Donny & Marie (1976 TV series)


Donny & Marie is an American variety show that aired on ABC from November 1975 to May 1979. The show starred brother-and-sister pop duo Donny and Marie Osmond. Donny had first become popular singing in a music group with his brothers, The Osmonds, and Marie was one of the youngest singers to reach No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts.
The siblings were offered a weekly show by ABC-TV President Fred Silverman after he saw the duo co-host a week on The Mike Douglas Show which followed their series of popular remakes of oldies, such as "I'm Leaving It All Up to You", "Morning Side of the Mountain" and "Make the World Go Away". Donny and Marie were the youngest entertainers in TV history to host their own variety show. A year later, The Keane Brothers would break this record.

Overview

Donny & Marie was a Friday night show that consisted of an ice skating number intro, comedy skits, followed by songs performed by the duo. The most famous song performed on the show was "I'm a Little Bit Country, I'm a Little Bit Rock and Roll", which formed the basis of a weekly segment in which Marie would trade off singing a country music song with Donny singing a rock and roll song. Each episode concluded with a musical finale and a cascade of balloons from the ceiling, matched to the colors of the sets and costumes. Donny and Marie would then sing their trademark closing song which was written by Alan Osmond, "May Tomorrow Be a Perfect Day". Occasionally, the show would feature roughly 15-minute musical adaptations of famous feature films, such as Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz, with a mix of original cast members and celebrity guest stars.
The show was shown in the UK on Sunday afternoon on BBC1, where it was always billed as "The Osmonds".
The show's popularity declined in its final two seasons after it was revealed that teen heartthrob Donny was dating fellow Utahn Debbie Glenn, therefore taking him 'off the market' of eligible bachelors, and it aired on the same time slot with Wonder Woman. According to an edition of the VH1 series Behind the Music, many female viewers started to tune out at this point. The series also underwent a format change in the final season, eliminating segments such as the ice skaters and country/rock-n-roll segments in favor of more concert-style disco numbers. The show was also retitled The Osmond Family Show midway through the season, and was moved from the Friday night timeslot that it had occupied since its debut to Sunday night; the program increasingly featured the Osmond Brothers in larger roles. The variety show genre as a whole, at the time, was in steep decline, and the success of Donny & Marie was somewhat of an aberration compared to the trends of television in the late 1970s.
The 1980–1981 TV season featured Marie with a Bob Mackie fashion make-over and starring in her own solo variety series on NBC called Marie, which was also produced at Silverman's behest and attempted to follow a similar format. It was a replacement series and contracted for only seven episodes.
Donny and Marie teamed up again in 1998 to co-host Donny & Marie, a talk show that ran for two seasons. They continue to perform live, most recently for a long-term residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Merchandising

Originally, the show was created by Sid & Marty Krofft and videotaped in Los Angeles at KTLA Studios, but creative control of the show was given to the Osmonds after a long battle, and Donny & Marie was moved to the Osmond Studios in Orem, Utah in November 1977.
The popularity of the series resulted in Donny and Marie filming the movie Goin' Coconuts during its spring 1978 production hiatus, in which they played fictionalized versions of themselves.
The show ranked 35th out of 104 shows for the 1977-78 season, with an average 19.3 rating, and ranked 63rd out of 114 shows for the 1978-79 season, with a 16.3/28 average rating/share.

List of guest stars

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