''The Midnight Special'' is an American late-night musical variety series originally broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from 1972 to 1981, created and produced by

Burt Sugarman Burton Roy Sugarman (born January 4, 1939) is an American film and television producer best known for creating and producing the iconic 1970s/early '80s variety series ''The Midnight Special (TV series), The Midnight Special'', which served as a s ...

. It premiered as a

TV special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

on August 19, 1972, and then began its run as a regular series from February 3, 1973, to March 27, 1981. The 90-minute program aired on Saturday mornings at 1 a.m. ET/PT after the Friday night edition of ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...

''. Like its syndicated late-night cousin '' Don Kirshner's Rock Concert'', the show typically featured guest hosts, except for a period from July 1975 through March 1976 when singer

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

served as the regular host.

Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. He was famous for his gravelly voice, and credited it with his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on ...

served as the announcer and frequent guest host. The program's theme song, a traditional folk song called " Midnight Special", was performed by Johnny Rivers.

Format

''The Midnight Special'' featured a collection of live performances, spanning the breadth of popular music of the 1970s, including pop, rock, folk, soul, dance (disco) and nostalgia/oldies acts along with stand-up comedy routines and sketch comedy troupes. Occasional episodes would be shot on location, including two-part episodes shot in London and at Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic, and an episode shot at the

Tulsa State Fair The Tulsa State Fair is an annual event held at Expo Square in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The state fair, fair takes place in late September (usually on the fourth Tuesday after Labor Day, and occasionally in early October) and lasts 11 days. History The ...

. The show presented '' The 1980 Floor Show'', the last performance of

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

as Ziggy Stardust, on November 16, 1973, from specially-commissioned performances taped a month earlier at the

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London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Select episodes carried themes, such as the "Million Sellers" (

clip show A clip show is an episode of a Television program, television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows include a frame story in which cast members recall events from past installments of the show, depicte ...

s of previous episodes' performances with no host, played in lieu of straight reruns) and genre-specific nights such as "The Midnight Top 40 Special," "The Midnight Comedy Special" and "The Midnight Special Country Edition."

History

In 1972, producer

pitched the program as a means for NBC to capitalize on a potential audience. "Our aim was to reach for the 18-33 age bracket, the young married and daters who attend concerts and movies but don't watch much television," Sugarman said. At the time, none of the

Big Three television networks From the 1950s to the 1980s, during the network era of American television, there were three commercial broadcast television networks – NBC (the National Broadcasting Company, "the Peacock Network"), CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System ...

had programming on after 1:00 am Eastern time, as common practice by most stations was to sign off after the final program. Despite a lack of competition in that timeslot, NBC initially rejected the idea. The rejection led Sugarman to buy the air time for the premiere on his own as a brokered show, convincing

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

to become the show's first sponsor. It premiered with ratings high enough for NBC to reconsider its decision, and the network subsequently bought the program. NBC also reasoned that the additional weekly hour and a half of programming would allow NBC to recoup some revenue lost as a result of the

Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act is a 1970 federal law in the United States designed to limit the practice of tobacco smoking. As approved by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Richard Nixon, the act required a str ...

, which banned the advertising of tobacco on television effective January 1, 1971.Tom Snyder on ''Later'', 1994
/ref> The pilot for the series aired on August 19, 1972. It was presented as a 90-minute special encouraging young people to vote in the upcoming Presidential election. Nielsen ratings for the premiere episode were a success, with 4.4%, or approximately 5 million television sets "tuned in", and 32% of those watching TV during that time period were watching ''The Midnight Special''. Several months later, on February 3, 1973, it premiered as a weekly series. Initially, it was scheduled to run 26 consecutive weeks.story continued
Within eight months of its premiere, ''The Midnight Special'' had proven that programming in the later time period was viable, and NBC would expand its programming in the time slot to five days a week with the addition of the talk show '' Tomorrow,'' hosted by

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on NBC in the 1970s and 1980s, and '' The Late Late Show'' ...

