The Judy Garland Show
| The Judy Garland Show | |
|---|---|
Title card from the debut episode
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| Written by | |
| Directed by | Norman Jewison |
| Starring | Jerry Van Dyke |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | CBS Television City, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California |
| Running time | 60 min (including commercials) |
| Production company(s) | Kingsrow Enterprises, Inc. |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 29, 1963 – March 29, 1964 |
The Judy Garland Show was an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star. Garland, who for years had been reluctant to commit to a weekly series, saw the show as her best chance to pull herself out of severe financial difficulties.
Production difficulties beset the series almost from the beginning. The series had three different producers in the course of its 26 episodes and went through a number of other key personnel changes. With the change in producers also came changes to the show's format, which started as comedy/variety but switched to an almost purely concert format.
While Garland herself was popular with critics, the initial variety format and her co-star, Jerry Van Dyke, were not. The show competed with Bonanza, then the fourth most popular program on television, and consistently performed poorly in the ratings. Although fans rallied in an attempt to save the show, CBS cancelled it after a single season.
TV Guide included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".
Garland's history with CBS prior to the series was a checkered one. She had previously headlined several specials for the network. The first was the inaugural episode of the Ford Star Jubilee which aired in 1955. The special, the first full-scale color telecast on CBS, was a ratings triumph, garnering a 34.8 Nielsen rating. This success led to Garland's signing a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only a single special aired, a live General Electric Theater episode in 1956, before the pact was terminated. The relationship between CBS and Garland and her then-husband and manager, Sid Luft, dissolved in acrimony in 1957 after they and agent Freddie Fields were unable to come to terms with the network over the format of her next special. Garland filed a US$1.4 million lawsuit against CBS for libel and breach of contract (CBS filed a counterclaim) that was not settled until 1961, when Garland and CBS each agreed to drop their claims and negotiations began for a new round of Garland specials for the network.
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