Looking Back: TV Musicals #1 - broadway.com

http://www.broadway.com/template_1.asp?CI=32152&CT=8

how exciting. I hope so much of this stuff is released. I have shadowy memories of television versions of:

Damn Yankees and
It's a bird it's a plane it's Superman
Applause
Of Thee I Sing
and of course I saw Peter Pan many times.

I also have a shadowy memory of the Ethel Merman Annie Get Your Gun telecast. I do vividly recall my mother remarking that it was a shame there was not a more age appropriate person playing Frank Butler to Merman's Annie.

The musical Peter Pan with Mary Martin also figured prominently in an episode of Danny Thomas' Make Room for Daddy. That episode was nominated for an emmy as best special of the year, which was highly unusual for an episode of a sitcom, even then.

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Updated On: 11/11/03 at 12:38 PM

If PETER PAN with Mary Martin comes back to DVD, my head would explode! I spent $80 for one on eBay, they are SO hard to get now.

It would be heavenly though, what a present for the 100th Anniversary of PP!

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I would love to see the performances of Peter Pan mentioned in the article. I hope that despite the fact that the tv version has been available they will offer one of those live performances on dvd.

i've been lusting after that version of KATE for years! do you recall it, Miriam?

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How about the 'You're A Good Man Charlie Brown' telecast from the 70s?

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I think there was a television version of Dames At Sea with Ann Miller and Ann Margaret too.

John Kenrick has an exaustive list of TV musicals on his site. Some sound very tantalizing, but a good number of them sound pretty awful, too.

I saw a tape of the Ann Southern LADY IN THE DARK recently, and it was ...interesting.
Musicals on TV

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Updated On: 11/12/03 at 11:44 AM

I am tempted to get Superman but wonder what parts they cut for the TV version

Why they just did not tape the show Broadway version ) & air it, I will never know. Anyone have any info on how bad ( or good) it is, who is in it & what musical numbers they cut ? Is it a hatchet job as I have heard ?

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yeah, there is a B&W ONCE UPON A MATTRESS as well as a later color one, both with Carol.

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my recollection is that the novel, which one a Pulitzer, was called A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, while the play adaptation, which may have also won a Pulitzer, was called ALL THE WAY HOME. Tad Mosel, i believe, adapted it from Agee's novel. Interestingly enough, there is also a symphony by Samuel Barber, KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915, which uses the Agee text as lyric for a soprano soloist with orchestra. Having not seen the television version, i wasn't sure if it was a new adaptation that might have reverted to the novel's title.

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