This documentary covers Judy Garland’s career on television. From her early specials, the Ford Star Jubilee and General Electric Theater, to The Judy Garland Show, to her final television appearances on Jack Paar, The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, Judy’s career had its ups and its downs.

THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW EPISODES:
The Judy Garland Show Episode #1:    • The Judy Garland Show - Episode #1  
The Judy Garland Show Episode #2:    • The Judy Garland Show - Episode #2  
The Judy Garland Show Episode #3:    • The Judy Garland Show - Episode #2  
The Judy Garland Show Episode #4:    • The Judy Garland Show Episode 4  
The Judy Garland Show Episode #5:    • The Judy Garland Show - Episode #5  

SOURCES:
Merv Griffin with Peter Barsocchini “Merv: An Autobiography” (1981)
Sid Luft “Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland” (2017)
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000023/
WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jud...

INTRO
In 1952, Judy almost made her first TV appearance with Frank Sinatra. Frank’s manager wanted Judy to appear with Frank on a TV series that he had signed on for. Frank’s career was stalling, and Judy’s was as good as ever due to her successful run at the Palace Theater in New York.

Things slowed down for Judy and a few years later, in the mid-1950s her career had hit a lull. She was coming off of the loss of the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in “A Star is Born” and due to the lengthy production time and excessive costs of making that film, movie offers weren’t coming in as they once had.

However, she did have an offer to be on television. Her first television special would be “The Judy Garland Special” which originally aired September 24, 1955, as part of The Ford Star Jubilee. This series aired monthly on Saturday nights and was typically telecast live. Many TV shows at that time were broadcast live before videotape began to be widely used in 1957. This was a full-color broadcast, in fact, CBS’s first full-color broadcast. However, unfortunately only the black and white footage remains today.

Her special would be the first in the series, and fittingly, the last installment of the Ford Star Jubilee series would be the broadcast of The Wizard of Oz on November 3, 1956. This was the first time that The Wizard of Oz would be shown on television.

She visibly became more comfortable as the show went on and sang songs primarily from her movies including the songs Swanee, For Me and My Gal, and The Trolley Song. While still in her tramp costume and make-up from performing “A Couple of Swells” from “Easter Parade” she sat down and sang “Over the Rainbow” to close out the show. According to Sid, the performance of “Over the Rainbow” was so moving that everyone in the studio was in tears.

Her next special was the 30-minute General Electric Theater which was hosted by no other than future president Ronald Regan.

By the early 1960s, her career was picking up steam again. She embarked on a concert tour that produced her legendary Carnegie Hall concert on April 23, 1961, which has been called “the greatest night in show business history” and earned her a Grammy award for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance for Judy at Carnegie Hall. The album spent 73 weeks on the Billboard charts and 13 weeks at number 1.

In 1961 she also earned another Oscar nomination, this time for Supporting Actress for her dramatic role in Judgement at Nuremberg. More and more opportunities were coming her way.

Her next significant TV appearance was The Judy Garland Show Special where she appeared with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

In 1963, she would make an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show where she promoted what would be her last movie I Could Go on Singing where she sang songs from the movie.

She would have one more special before her own television program began. This one was titled Judy and Her Guests, Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet where they performed various musical numbers together. This special was also a success and would earn an Emmy nomination.

Mort Lindsey, was hired to conduct the show’s orchestra and famed designer Edith Head was tapped to design the costumes. Mel Torme was brought in as musical arranger and Jerry Van Dyke would be a series regular.

The first show was taped June 24, 1963 and featured her good friend and former co-star from her MGM days, Mickey Rooney.

The third and final producer of the show would be Bill Colleran.

The show was also the place to memorialize some of her best performances, including when she defied the wishes of CBS management and sang Battle Hymn of the Republic to honor her friend, John F. Kennedy who had recently been assassinated.

Most Garland biographers point to the cancellation of her television show as the beginning of the end for her.