What Channel Was the Elvis Special on
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Elvis' manager Col. Tom Parker originally wanted Elvis to perform in a powder blue tuxedo, singing Christmas carols. Producer Steve Binder axed this idea and came up with concept of Elvis performing his classic hits in a black leather outfit.
Reportedly, Elvis performed "MacArthur Park", a big hit of the day for Richard Harris. But as they say, "there was no film in the camera". No audio or video taping was done of this spontaneous performance. The 2003 DVD release includes all the unused footage - alternate and aborted takes, false starts, everything - as well as the four 'in the round' shows with Elvis in black leather, only certain portions of which were used in the final show. During one of these Elvis sings three or four lines from the chorus of 'MacArthur Park' in a falsetto voice while clowning around between songs.
Elvis Presley was unpopular in 1968, but still 42% of television viewing audience of America did watch the show, making it the most watched television program in America in 1968.
This is generally credited as the special that pulled Elvis Presley's career out of the doldrums and started the so-called "third act" of his career.
Originally was to have included a performance of "A Little Less Conversation," a hit song from Elvis Presley's film Live a Little, Love a Little (1968). A version was recorded for the special, but dropped from the final show.
Though now known as the "68 Comeback Special", Elvis Presley's first television special was officially titled "Elvis" when originally broadcast on U.S. network NBC on 3 December 1968. Sponsored by the Singer sewing machine company, it was the top rated program of its week and the highest rated television special of the 1968-69 TV season.It was rerun in the Summer of 1969. Following his death, the special was expanded to 90 minutes and rebroadcast in tandem with Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii (1973) as "Memories of Elvis" hosted by Ann-Margret in November 1977, for a total broadcast time of 3 hours. This was a "TV First" for a solo performer at that time.
Producer Steve Binder once told a story about how something came to be cut from the show. He said that there was a musical number that suggested that Elvis went to a brothel. A network executive wanted the number cut. Binder asked him to reconsider. One time, while in the video editing room, they were reviewing the scene. Nearby, an episode of The Dean Martin Show (1965) was also being edited. A scene with Martin and one of his dancers was being edited that had every suggestive sex joke possible and the executive laughed. Binder asked him if the brothel scene bothered him so much, why didn't the sex jokes on the Martin show bother him. The executive answered that the other show "was funny". Binder said he never understood that distinction.
The bordello segment that was deleted from the show's main production number before it aired was restored, with other footage, in 1977 for home video and as part of the " Memories of Elvis " special on NBC. Back in 1968, these scenes had made it past the censors, but the broadcast's primary and presenting sponsor, the Singer company, asked that the segment be cut, deeming it too risqué.
On September 11, 1968 "Variety" announced that the bordello scene had been cut from the TV special.
In the summer of 1969 when NBC reran the special, "Tiger Man" was added to replace "Blue Christmas".
The pro wrestler Larry Sweeney (Alex Whybrow) called his neckbreaker-into-a-DDT finishing move the '68 Comeback Special.
Cheryl Ladd is sitting on the edge of the stage wearing a big yellow ribbon in her hair.
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What Channel Was the Elvis Special on
Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285063/trivia/?ref_=tt_ql_trv