The Judy Garland Show

The Judy Garland Show
Title card from the debut episode
Written by
Directed byNorman Jewison
Starring
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Production locationsCBS Television City, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Running time60 mins
Production companiesKingsrow Enterprises, Inc.
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 29, 1963 (1963-09-29) –
March 29, 1964 (1964-03-29)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)
Dean Martin, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra on a well-received CBS special in Feb. 1962, before the weekly series began. Its success encouraged CBS to sign Garland for a weekly series.

The Judy Garland Show is 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. Despite it being cancelled relatively early on, it is now revered and considered an important piece of television history.

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 and variety but switched to an almost purely concert format. (In fact, as of episode 20, the on-screen title of the show became Judy Garland In Concert.)

While Garland herself was popular with critics, the initial variety format and her co-star, Jerry Van Dyke, were not. The show competed with NBC's Bonanza, then the second most popular program on television,[1] 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".[2]

  1. ^ Sanders p. 52
  2. ^ Roush, Matt (June 3, 2013). "Cancelled Too Soon". TV Guide. pp. 20 and 21