Dolly (TV series)

Overview

The show was an attempt at a traditional variety show, featuring music, comedy skits and various guest stars. It had been roughly a decade since the last successful variety series, The Carol Burnett Show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Cher had gone off the air, and it was regarded as a gamble to try to revive the genre. Banking on Parton's talent and appeal, however, ABC paid the performer a reported $44 million for a two-year contract.

It was acknowledged that a great deal of talent and work went into producing the show, but the initially high ratings during the first few episodes steadily declined, and despite many format changes and other attempts to create interest, ratings did not improve. Halfway through the run, Parton, who retained creative control over the show, took command and jettisoned many of the lavish, splashy segments that she felt were not working in favor of a more "down home" feel. By this time, however, many of the initial viewers had already stopped watching. To bolster the odds they brought in veteran variety show writers Buddy Sheffield, John Aylesworth, Jack Burns and producer Nick Vanoff. Around this same time, Parton also hired then-relatively-unknown Brett Butler as one of the writers. Bruce Vilanch and Fannie Flagg were also on the writing staff.

Guest stars included Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Tyne Daly, Bruce Willis, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Tom Selleck, the Neville Brothers, Dudley Moore, and Oprah Winfrey. Tyne Daly's appearance on the show, in which she sang a duet with Parton, directly led to Daly being cast in the lead role in the 1989 Broadway production of Gypsy.

The opening theme song was Parton's 1978 hit, "Baby I'm Burning" (later to be replaced with "Hoedown-Showdown"); as with her 1976 series, Parton closed each week with her signature song, "I Will Always Love You."

Though most of the show's episodes were taped in ABC's studios in Los Angeles, a numbers of "special" episodes were recorded on location, including one in Hawaii, one in New Orleans, one in Nashville (featuring most of the cast of the Grand Ole Opry), and a Thanksgiving episode in Parton's hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, featuring most of her extended family.