DONNY & MARIE

September 30, 1977 (S3;E2)

Directed
by Art Fisher

Choreography
by Carl Jabolonski

Ice
Choreography by Rob Paul

Written
by Rod Warren, Bill Dana, Paul Pumpian, Harvey Weitzman, Bruce
Vilanch, and Ed Hider

Special
Musical Material by Earl Brown

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Donny
Osmond (Himself)
began his TV career on “The Andy Williams Show” in 1963 singing
with his brothers, The Osmonds. Osmond became a teen idol in the
early 1970s as a solo singer, while continuing to sing with his older
brothers. His first solo hit was a cover of Roy Orbison’s 1958
recording of “Sweet and Innocent". Osmond’s follow-ups “Go
Away Little Girl", “Puppy Love” and “Hey Girl / I Knew You
When” vaulted him to international fame. Later in his career, Donny
Osmond acted on Broadway and in films. Before teaming with his sister
on “Donny & Marie” (1976-79)
he
guest-starred on a 1972 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  

Marie
Osmond (Herself)
was
never part of her family’s singing group, but she gained success as a
solo country
music
artist
in the 1970s and 1980s. Her best known song is a cover of the country
pop
ballad
“Paper
Roses”.
From 1976 to 1979, she and her brother Donny
hosted
the television variety show “Donny
& Marie.”
Marie is also a successful entrepreneur with a collection of dolls
sold on QVC, a philanthropist founder of the Children’s Miracle
Network, as well as a spokesperson for various weight loss products.
She is an author as well as a wife and mother.  

Lucille
Ball (Herself)
was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her
screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the
B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard
Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite
Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,”
a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her
real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was
phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was
once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960
(in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so
did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu
financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The
Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a
similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life
children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined
the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death
in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With
Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled
after just 13 episodes.

Ray
Bolger
(Himself) is probably best known for his portrayal of The Scarecrow
in 1939’s The
Wizard of Oz,
a role he parodies, nearly 40 years later, on this episode of “Donny
& Marie.” His career started in Vaudeville and he appeared in
more than a dozen Broadway shows, winning a 1949 Tony Award for
Where’s
Charley
in which he introduced the song “Once in Love With Amy.” He died
in 1987.  

Paul
Lynde
(Himself) got his first big break in the Broadway cast of New Faces
of 1952. He later played the father in Bye
Bye Birdie
(1960), repeating the role in the film version. On television, he is
probably best remembered as Samantha’s joke-loving Uncle Arthur on
“Bewitched” (1965-71) and as the center square on the original
“Hollywood Squares” (1966-79).  He died in 1982 at age 55.

Lynde
only plays characters in the program. Although billed as a guest
star, he was more a recurring guest who did 17 episodes of the
series.

Paul
Williams
(Himself) is a singer / songwriter known for hits such as “We’ve
Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,”
“Evergreen” (Oscar-winner), “Just an Old Fashioned
Love Song,” and “The Rainbow Connection.”  As an actor
he has appeared in such diverse roles as Swan in The Phantom
of Paradise (1973),
Virgil in Battle
for the Planet of the Apes (1974),
and Little Enos in Smokey
and the Bandit
(1977) and its two sequels.

Virginia
Wood (The
Good Witch) had appeared in the all-star cast of
A Guide for the Married Man
in 1967, which also featured Lucille Ball.

Wayne
Osmond
(Announcer – Voice / Executive Producer)  is the second oldest in
the original performing Osmond Brothers. His entertainment career
began in 1962 when he first appeared on “The Andy Williams Show”
with brothers Alan, Merrill, and Jay. In 2012, he completely retired
from show business due to health problems.

Ice
Angels
(Themselves) were female ice dancers who appeared regularly on the
second season of “Donny & Marie”

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“Donny
& Marie” was
a one-hour variety show hosted by real-life brother and sister Donny
and Marie Osmond, which ran four seasons on ABC-TV, from 1976 to
1979, although there were two pilot episodes
in November 1975. Donny
and Marie (18 and 16 years old, respectively, when the program
premiered) were the youngest entertainers in TV history to host their
own variety show.  A year later, The Keane Brothers would
break this record.
Originally,
the show was created by Sid and Marty Krofft and
videotaped in Los Angeles, but after a long battle, creative
control of the show was given to the Osmonds and “Donny &
Marie” was
moved to the specially-built Osmond Studios in Orem, Utah, in
November 1977.

A
year earlier, Desi
Arnaz Sr. appeared on “Donny & Marie” for a salute to the pioneers
of television. In January 1978, Lucy and Desi’s son, Desi
Jr., also appeared on the show.  

This appearance was Lucille Ball’s way of repaying Donny Osmond, who had appeared on
“Here’s Lucy” when their demographic was lacking in younger
viewers. “Donny & Marie” were lacking in older viewers, which
stars like Lucy and Ray Bolger would surely appeal to. After the
series was out of the control of Sid and Marty Krofft, it started to
draw an older demographic.  

For
the most part the vocals for the guest-stars were pre-recorded and
required the performers to lip-synch. At one point, Lucille Ball gets
caught up in a comic bit of business and forgets to resume mouthing
the words.  

