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History of Shindig!, Part 1

Shindig! was a rock 'n' roll series that ran from September 16, 1964 through January 8, 1966 on the ABC network.

Shindig! was created and produced by Jack Good who had previously produced rock 'n' roll TV shows in his native Britain. There, he perfected his style of fast-paced rock music programing. In 1962, Good produced a pilot for American TV. The pilot, titled "Young America Swings the World," eventually became the blueprint for Shindig!

Shindig! premiered on September 16, 1964. During its first season, Shindig was broadcast Wednesdays at 8:30pm Eastern. It started as a half-hour show but expanded to an hour in January 1965. ABC aired new Shindig episodes throughout the Summer of 1965. (There were no reruns aired.)

Shindig! was different from previous U.S. rock 'n' roll programs. It featured non-stop music that, in most cases, was only interrupted by the commercial breaks. And the music was live...or so it seemed. In recent years it's been revealed that the backing music and most of the vocals were pre-recorded. Often, the guests would record special versions of their songs for Shindig. The music and vocal tracks were recorded a day or two before the episode was videotaped. The performers then rehearsed numerous times to make sure that their "mimed" performances looked live. (In some cases the vocals were live.)

Shindig! was hosted by Los Angeles disc-jockey Jimmy O'Neill. Other series regulars included the Blossoms, a female group who provided the back-up singing. The Wellingtons were the male back-up singers. (Another male group, the Elgibles, often appeared in place of the Wellingtons.) There were also the Shindig dancers, a troupe made up of 10 (or so) teenage girls who did choreographed dance steps.

Shindig also had a roster of performers who appeared on a semi-regular basis. These included The Righteous Brothers, Glen Campbell, Donna Loren and Bobby Sherman.

Unlike other shows of the time, Shindig! did not have its own theme song. (There was a theme song on the 1965 Shindig! LP, but it's unlikely that the song was ever performed on the TV series.) Most Shindig! episodes began with an opening song or medley performed by the Shindig guests and regulars. The medley consisted of short excerpts from current hits, classic rock 'n' roll songs, along with gospel, country and folk songs. There was no closing theme either. For the finale, a different song was performed each week.

Shindig started a (short-lived) trend in television which could probably best be described as "rock 'n' roll...with go-go dancers." In January 1965, NBC introduced Hullabaloo, a variety show featuring rock 'n' roll guests and Shindig-style dancers. A few months later, the syndicated rock shows "Hollywood A Go-Go" and "Shivaree" premiered. And in July 1965, ABC added Where the Action Is to its weekday schedule. While Action's format was different from Shindig, it did feature a troupe of dancers called "The Action Kids." Shindig's influence can also be seen in two theatrical movies: "The T.A.M.I. Show" (1964) and "The Big T-N-T Show" (1966).

The last Shindig! episode produced by Jack Good aired on June 30, 1965. Beginning with the July 7, 1965 show, former Shindig director Dean Whitmore took over as producer.

Shindig! went through many changes in its second season. The series was split into two 30-minutes shows, which aired on Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:30pm. Guest hosts were used from 30Sep65 through 30Oct65.

Shindig's cancellation was announced in late October 1965. Dean Whitmore has often been blamed for the downfall of the series. Supposedly, when Whitmore took over, the show lost its pacing and style. To be fair, most of the episodes that aired from July through October 1965 are actually quite good. Even the addition of guest hosts didn't hurt the show too much. Instead of taking over the whole show, the guest hosts usually sang one song and introduced a few of the other acts. Although there were some changes, Whitmore didn't drift too far from Jack Good's original format. It remained a fast-paced show.

What might have hurt Shindig was the large number of rock ‘n' roll shows on the air in late 1965. As mentioned earlier, "Hullabaloo," "Hollywood A Go-Go," "Shivaree" and "Where the Action Is" were on the air. ABC also had the long running "American Bandstand." In September 1964, "The Lloyd Thaxton Show," became nationally syndicated. (It had previously been a local Los Angeles program.) In addition, every large U.S. city seemed to have its own local rock 'n' roll show. With so many other rock shows on television, interest in Shindig probably waned.

