Genre Musical variety Written by Jimmy O'Neill Country of origin United States | Created by Jack Good Presented by Jimmy O'Neill | |
Directed by Richard Dunlap
Selwyn Touber
Dean Whitmore
Jørn Winther | ||
Shindig! is an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles at the time who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley and production executive Art Stolnitz. The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then Executive Producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode.
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Synopsis
Shindig! was conceived as a short-notice replacement for Hootenanny, a series that had specialized in folk revival music. The folk revival had fizzled in 1964 as the result of the British Invasion, which damaged the ratings for Hootenanny and prompted that show's cancellation.
Shindig! focused on a broader variety of popular music than its predecessor and first aired for a half-hour every Wednesday evening, but was expanded to an hour in January 1965. In the fall of 1965, the show split into two half-hour telecasts, on Thursday and Saturday nights.
Shindig!'s premiere episode was actually the second pilot, and featured Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers and The Righteous Brothers. Later shows were taped in Britain with The Beatles as the guests. The series featured other "British invasion" bands and performers including The Who, The Rolling Stones and Cilla Black. Shindig continued to broadcast episodes from London throughout its run.
Many popular performers of the day played on Shindig! including Tina Turner, Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley, and Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes and The Ronettes.
Shindig!'s success prompted NBC to air the similar series Hullabaloo starting in January 1965 and other producers to launch syndicated rock music shows like Shivaree and Hollywood A Go-Go.
In March 1965, Little Eva performed her hit song "The Loco-Motion" in a live but short version of the song. This is the only known video clip of her singing the song.
Towards the end of the program's run, The Mamas and the Papas appeared in an episode featuring Barry McGuire. Although serving as his backup singers, the group introduced "California Dreamin'" on the program, which launched the group's career.
Shindig! is one of the few rock music shows of the era to still have all of the episodes available to watch.
Final season
In September 1965, the show was moved out of its Wednesday-night timeslot (where it gave The Beverly Hillbillies its first serious competition in its time period among younger viewers), and split into two half-hours on new days and times (Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time). The show faced tough competition from Daniel Boone and The Munsters on Thursdays along with Flipper and The Jackie Gleason Show on Saturdays. Additionally, the Saturday edition aired in a time period when many of its potential viewers were going out and thus, not at home to watch television. By October 1965, the show was having ratings problems (Time magazine said "early-season tide [was] running against the teen scene"), and in January 1966, Shindig! was cancelled and replaced in its Thursday time slots by Batman.
Series regulars
Shindig! also featured a dance troupe called the Shin-diggers, choreographed by David Winters, who accompanied the music acts of the week (he also worked on the competing NBC show Hullabaloo). One of the regular dancers was Teri Garr, who would go on to find success as an actress. The Shin-diggers' assistant choreographer was Antonia Basilotta, better known as Toni Basil, who later gained fame with her 1980s hit song "Mickey." Both Garr and Basil were dance students of Winters at the time and worked with him on most of his choreography projects.
The series house band, the Shin-diggers (later renamed the Shindogs), featured a young Glen Campbell, Joey Cooper, Chuck Blackwell (drums), Billy Preston, James Burton, Delaney Bramlett, Larry Knechtel (on bass), Leon Russell (on piano) and Glen D. Hardin. Ray Pohlman was the show's musical director, and he was also a member - as was Campbell, Knechtel, and Russell -of the collection of first-call pop studio musicians that would later be also known as "The Wrecking Crew." In some instances when one of the Shindog guitarists was unable to work, Pohlman would bring in guitarist Bill Aken to fill in.
Donna Loren, Jackie DeShannon and Bobby Sherman were regular vocalists on the series.
The Blossoms, an all-female vocal group featuring Darlene Love, backed up many of the performers and were occasionally featured in spotlight performances. The Wellingtons were a trio of male singers who performed on their own, and as backup singers.