Of
the writing team, Paul
Pumpian
would co-write “Lucy Moves to NBC” in 1980. Bill
Dana
was the producer of “The Milton Berle Show” (1966), which had
Lucille Ball on its very first episode.

Director
Art
Fisher
would also direct “Cher…And Other Fantasies” (1979) which
guest-starred Lucille Ball.

Excerpts from this program can be seen on the “Here’s Lucy” Season 5 DVD Bonus Features.    

Donny,
Marie, and the Ice Angels (as ice skating cheerleaders) perform their
opening number, “High
School Dance,”
a song written and originally performed by The Sylvers on their 1976
album Something
Special.
The song hit #17 on the charts.

After
their opening monologue, Donny and Marie introduce Lucille Ball, who,
wearing a long, pink feather boa, sings “Leading
Lady.”

Lucy:
“I
could be Mame or Dolly, Camille, or Miss Mae West. Ethel Merman, or
Madame Butterfly…”

• Lucille
  Ball played Mame
  in the 1974 film adaptation of the Jerry Herman Broadway musical.
• On
  a 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show” she dressed up as Dolly
  Levi in Hello
  Dolly,
  even singing the title song.
• Camille,
  the central character of the novel and 1938 film about a consumptive
  courtesan, was mentioned by Lucy in several episodes of “I Love
  Lucy.”  
• Later
  in this “Donny & Marie” show, Lucille Ball will play Mae
  West
  to Paul Williams’ W.C. Fields.  
• Ethel
  Merman
  was a guest-star on two episodes of “The Lucy Show” in 1964.
• Madame
  Butterfly,
  the heroine of the opera by Puccini, seems to be the only woman
  mentioned that Lucy does not have a direct connection to. In fact,
  when singing her name, Lucy incongruously flaps her arms like a
  butterfly!  

The
song fades into a sketch where Paul Lynde plays a Broadway producer,
Marie is a costume girl, and Donny is a director named D.W. Griffith
Park, a pun on the name of real-life film director D.W. Griffith and
Los Angeles’ largest public green space. Lucy plays the ‘new girl’ going on for the star. 

In front of a marquee that reads  Annie
Get Your Gun,
Lucy, dressed in a fringed cowgirl outfit, sings “There’s
No Business Like Show Business,”
which was written by Irving Berlin for the musical in 1949,
introduced by Ethel Merman. In “Lucy
Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11),
Lucy Ricardo and the Mertzes burst into an a capella rendition of the
show business anthem. It would also be quoted by Lucy in “Baby
Pictures” (ILL S3;E5).
Merman
herself sang the song in “Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show”
(TLS S2;E19).

In
the next segment of the sketch, Paul Lynde is a Hollywood producer,
Marie is a busy production assistant, and Donny is a film director. 

Lucy
is dressed as Mae West, standing in front of a marquee that says My
Little Chickadee,
a
1940 film that starred West and W.C. Fields. 

Paul Williams enters as
W.C. Fields and they exchange witty banter based on some of Fields’
and West’s most famous quotes.  

The
sequence ends with a reprise of “Leading Lady” sung by an
offstage chorus and danced by Lucille Ball along with (thanks to
special effects) six identically-attired Lucille Balls.  

After
the commercial, Paul Williams is at piano singing “Waking
Up Alone,”
a song he wrote in 1971.

After
the song, Donny and Marie indulge in some banter about an album
titled “Best of Donny & Marie,” which only features Donny on
the cover. Marie jokes some of the songs on the album are “All By
Myself,” “I Walk Alone”, and “I Did It My Way.” This serves
as an intro to their “Concert Spot,” which traditionally begins
with “I’m
a Little Bit Country, I’m a Little Bit Rock and Roll” by
Marty Cooper, where Marie would
trade off singing a country music song with Donny singing a rock and
roll tune.

Concert
Spot
songs:

• Marie
  singing “You’re
  My World”
  by Carl Sigman, Umberto Bindi, Gino Paoli. It was first written in
  1963 as “Il Mio Mondo.” In
  1977 it became a Top 20 hit in the USA via a remake by Helen
  Reddy. 

• Donny
  sings “Travelin’
  Band” by John
  Fogerty, originally recorded by Creedence
  Clearwater Revival.
  It was included on their 1970 album Cosmo’s
  Factory. 

• Marie
  sings
  “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday”
  a
  1969 soul song
  by Ron Miller and
  Bryan Wells, released by Stevie Wonder on his album My
  Cherie Amour.

• Donny
  sings
  “My Music”
  by Loggins and Messina, originally released in 1973 on their Full
  Sail
  album. Marie joins him at the end, and they reprise a bit of “I’m
  a Little Bit Country, I’m a Little Bit Rock and Roll.”

Donny
introduces “6
Minutes,”
a parody of the CBS news show “60 Minutes.” The sketch features a
‘attack / counter-attack’ face-off between James D. Crowley (Paul
Lynde) and Buzz Alexander (also Paul Lynde, thanks to special
effects). They debate what to do about the migration of killer bees.

