They Had Their Own TV Show?

I seen it and it was one of the most painful things I've ever seen. I liked Chevy on SNL but on his opening night on his late night show he was so nervous that you could just hear the crickets as he bombed one joke attempt after the other. I felt bad for him.

Great stuff, CT!! I was able to see them first hand at a small bluegrass club in Cincinnati called the Ken-Mil in the early '60s. The guys were flawless.

That was 30 years ago. I remember it too. That whole debacle went viral before viral was even a thing.

You're right. Lots of stars got their own shows because of name recognition. Some worked, some didn't. Gobel had been a well known entertainer after WWII, when he switched to comedy. When he got his show in the 1950s he was the right guy with the right delivery at the right time.

He was a riot, with his low key, ironic, and self effacing humor-- the complete opposite of slapstick. His show was all the rage for several years. But most shows came and went, with the exception of some of the shows I mentioned above.

Anyone remember this?

I remember Lola Falana seen her recently too on the old Fantasy Island...but didn't know she had a show. Now this brings to mind Joey Heatherton, did she ever have her own show? Seems like she would.

Wikipedia says she had a "series of specials", but IMDB says she had a TV show just called "Lola!" which was a variety series that lasted only 4 episodes. But I specifically remember "The Lola Falana Show" (as depicted in the photo I posted).

According to IMDB, Joey Heatherton had a TV series called "Joey and Dad" (which coincidentally also ran for 4 episodes)...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072524..._flmg_t_11_slf

I'd watch that if I could find it.

Don't think this one has been mentioned:

Just ran into another celebrity who had their own show:

CR, I'll tell you funny story about The Joey Bishop Show (the later talk show version which aired only 2-1/2 years-- '67-'69).

Joey had a week off, and Shelley Winters was hired to fill in for him. She was allowed to pick the guests, so she hired the Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa) for one of her segments. I was in the band at that time, and I'm guessing it was during late 1968. Shelley was a big fan of our group.

But when management found out about it, they wanted to cancel us due to our counterculture and risque reputation. Shelley said that if they didn't keep us in the show that she would walk off the program. They kept us in, and our performance was a lot of fun.

She had a beautiful home in Malibu at the time, and invited us out for a party that night. I evidently had something else going on because I didn't go out to her place. For the life of me I can't recall what it was because I blew a golden opportunity to get to kow-tow with that fascinating lady.

The Tempest Bledsoe Show

Very cool Doc! Love that story, you must have a lot of great memories from back in the day. I'm a big fan of Shelley Winters myself...she seemed like a gusty, take no crap lady, so I'm not surprised she went to the ropes for you guys and kept your band on the show. Have you ever looked for that episode? Seems like that would be a fun trip down memory lane.

BTW did you ever meet Howard Kaylan? He seemed like a pretty neat guy from the DVD extras on the movie he wrote My Dinner With Jimi? If you haven't seen that I recommend it, I bet you could definitely relate to that movie as you lived it.

I found some very obscure ones not too long ago, but instead of posting them here I've forgotten what they were!

It's just surprising how many people (some of which weren't even well known in their OWN time) had their own TV shows.

P.S. There was a network (maybe "Antenna" TV - that was showing the Joey Bishop show a while back - maybe late at night - I caught a couple episodes.)

I plan on watching Gale Storm's show if I can find it. It sounded like an early version of The Love Boat.

It's very fitting then, that Gale Storm appeared in 2 episodes of The Love Boat!

Yup!...and Marie Osmond was on 1 episode of The Love Boat...a special episode filmed on location in Greece. Ironically Greece was were Fred Grandy was burnt in the face and hands from a hydrogen filled balloon that someone brought into a car that he was in.

Geez. I never heard that story. Sounds terrible.
Never heard of anyone burned by a balloon (except for the Hindenburg or if they were doing Whip-Its or something)!

(Years ago you could buy nitrous-oxide cartridges - as used in whip cream cans - thus they were called "Whip-Its" - and a special kind of "shooter" that punctured the cartridge. You'd put a balloon on the end of the shooter and fill it with the gas and then breath in & out of the balloon for a laughing gas high-time ride. BUT if your balloon accidentally slipped off the shooter after you punctured the cartridge, you could get sprayed with the gas which shot out so cold that it could instantly freeze (burn) your skin.)

Wow, I never heard of whip-its or nitrous oxide cartridges, I guess I missed out on the frost bite fun. I would have loved that as a kid too.

Correction it was in Turkey that Fred Grandy was burnt...it was a two part special with the first part in Greece. I found this which quotes from the cast about the accident:

But in 1982, a scary accident occurred in a Turkish taxi: A cigarette ignited some balloons that were inexplicably filled with hydrogen, injuring Tewes, Grandy, and several others; Grandy suffered severe burns on his hands and face. Grandy It shot flames six feet in the air. The reaction by people outside was we’d been hit by terrorists.

Tewes We had giant pizza bubbles on our hands. I kept saying, ”We need ice, we need ice!” and somebody said, ”Booze?” ”No, we don’t need booze, we need ice!” Well, the word for ice in Turkish is buz. I found that out just a few years ago.

Grandy They get me to the ship. [The doctor] says, ”I have a confession. I am not a physician.” He was a first-year medical student who’d essentially conned his way on to the ship to meet girls. He didn’t even know how to put in an IV. Fortunately [a crew member] was a junkie, so I got the medication I needed.

*Well that's even a wilder story than the one I had heard, yikes!

"Inexplicable" sounds right - never heard of balloons filled with hydrogen! (Only helium to make them float or air.)

The doctor story sounds like life imitating art (i.e. Dr. Bricker as played by Bernie Kopell).
I could see him saying, "Well, Gopher, I can't help you with your burns, but I can help fix you up with two bikini-clad blondes I just met on the Lido deck - they look just like the Landers sisters!"

Yeah, Shelley Winters was a helluva package-- actually quite va-va-voom in the '40s, although as you know she played quite a few whiny roles. She had a lot of acting chops though. I haven't looked for the episode, but I did look up the date. It was on September 9, 1968 (the day before my 24th birthday..).

I don't recall ever meeting Howard Kaylan or Mark Volman. As you know they had been The Turtles. They were in the next iteration of MOI after mine. Frank broke us up in late '69. And he didn't form another band until later in '70. They were both good singer/songwriters.

I haven't seen My Dinner with Jimi, although it sounds like fun. I knew Hendrix. We played several festivals together. As a matter of fact I met my second wife at Jimi's pad in London in October, '68. She had been nanny for Rose and Graham Nash's kid.

Jimi was a great guitarist but had lots of problems. The last time I saw him was at a rock club in Hollywood on the East Sunset Strip called The Experience (named after Hendrix's band). I was sitting with him at a table with a couple of other guys, but Jimi was totally fried on drugs. He had no idea where he was or what day it was. It wasn't too long afterward that he died.