Andy Williams Christmas - Circa 1965

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• Williams
• Christmas

[ghendar]

Why can't we have TV like this anymore? I was just watching the Best of Andy Williams Christmas Specials. My parents tell me i used to watch them as a kid but of course I don't remember them. I feel like I missed out on some great stuff. I wish they would release all his Christmas Specials on DVD

[musicguy64]

@ghendar I have a DVD called "The Best Of The Andy Williams Christmas Specials", which is where I got this clip. It's an amazing DVD....unfortunately, it's VERY hard to find!

[GEMINITREKKER]

@musicguy64 I like this video,I will have to check e-bay.

[musicguy64]

@GEMINITREKKER If you can find an original copy, they run about $75.00. If you go on ioffer.com, copies are available there for about $15.00.

[htrrz]

I was ten when this show played at Christmas, back then variety shows were all over tv, today no music, no comedy, and tv is poloarized to a certain group. all we have is gory killing shows, and sex related sitcoms, someone should start a cable channel that shows nothing but the great variety shows of the 50's, 60's 70's.

[jupitr2]

Agreed! If TVLand would get back to it's roots and provide programming other than the same reruns of 'Bonanza' and 'Sanford & Son', it could be one of the hottest cable channels. They could easily run weekend programs like The Andy Williams Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Red Skelton Show, Hee Haw, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Sonny & Cher, etc. and people would be coming back for more! I'd sure watch it!

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 Andy Williams was a good guy. And his Christmas TV specials were like musical greeting cards of Norman Rockwell paintings, telling American families it was Christmas time again!

Can we ever be this innocent again? Perhaps not. But I see from the comments posted here there is a sincere longing to return to those good times, when families and TV viewers gathered 'round the warm glow of the cathode rays of the TV tube to sing Christmas carols with Andy (Bing & Perry, too).

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 It is also, somehow, fitting that a man whose signature song is "Moon River," the ballad of Truman Capote's waif-like dreamer, "Holly Golightly" (in the film of Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's"), would also have paid a musical homage at the funeral of his friend, an internationally-prominent figure who was also a dreamer.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 Like the image of young John-John Kennedy saluting his daddy's horse-drawn casket as it passed by him in the state funeral cortege, on that grim autumn day of 1963, I may still be moved to tears whenever I see that film footage or a photo of those two Little Leaguers saluting Bobby Kennedy on his final ride.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 I shall never forget that image of two Little Leaguers (still in their team uniforms, from a game or practice), perched atop some roof along the funeral train's route, ball cap's held respectfully over their hearts, as a gesture of tribute to Senator Bobby.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 Andy and Claudine were with Ethel at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles when Bobby Kennedy died June 6, 1968.

The Williamses also rode in the funeral train with Bobby Kennedy's casket, as thousands lined railroad tracks along the eastern corridor to say good-bye to Senator Bobby that hot summer Saturday of June 8, 1968.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 Not long after Bobby Kennedy's death, Joan Kennedy, the first wife of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, had played piano on the Williams' program.

Joan Kennedy had been studying classical piano for several years, and so her performance on Wiliams' program served as both a kind of public recital and the return of a musical favor, for Andy having sung at Joan's brother in-law's funeral..

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 Andy and his ex-wife, Claudine Longet, had been good friends of the late Senator Bobby Kennedy and his wife, Ethel. Andy sang "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" and "Ave Maria" at the funeral of Bobby Kennedy in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, New York, on June 8, 1968..A 45 rpm recording of those songs was released on Columbia, Williams' label for many years, and I bought a copy.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 At least in Andy's later years on NBC (Williams took a break for a few years between his two NBC series'), the Christmas program would just air in the time slot of Andy's weekly variety series, I think.

As Andy's show aired on Saturday evenings in the late '60s and early '70s, and as I recall that Christmas show on my mom's then-new color TV set airing on a Saturday evening, I think that was the case.

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 The last or next-to-last Christmas (so 1968 or '69) before my mother died, when she was only 55 years old (in 1970), my father bought her a color TV set, the first one in our home. Playing on the TV when my mom arrived home was the Christmas edition of "The Andy Williams Show." My mom was positively thrilled!

[gymnastix]

@musicguy64 By the way, PBS also aired "The Best Of The Andy Williams Show" for years, during its begging sprees (which now seem to be 24/7 and 365), just as PBS had done with its doo-wop and Peter, Paul & Mary specials.

I watched Andy's show sometimes, in the early-to-mid 1960s, and recall comedian Jonathan Winters appearing on the program frequently. I think the show aired on either Monday or Tuesday evening.