Before I get into my blog for the day, I just wanted to thank those of you who follow my blog and have been with me on this journey. Today is my 500th blog. I remember writing my first one and wondering if I would be able to come up with enough topics to last a year. Here we are almost ten years later!

Our theme for March is “Variety is the Spice of Life.” We are taking a look at several variety shows that debuted in the sixties and seventies. We’re ending the month with The Jim Nabors Hour.

If people only knew Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, they were in for a treat once they tuned into this show. This show debuted on CBS in 1969 and ran until 1971. However, Nabors didn’t leave all of his Gomer Pyle life behind. Ronnie Schell and Frank Sutton, who played Duke and Sgt. Carter, joined this one as regulars along with Karen Morrow. In addition, the Tony Mordente Dancers and the Nabors Kids were available to help performances.

Nabors was tired of playing Gomer after five years and decided to end the show. He was often a guest on The Carol Burnett Show, and she was one of his best friends, so he opted for a variety show of his own.

His first guest star was Andy Williams, and Don Knotts also made an appearance.

As a fun feature, each episode had a guest announcer who read the introduction to the show and shared the guests for the day. Mavis Nabors, Jim’s mom, was the first.

Nabors acquired an impressive guest list including Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Johnny and June Cash, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Rock Hudson, Shirley Jones, Ricky Nelson, Don Rickles, Kate Smith, and Jane Wyman.

The show started out strong and was #12 at the end of season one. It continued to rein in good ratings while it was on the air. Even though it was in the top thirty, it was canceled along with all of the other shows that were part of the 1971 rural purge.

According to YouTube channel’s “Classic Rural Comedies Facts and Trivia,” NBC wasn’t happy Nabors wanted to end his Gomer Pyle show when the ratings were still so good. However, they also didn’t want ABC or CBS to sign their star, so they reluctantly gave in to a variety show. Partway through season one, the network put pressure on Nabors to limit Sutton’s appearances and eventually demanded he get fired. Nabors refused, and many people assume that’s why it got thrown in with the rural sitcoms in the purge.

Sadly, there isn’t a lot of information about this show. A handful of shows are available on
YouTube, but most of them are no longer available to watch. No one talked about this show during their television academy interviews, so stories are hard to come by about this variety series. Many people have fond memories of the show, and I guess that has to be enough for us to appreciate this show which ended before its time.