The Dinah Shore Special: Like Hep! (1969) | FULL SPECIAL

[@clownjewels]

Check out more Classic TV moments here: kzbin.info/aero/PLzPUx_37p4YLMfe-sZUQW5R6XY1do-9pe

[@brianmoore6306]

Thanks so much. I've heard about this for years as I'm a huge Diana fan...but I've never actually seen the show! Thank you!

[@clownjewels]

You’re welcome! Glad you finally got to see it.

[@toddanthony6664]

Dinah, Diana, and Lucy. 3 people I NEVER imagined doing anything together. This was incredibly entertaining.

[@clownjewels]

You are right in all counts! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@jeffmacauley5984]

This special marks a pivotal moment in Dinah Shore's career. Her famous variety series went off the air in 1963. She did a series of four night time specials for ABC in the 1964-65 season sponsored by Purex and guested on other's shows (Dean Martin, Danny Kaye, Ed Sullivan) and guest-hosted The Bell Telephone Hour salute to Harold Arlen in 1965 and The Nashville Sound episode of the Kraft Music Hall in 1967. She also hosted two episodes of the long forgotten and presumably lost short-lived CBS omnibus series Coliseum, where she was on location in Moscow with the Moscow Circus, which is interesting because of her Russian roots. That was also in 1967. But "Like, Hep!" was the first stand alone special of her career. Producer George Schlatter had worked with Dinah on the last two seasons of her variety show and definitely brought a contemporary flavor to this show which plays like a very special episode of "Laugh-In." Dinah released an album of country songs called "Country Feelin'" on Decca records around the time this show debuted on April 13, 1969. So this feels like a calculated relaunching of her career. The album didn't do well but the TV side of her career took off. I feel like this special was a big deal for her and carefully crafted. The Like Hep title number is a fascinating piece of special material written by Billy Barnes for Dinah and her guests. Lucille Ball, of course, was a huge star, in the first season of her third popular series, "Here's Lucy" and Diana Ross was making her first solo TV appearance after leaving the Supremes so this was a very high profile return for Dinah and no expense was spared. I guess it worked as she hosted three more NBC specials, "How to Handle a Woman" (1972), "Dinah in Search of the Ideal Man" (1973) and "Dinah Won't You Please Come Home" (1974) as well as four season's of the NBC morning show "Dinah's Place" from 1970 to 1974 before the 90-minute syndicated "Dinah!" (1974-80) .

[@clownjewels]

What an interesting read! Thank you for all the background information. It really adds to the viewing of this material. Thanks so much for tuning in and sharing your knowledge.

[@billythomas4804]

Diana Ross is beautiful!

[@zyxw2024]

I'm of that time. The hippie era. Everyone on the show is wonderful ❕Just watched & I kept thinking how Diana Ross shined moreso with her voice & her youth❕😊

[@RobertHiguera-zi6tu]

I remember Dinah shore watch her TV show it was like a little talk show I missed it on TV

[@fromthesidelines]

She did two of them: a daily NBC series, "DINAH'S PLACE" (1970-'74), and her daily syndicated 90 {or 60, depending on the station} minute talk/variety show, "DINAH!".

[@springstud]

this show my grandmother use to watch every afternoon

[@wezie13]

Diana Ross! She was a trooper

[@DonaldCooper]

Dinah, Diana and Lucy. Didn't expect to ever see that.

[@marlonholt40]

Lucy was 61 was dance moves.

[@logantyrelle97]

Oooo YAYY!!! Can’t wait for this one!! You know I’ll be here!! See you then!!🫶🏾💜😍🤩🥳

[@shoelaceagleto8398]

Wow!!! Glad to have this special on KZbin in high quality!

[@clownjewels]

See you there!

[@logantyrelle97]

@@shoelaceagleto8398 Me too!!🤩🤩

[@fromthesidelines]

Originally telecast on April 13, 1969.

[@MrMenefrego1]

I was 10 years old when this aired; I remember watching this very episode with my WWII generation parents, my coody-ridden sister, and 2 older brothers, one of which went to Vietnam two months later never to return. What a different world it was in 1969! I'll be 65 in March of 2025, both things are difficult to believe! (being 65 and that it's 2025 😲) All of us Boomers thought we'd be driving flying cars by 2025! Love and God's blessings to my much-maligned fellow Baby Boomers! ❤❤❤ (EDIT: The CC just changed "Dianah Shore" to "Dinosaur!" lol)

[@clownjewels]

Thanks for sharing your story! A lot of history in one post. We are sorry for the loss of your brother ❤️

[@knockshinnoch1950]

So this was Diana Ross first extended solo TV appearance without the Supremes. It's quite something to be on the bill with Dinah and Lucille!

[@MostlyBrenda]

Remember when you had 50 mins of show and only 10 mins of commercials per hour?

[@wmbrown6]

I remember seeing promos for this in a TV Guide, wasn't it in November 1969 in the same week "Sesame Street" debuted on what was then NET? Can't rightly tell from the pic quality, but was this made before or after NBC Burbank replaced their TK-41C class cameras (whose quality was definitely an improvement over what was usually elicited by those cameras in, say, New York or Washington or Chicago) with TK-44A's?