Another factor that probably hurt Shindig's ratings was time-shifting by local affiliates. Many ABC affiliates across the country chose not to air Shindig in its Thursday/Saturday 7:30pm time slot. Instead, these stations moved Shindig to non-prime time hours. While this practice began during Shindig's first season, it became even more wide-spread during the series' 2nd season.

It wasn't until after the cancellation was announced that Shindig's format began to change. While some of these final shows resembled Jack Good's original series, there were others that looked nothing like Shindig and had nothing to do with rock 'n' roll. Examples of this are the shows spotlighting Louis Armstrong (4Nov65 & 11Nov65); George Maharis (27Nov65) and Johnny Mathis (25Dec65).

Shindig's cancellation was part of a mid-season reshuffle at ABC, which the network called "The Second Season." The final Shindig aired on January 8, 1966. As if to add insult to injury, many of the songs performed on that final Shindig were presented as sketches saluting the new ABC shows! One of these sketches was a tribute to "Batman," the series that replaced Shindig!

In the early 1990's Rhino Home Video released twelve Shindig tapes on VHS. These were not complete episodes but compilation tapes with themes such as "Groovy Gals" and "Sixties Superstars."

Surviving episodes

--All of the Shindig episodes survive as 16mm kinescopes.

The Shindig! series was originally recorded on videotape. (Only four Shindig episodes were shot directly on film.**) During Shindig's network run, ABC made 16mm kinescopes of all the episodes. Kinescopes were a videotape-to-film transfer produced by aiming a 16mm film camera at a TV monitor. Over time ABC erased most of the videotape masters. But, fortunately, these "erased" episodes have survived as 16mm kinescopes. The quality of the kinescopes aren't bad but they don't match up to the picture and sound quality of the 2" master videotapes.

This is a list of known videotape clips and shows.

Videotape clips (hopefully, the complete episodes survive on videotape):

--1964 Pilot: Videotape clips of audience members appear on the home video release of "The Beach Boys: An American Band."

-- 07Oct64 (Episode #4): Videotape clips of the Beatles' performances and the Karl Denver finale survive.

-- 23Dec64 (Episode #16): A videotape clip of the Beach Boys performing "Dance, Dance, Dance" appears on "The Beach Boys: An American Band."

-- 27Jan65 (Episode #21) Videotape clips of Bobby Sherman ("Splish Splash") and Glen Campbell ("Dixieland Rock") were shown on "Good Morning America" in February 1984.

--26May65 (Episode #37) The Howling Wolf segment survives on videotape.

-- 30Jun65 (Episode #42) A videotape clip of Jerry Lee Lewis ("Rockin' Pneumonia") was shown on "Good Morning America" in February 1984.

Complete Episodes:

-- 4Aug65 (Episode #47) Dixie Cups / Great Scots / Nooney Rickett 4

-- 11Aug65 (Episode #48) Ronettes / Donovan / Rolling Stones

-- 08Sep65 (Episode #51) Patty Duke / Guilloteens / Searchers

--30-Sep-65 (Episode #56) Mickey Rooney / the Turtles / Lesley Gore

--Note: As mentioned above, all of the Shindig episodes do survive as 16mm kinescopes. The above list is an attempt to catalog all of the known surviving 2" network videotapes.

**The four Shindig episodes shot directly on film were the two "Shindig in London" shows and the two "Shindig in Europe" shows. The "Shindig in London," shows, filmed at the Richmond-On-Thames Jazz Festival, aired 04-Dec-1965 & 09-Dec-1965. The "Shindig in Europe" episodes were broadcast on 18-Dec-1965 and 01-Jan-1966.
Welcome to the Shindig! guide at tv.com.
Shindig! was a rock 'n' roll series that aired on ABC from September 1964 through January 1966.

Shindig! premiered on September 16, 1964 as a half-hour show. In January 1965, the series expanded to an hour. Instead of reruns, ABC aired new Shindig! episodes throughout the Summer of 1965.

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