Buzz:
“When
the killer bees turn up in your town, greet them with open arms and
say ‘hiya, honey’.” 

James:
“That
is the most ridiculous argument I’ve ever heard.”

Buzz:
“Picky,
picky picky. He’s just prejudiced because he’s a WASP.”

James:
“The
argument he offers is absolute insanity, not worth the dignity of a
reply.”

Buzz:
“He’s
droning on!”

James:
“He’s
not making a shred of sense.”

Buzz:
“He’s
a bumbling idiot.”  

Next,
Donny is seen in a music video of “Fly
Into The Wind,”
which was written and performed by Donny Osmond. The song was filmed
location in a desert-like setting.

Marie
introduces Ray
Bolger,
and they do a song and dance medley which includes “You
Make Me Feel So Young,”
a 1946 song
by Josef
Myrow and
Mack
Gordon, as well as “Younger
Than Springtime” by
Rodgers and Hammerstein, written for their 1949 Broadway musical
South
Pacific.
During the medley, the lyrics mention such dance tunes as “Melancholy
Baby,” “Boogie Woogie Fever,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and
“Disco Duck.”

The
Ice Angels play Frisbee (on ice) inter-cut with location footage of
games of Frisbee on a beach, all to the song “Disco
Lucy”
(1976) by the Wilton Place Street Band, based on the original “I
Love Lucy” theme by Elliott Daniel. 

At the end of the number, one
of the Ice Angels throws a Frisbee toward the camera and, in a
cut-away, Lucille Ball (dressed as she was in her initial
introduction) catches it.  

The
grand finale is a musical parody of The Wizard of Oz. Although
inspired by the 1939 MGM film (as well as including one of its
stars), it does not use any of the music from the film and changes
the character names. Although Marie plays the ‘Dorothy Gale’ character,
the sketch never uses the name ‘Dorothy.’ Like the L. Frank Baum
book, the sketch also uses silver shoes instead of ruby slippers. In
1939, Lucille Ball had five films released by RKO, a studio she would
eventually buy and rename Desilu.  

Clutching
her dog, Kansas farm girl Dorothy (Marie) sings “Wishing
(Will Make It So)”
as a storm whips up in the background. The song was written by Buddy
Da Sylva in 1939 (coincidentally the same year The
Wizard of Oz was
released) for the film Love
Affair.
The song was nominated for an Oscar.

In
OZmond, the Munchkins (played by the Ice Angels without their skates)
sing “You’ve
Come a Long Way from Topeka”
(“You
Came a Long Way From St. Louis”) by
John Benson Brooks and Bob Russell.  

Dorothy
pleads with them, “Show
Me the Path to Go Home,” (“Show
Me the Way to Go Home”) a 1925
song by Irving King, a pseudonym for the English songwriting
team James
Campbell and Reginald Connelly. 

In
an explosion of smoke, Wicked Esther, the Witch of the Wester (Paul
Lynde) appears to threaten Dorothy. After she’s gone, the Good Witch
(Virginia Wood) tells Dorothy to follow her silver shoes.

Strutting
down a paved roadway, Dorothy sings “Poor
Lost Soul” (“Two
Lost Souls”), a song by Richard Adler and Jerry Rose, written for
their 1955 Broadway musical
Damn Yankees.
The song is used as the connecting material between the introduction of each of
the characters on the road to OZmond.

Crying,
she encounters Samuel Sullivan Scarecrow (Ray Bolger). He sings “It
Just Ain’t the Same Old Oz”
about how Oz is not what it used to be. He hopes the Wizard of OZmond
will return it to its former glory.

Scarecrow
(singing):
“A high rise’ll soon replace my cornfield and that rainbow’s
covered up with smog.”  

They
happen upon Tin
Lizzy (Lucille Ball), a tin lady who sings about getting a new dress to “turn
Tin Lizzy into Teflon Tess.”

They
run into a cowardly lion who calls himself the Fastest Cat in the Forest (Paul
Williams), who sings about his speed.  

Gazing
into her crystal ball and seeing the troupe on the road to OZmond,
Wicked Esther sings “Hurry
on Down,”
first written by Nellie Lutcher in 1947.

They
arrive at the Emerald City and meet The Wizard of OZmond (Donny) who
croons “Home
Sweet Home” aka “Be it Ever So Humble, There’s No Place Like
Home” by
John Howard Payne and Henry Bishop. The Wizard offers his guests some
Oz milk, which accidentally gets dumped on Esther, melting her.

The
Wizard tells Dorothy she can go back to Kansas by shining her shoes,
as the company sings “A
Shine On Your Shoes” by
Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz for the Broadway musical Flying
Colors,
but also heard in the film The
Band Wagon
(1953).

After
a commercial break, Donny and Marie say goodnight (still wearing
their Oz costumes), signing off with their traditional song, "May
Tomorrow Be a Perfect Day” written by their brother, Alan Osmond.

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This
Date in Lucy History
–  September
30

“Lucy
Plays Cleopatra”
(TLS S2;E1) – September 30, 1963

“Lucy
Visits Jack Benny”
(HL S1;E2) – September 30, 1968

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