[@micmac99]

That clearly looks like it was shot with TK-41Cs. Might be one of the last NBC specials to do so.

[@geraldbaker4019]

Do you have any full episodes of Dinah Shore’s variety shows from NBC from the 50s/ early 60s, in color?

[@clownjewels]

Unfortunately, we do not. We can put them on our list to go after, though.

[@geraldbaker4019]

@@clownjewels Thanks. The earlier, and the ones in color, would be great! ‘58-‘59 season would be preferred!

[@wmbrown6]

@@clownjewels - Besides, weren't her late '50's/early '60's shows from Bob Banner? I know this one was Schlatter/Friendly . . .

[@fromthesidelines]

Her "CHEVY SHOW" (1956-'61) was initially produced by Bob Banner. In 1958, he [and Joe Hamilton] moved on to "THE GARRY MOORE SHOW" for CBS. Then, it was produced by Henry Jaffee and Bob Finkel, through her S&H Green Stamps specials in 1963.

[@wmbrown6]

@@fromthesidelines - Ah, so Dinah's surviving color videotape shows would have come from the Jaffee/Finkel era. Makes sense.

[@matthewclark9652]

Are you going to do "Dinah! & Her New Best Friends" (short lived variety show on CBS in 1976)?? What about Diana Ross & The Supremes With The Temptations "TCB" (Takin' Care Of Business) & "GIT" (Get It Together) specials??

[@clownjewels]

We are looking into some other Dinah Shore material in our library. Anything that is music heavy, like The Supremes with the Temptations, would be tough due to copyright.

[@OofusTwillip]

40:50 - Dick Martin is impersonating Sheldon Leonard.

[@OofusTwillip]

22:25 - And suddenly, we're watching a futuristic version of Gladys Ormphby and Tyrone F. Horneigh.

[@troybirch]

This seems like it was sold as an attempt for the then current older talent to connect with the younger generation. Many of them were at a loss of how to remain relevant. Many of them had started with radio and experienced the explosive growth of TV. The late 60’s is full of studios and Networks trying to be “hep”. “Love beads” and “bell bottoms”. It’s hard to show you’re cool, but have to pander to the “moral majority” of America by embracing and mocking youth culture at the same time. The odd robots skit is a parody of “Gladys and Tyrone” skits on Laugh-In, which was a successful “hip” program also produced by George Schlatter for NBC. “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” were taken from the revolutionary broadway musical “Hair” that was a revolutionary Broadway musical of the 60”s.

[@gerrydooley951]

it's the kind of thing that killed variety. It was really sort of over for these people although Dinah did reinvent herself as a talk show host.

[@Owlzindabarn]

Yeah, there's a lot of cringe moments like this, from the late 60s. Watch Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing in "Skidoo" if you want to lose respect for a lot of great talent. They couldn't just stay who they were. They were older, institutional talents. But nope, they had to stay "hep" and relevant.

[@chrisn7259]

So they were hoping to attract a younger viewing audience with Dinah, Lucy and Rowan and Martin? Huh?

[@OofusTwillip]

They all had top-rated shows on TV at that time.

[@michaelmcgee8543]

Dan Rowan was making a subtle pass at Lucy and she slapped him?

[@michaelmcgee8543]

This idea was attempted to stop the Vietnam war, the flower period.

[@blakeposter7496]

no but to try and make not pay attention

[@dougmilesmedia]

I believe Dinah and Dick Martin dated for awhile around this time.

[@LannieLord]

No, Dinah was a fossil compared to DOLLY READ - the YOUNG gal that Dick married . She was in the titular BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS ! Look her up .

[@Mister_Listener]

I am feeling a little unenthusiastic and will turn this off, all that shouting during the Joni Mitchell song. Lol, too loud, Dinah, and then out comes Diana Ross, okay maybe i will stay.

[@michaelmcgee8543]

George Schlatter must have domianted N.B.C back then. They dony make good variety shows or specials as they used to.

[@clownjewels]

No, they don't. They were a lot of fun!

[@fromthesidelines]

"ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN" was the network's #1 show that season (and #1 in the 1968-'69 Nielsen ratings). Naturally, they wanted more of "the same thing" from George.

[@OofusTwillip]

They can't afford to. Today's television industry is fragmented into hundreds of tiny niche channels, which can only get a tiny segment of total viewing audience, and, therefore, only a tiny slice of the total advertising revenue available to the industry. Variety shows are incredibly expensive to produce. When there were only 3 networks, each could get a huge % of total viewers, and, therefore, could get enough advertising revenue from sponsors, to pay for the costs of making the show. No sponsor will pay millions of dollars to sponsor a show that can only get a 1% audience share.

[@petervance6777]

Ah yes..the cold economics of show biz🧟‍♀️

[@January.]

*They DON'T.... LIKE they used to.

[@DA90027]

Campy and interesting to watch but not a great show by an means.

[@MrMenefrego1]

We all have opinions.