, the other four nights. ''The Midnight Special''s original time slot was on Saturdays from 1:00 to 2:30 a.m. in the Eastern and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

time zones (Midnight to 1:30 a.m. Central and

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

). When '' The Tonight Show's'' run time was shortened from ninety to sixty minutes in September 1980, ''The Midnight Special'' was moved to 12:30 a.m. (ET/PT)/11:30 p.m. (CT/MT), maintaining its 90-minute run time. In 1978, at the height of the

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

craze, the set was changed to resemble a disco nightclub complete with a platform dance floor. Wolfman Jack stood behind an elevated DJ booth. By fall 1979, as the genre's popularity waned, the disco set was replaced. The show was canceled in March 1981 and remained on air in reruns until May 1981.

Guest stars

Some notable guest stars and hosts included: *

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* Hoyt Axton *

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* The Bay City Rollers *

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* Jerry Bell *

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* Blondie *

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* Brooklyn Dreams *

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* Lou Christie *

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* Mama Cass Elliot * Jose Feliciano *

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* Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons *

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*Goldstar *

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* Journey * KC and the Sunshine Band *

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* Loggins & Messina *

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* Rare Earth *

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* Ike & Tina Turner Revue *

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* Paul Williams *

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XTC XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (vocals, guitars) and Colin Moulding (vocals, bass), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing ...

*: ELO had more appearances than any other band with seven. *: Shirley and Lee were introduced in 1974 singing 'Let the Good Times Roll', when actually 'Lee' wasn't on stage; 'Shirley' was singing with Steeltown Records Founder and Hollywood Shuffle actor Lou 'Ludie' Washington.

Parody

The show was parodied with a song by comedian

Ray Stevens Harold Ray Ragsdale (born January 24, 1939), known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country music, country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian. He is best known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "M ...

in 1974 called "The Moonlight Special" playing Mr. Sheepdog (Wolfman Jack), whose guest included Mildred Queen and the Dipsticks (

Gladys Knight Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins Will ...

), Agnes Stoopa (

and his pet chicken (From the 1969 "Chicken incident" in Toronto)), and Jerry Joe Henly Jimmy (

Cancellation

The series was canceled in 1981 by NBC at the request of

Dick Ebersol Duncan Richard Ebersol (; born July 28, 1947) is an American television executive and a senior adviser for NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large-scale television events such as the ...

as part of a deal for him to take over the then-ailing ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

''.Dick Ebersol
from the

Museum of Broadcast Communications The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum that showcases historic and contemporary radio and television content. It is headquartered in Chicago. Museum locations (1987–present) The Museum of Broadcast Communications wa ...

Because there was no time for NBC to develop a new show from scratch in light of the urgent ''SNL'' situation, ''The Midnight Special'' was replaced by '' SCTV'', a weekly Canadian sketch comedy series performed by members of the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

satellite of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has b ...

improvisational troupe. That program, in turn, would later be replaced with another music show, ''

Friday Night Videos ''Friday Night Videos'' is an American music video/variety show, variety program that aired from July 29, 1983, to May 24, 2002, on NBC. Originally developed as an attempt by the network to capitalize on the emerging popularity of music videos, ...

,'' in 1983, also produced initially by Ebersol.

DVD release

In 2006, a DVD collection entitled ''Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special'' was made available by Guthy-Renker through television and radio

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s. In 2014, an 11-DVD collection entitled ''The Midnight Special'' was released by Star-Vista through standard retail channels.

References

Notes Bibliography * McNeil, Alexander M. (1980) ''Total Television'', New York: Penguin Books, Ltd.

External links

*
''The Midnight Special''
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midnight Special (TV series), The 1973 American television series debuts 1981 American television series endings 1970s American late-night television series 1980s American late-night television series 1970s American music television series 1980s American music television series 1970s American variety television series 1980s American variety television series American English-language television shows NBC original programming NBC late-night programming Pop music television series Rock music television series