The Donny & Marie Show
I loved Friday nights as a kid. Not only was school out for the week, but I got to watch the Donny & Marie show. I was never an Osmond fan (well, I am now as an adult), but I always enjoyed the Donny & Marie show and the many different guests. BTW, Friday nights continued to be awesome on ABC with great shows like Webster, Diff’rent Strokes, Mr. Belvedere, Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Step By Step, and many others. Where have all the great TV shows gone? Anyway, back to Donny & Marie.
The Donny & Marie variety show ran from January 1976 to January 1979. ABC President Fred Silverman gave Donny & Marie a show after he saw them co-host a week on The Mike Douglas Show. At the time, Donny and Marie were the youngest entertainers in TV history to host their own variety show. They didn’t hold that record for long as The Keane Brothers broke it a year later.
Country/Rock & Roll
My favorite part of the show was the “I’m A Little Bit Country, I’m A Little Bit Rock and Roll” segment. Marie would sing some sweet country song while Donny would try to rock out. They were both very cute. My absolute favorite part of the show was the song at the end. “May Tomorrow Be a Perfect Day” was written by brother Alan Osmond. It was such a sweet moment each week.
There were so many great guests on The Donny & Marie Show. Some of the many to have appeared are:
Lee Majors, Farrah Fawcett, Paul Lynde, Roy Clark, Raymond Burr, Jerry Lewis, Karen Valentine, Gabe Kaplan, John Travolta, Ron Palillo, Michael Landon, Desi Arnaz, Chad Everett, Florence Henderson, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, Susan Olsen,The Osmond Brothers (Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Jimmy), Sonny & Cher, Cindy Williams, Tina Turner, Gary Burghoff, Kaptain Kool & The Kongs, Paul Anka, Bert Convy, Lorne Greene, Lucille Ball, Olivia Newton John, KC & the Sunshine Band, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, Dirk Benedict, Suzanne Somers, Cheryl Tiegs, Debby Boone, and many more.
The show started to decline in popularity as Donny & Marie got older and also when Donny started dating (and eventually married) Debbie Glenn. I wish times were as easy and fun as they were back then. May tomorrow be a perfect day, may you find love and laughter along the way.
I watched this show faithfully. Being adopted, it was my secret fantasy that I was the missing Osmond. I didn’t want to date Donny. I wanted to be his other sister. ☺ Unfortunately, they are closing the Vegas show this year.
I saw where this is their last year in Vegas. I want to see them before they’re gone. That would have been cool to be an Osmond. I always wanted to be a member of the Partridge Family.