The talk/variety show went to NYC, and brought on stars from 2 of the 3 must-see Broadway shows: Liza and Chita from Chicago, and Stephanie from The Wiz to perform and talk. (The 3rd was A Chorus Line, all per Sammy.)
Stars: Sammy Davis Jr., Stephanie Mills, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0767395/
bootleg copy with vhs artifacts.
5 songs in the Soundtracks, but SD sang more than this, so update it next time. For instance, he sang Mr. Cellophane as Bert Williams, whose theme song was Nobody. Googling that combination (mr cellophane bert williams) gets more than 1 video.
Chicago, the original B'way run, was from 5'75-8'77. It starred Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn, Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart. Gwen got polyps on a vocal chord and had to get them removed, so Liza volunteered to substitute. After 5 days of rehearsal, she did the role for 6 weeks, when Gwen returned.
On this TV show, LM sang My Own Best Friend, which I don't see in the Soundtracks for the 2002 film. CR sang All That Jazz, with poor audio, followed by SD reprising a bit.
Later SM came out to sing Home from The Wiz. She was 16 yo, but you'd never guess that.
During the talk segments, Sammy does his usual sincere fawning over the guests. He had worked with CR back in '59 onstage in Mister Wonderful, and was best man at Liza's most recent wedding (she was celebrating 1st anniversary; her 2nd of 4 marriages) to Jack Haley Jr, so his affection for both was sincere. He was not so gooey with SM, because she was new to him.
According to IMDb, the show ran 3 seasons, with 53 episodes listed, each about a week apart in s3.
Bonus features on this disc: excerpts from LM (b. '46) appearing on Ed Sullivan episodes, where she has 10 credits on IMDb from '63-70:
- Episode #16.29 (1963) ... (performer: "Somebody Loves Me", "Just a Little Joint with a Jukebox")
- Episode #19.8 (1965) ... (performer: "Who's Sorry Now?")
- Episode #22.9 (1968) ... (performer: "Sweet Blindness", "Simon")
- Episode #22.31 (1969) ... (performer: "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Didn't We/MacArthur Park")
I'm sure I found this show by accident, but glad to have it.
Pierre Cossette Ent, dir. not listed; 7
