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Start a conversation about '70s television in America, and people will bring up some legendary shows—M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore, All In The Family, Happy Days, Saturday Night Live. But if you had to pick one, just one, TV show to go into a time capsule, what would you choose? With respect to all of those series, I'd argue, believe it or not, for CBS's Tony Orlando & Dawn. Am I crazy? Maybe so, but I'm holding the conch. So hear me out.
Tony Orlando & Dawn began as a 1974 summer replacement with low expectations. The group (including Thema Hopkins and Joyce Wilson) was riding the charts—"Tie A Yellow Ribbon" being the biggest-selling single of the previous year—and the CBS program was created in obvious "homage" to Sonny & Cher's hit show. But Sonny & Cher were not really chart-toppers anymore. Orlando and Dawn had hits right through the show's run. (Just to put it in context, can you imagine any chart-topper today—hmm, I don't know, say Mariah Carey or 50 Cent—going on TV once a week to sing other people's hits and do comedy?) And forgive me, but Orlando, Hopkins, and Wilson obviously had more talent.
The last gasp of variety shows on prime time, TOAD nevertheless squeezed every ounce of juice from the format. The comedy was sometimes goofy, sometimes bizarre, and often edgy, making racial jokes, unemployment jokes, political jokes, shacking-up jokes, and creating sketches far more daring at least than what you'd see on Saturday Night Live today.
Just take this topical gag: Joyce: "You know, we've got a real dope problem in this country." Telma: "Yeah, but we keep electing 'em." Or this now-politically incorrect zinger: Tony: "We used to date in foursomes. If the girls wouldn't neck, we'd force 'em!" Orlando unfailingly worked the audience like it was a nightclub crowd. And he frequently broke the "fourth wall" of TV—how many shows can you imagine prompting the whole audience to turn to a camera and shout, "We are not forgetting you at home!"? I'm not going to argue for the brilliance of Orlando's music, though this series shows the schmaltzy-hip Greek/Puerto Rican entertainer could credibly interpret just about any hit song (everything from "I Shot The Sherrif" to, believe it or not, "I've Been Working On The Railroad"), which is not to be dismissed.
The 11 shows offered here cover the show's quick progression from its 1974 summer season to its first full season, and then the slicker 1976 "Rainbow Hour," which added George Carlin to the regular cast (not singing, thankfully). Over the course, Orlando's hair gets more and more styled, Dawn's dresses get more and more outrageous, but just when the show seems uninspired, it will throw in a macabre skit with Freddy Prinze selling America's Funniest Gross-Outs or Orlando and Anne Meara as a yolk and egg white about to get separated. Seriously.
Underlining the show's drawing power, TOAD guests included Jackie Gleason, Dom DeLuise, Hank Aaron, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Phyllis Diller, Jerry Lewis, Alice Cooper, Freddie Prinze (more than once), and more '70s icons whose names might not mean anything to you (but were once, ahem, huge). One of the most inspired episodes is when TOAD hosts the entire cast of Hee Haw, including Buck Owens, Charlie Weaver, Bobbi Stoneman, and the late, great Junior Samples. Surprisingly sincere—and funny—the episode is truly cross-promotion at its very best.
The styles, the guests, the music, the comedy all sum up the '70s, for better or worse, as well as any one show could.
Extras include an appearance by Orlando on a Prinze-hosted episode of The Tonight Show, an excerpt from ABC's Fridays show featuring Dawn with Father Guido Sarducci, and a Carol Burnett Show satire. Digital transfers are excellent (except in rare cases of obvious glitches in the original video tape), and the shows are fully indexed for easy navigation if you can't stand some of the more saccharin tunes. Thanks for that.
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