desilu became and remained the number-one independent production company, until Ball sold it to Gulf and Western Industries in 1968.

DePatie–Freleng Enterprises was an American animation studio founded by former Warner Bros. Cartoons employees in May 1963, before dissolving in 1981. Based in Burbank, California, DFE produced animation for film and television.

<i>Family Matters</i> American television sitcom (1989–1998)

Family Matters is an American television sitcom that debuted on ABC on September 22, 1989, and ended on May 9, 1997. However it moved to CBS, where it was shown from September 19, 1997, to July 17, 1998. A spin-off of Perfect Strangers, the series revolves around the Winslow family, an African-American middle class family living in Chicago, Illinois. Midway through the first season, the show introduced the Winslows' nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel, who was originally scripted to appear as a one-time character. However, he quickly became the show's breakout character, joining the main cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Stevens</span> American actress and singer (born 1938)

Connie Stevens is an American actress and singer. Born in Brooklyn to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until age 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in rural Missouri after she witnessed a murder in the city. In 1953, at age 15, Stevens relocated with her father to Los Angeles.

<i>The Bugs Bunny Show</i> Animated television anthology series

The Bugs Bunny Show is a long-running American animated anthology television series hosted by Bugs Bunny that was mainly composed of theatrical Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros. between 1948 and 1969. The show originally debuted as a primetime half-hour program on ABC in 1960, featuring three theatrical Looney Tunes cartoons with new linking sequences produced by the Warner Bros. Cartoons staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Russell (actor)</span> American actor (1921–1991)

John Lawrence Russell was an American film and television actor, most noted for his starring role as Marshal Dan Troop in the ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962 and his lead role as international adventurer Tim Kelly in the syndicated TV series Soldiers of Fortune from 1955 to 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lettermen</span> American male pop vocal trio

The Lettermen are an American male pop vocal trio whose trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959. They have had two Top 10 singles, 16 Top 10 singles on the Adult Contemporary chart, 32 consecutive Billboard chart albums, 11 gold records, and five Grammy nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parley Baer</span> American actor (1914–2002)

Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Chester" in the radio version of Gunsmoke, and as the Mayor of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Provine</span> American singer, dancer, actress and comedienne

Dorothy Michelle Provine was an American singer, dancer and actress. Born in 1935 in Deadwood, South Dakota, she grew up in Seattle, Washington, and was hired in 1958 by Warner Bros., after which she first starred in The Bonnie Parker Story and played many roles in TV series. During the 1960s, Provine starred in series such as The Alaskans and The Roaring Twenties, and her major film roles included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Good Neighbor Sam (1964), The Great Race (1965). That Darn Cat! (1965), Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966), Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), and Never a Dull Moment (1968). In 1968, Provine married the film and television director Robert Day and mostly retired. She died of emphysema on April 25, 2010, in Bremerton, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank De Vol</span> American composer and arranger (1911–1999)

Frank Denny De Vol was an American bandleader, arranger, composer and actor. As a composer, he was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Alfred Shaddick Burt was an American jazz musician who is best known for composing the music for fifteen Christmas carols between 1942 and 1954. Only one of the carols was performed in public outside his immediate family circle during his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The King Sisters</span> American vocal group

The King Sisters were an American big band-era vocal group, appearing as a trio or quartet. Six sisters were in the group at one time or another: Alyce, Donna, Luise, Marilyn, Maxine, and Yvonne King.

Jon Christopher Conkling is an American writer. He is best known as the co-writer of the screenplay for the animated version of Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi and produced by Saul Zaentz. He has also published articles in BYU Studies, the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and the Ensign, and wrote the 1979 book A Joseph Smith Chronology and an award-winning article on Melville's "Bartleby The Scrivener."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvino Rey</span> American swing era musician

Alvin McBurney, known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader. He is also known for being the grandfather of Win Butler and Will Butler and grandfather-in-law of Regine Chassagne, Win Butler's wife.

Milton Holland was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percussion styles in jazz, pop and film music, traveling extensively in those regions to collect instruments and learn styles of playing them.

The Four King Cousins are an American female harmonizing pop singing group.

References

  1. McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (4th ed.). New York, New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. p. 451. ISBN   0-14-02-4916-8.
  2. 1 2 3 Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (October 17, 2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (9th ed.). Ballantine Books. p. 738. ISBN   978-0-3454-9773-4 . Retrieved April 25, 2022.