shindig

Shindig!
Genre	Musical variety
Created by	Jack Good Art Stolnitz. Redeveloped for TV by David Sontag, then Executive Produce and the head of Specials for ABC.
Written by	Jimmy O'Neill
Directed by	Richard Dunlap Selwyn Touber Dean Whitmore Jørn Winther
Presented by	Jimmy O'Neill
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
Production
Executive producer(s)	Selig J. Seligman Leon Mirell
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes (September 1964–January 1965) 45–48 minutes (January–Fall 1965)
Production company(s)	American Broadcasting Company Selmur Productions
Distributor	Buena Vista Television Worldvision Enterprises
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	Black-and-white, Color (Second season Saturday episodes only)
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	September 16, 1964 (1964-09-16) – January 8, 1966 (1966-01-08)

Shindig! is an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964^[1] to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles at the time^[2] who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley and production executive Art Stolnitz.^[3]. 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 cast of artist was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premier episode.

Synopsis

The series first aired for a half-hour every week, 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 a pilot featuring Sam Cooke and the 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.^[2]

Many popular performers of the day played on Shindig! including Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley,^[4] and Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown and The Ronettes.

Shindig!'s success prompted NBC to air the similar series Hullabaloo starting in January 1965.

Decline

By October 1965, the show was having ratings problems (Time magazine said "early-season tide [was] running against the teen scene"),^[5] and in January 1966, Shindig! was cancelled and replaced in its Thursday time slots by Batman.^[2]

Series regulars

Accompanying the music acts of the week, Shindig! also featured a dance troupe called the Shin-diggers choreographed by David Winters. One of the regular dancers was Teri Garr, who would go on to find success as an actress. The Shin-diggers' assistant choreographer, Antonia Basilotta (better known as Toni Basil), was most widely known for the 1980s song "Mickey" Both Garr and Basil were dance students of Winters at the time and worked with him on most of his choreography projects.^[6]

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 was also a member of the studio group that would be known as 'The Wrecking Crew.' In some instances when one of the Shindog guitarists was unable to work, Pohlman woud bring in 'Crew' guitarist Bill Aken to fill in.

Donna Loren, Jackie DeShannon and Bobby Sherman were regular vocalists on the series.^[6]

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.^[7][8]

Musical guests

Celebrity guests

• Ted Cassidy
• Patty Duke^[14]
• Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
• Rosey Grier
• Tommy Kirk
• Vincent Price
• Alan Sues
• Raquel Welch
• Orson Welles

Musical guests

• Jim O'Neill
• Jackie & Gayle
• The Wellingtons
• The Blossoms
• Alan Sues

Guest hosts

• George Chakiris
• Zsa Zsa Gabor
• Carolyn Jones
• Boris Karloff
• Hedy Lamarr
• Jack E. Leonard
• Hugh O'Brian
• Mickey Rooney
• Ed Wynn

VHS release

In 1991 and 1992, Rhino Entertainment and WEA released a series of Shindig! Presents VHS videos featuring highlights from the series.^[15]

In popular culture

• Shindig! was mentioned in The Ramones song "Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio?" as "Do you remember Hullabaloo, Upbeat, Shindig!, and Ed Sullivan too...?"
• Shindig! made an appearance on a December 1965 episode of The Flintstones as "Shinrock!" with host "Jimmy O'Neillstone" (O'Neill provided his own voice). The episode featured musical guests The Beau Brummels, appearing as "The Beau Brummelstones", who performed their hit song "Laugh, Laugh."^[16]

• The Shindogs were a rock group parody on an episode of The Patty Duke Show ("Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow", Sept. 29, 1965), when Patty sang, "Funny Little Butterflies."

References

External links

• Shindig! at the Internet Movie Database
• Shindig! at TV.com