Season Premiere: The ABC Finale

It's time for the 2006-07 season on PBS to begin! This week we kick things off with a grand finale....Lawrence's last show on ABC.

Here's the maestro getting the show started, and reminding everyone that next week you can watch the show on syndication....which would turn out to be a nice little run of eleven years. The band kicks things off with "Say It With Music" which ironically, was the first musical selection played on the very first network show back in 1955.

Sandi & Sally once again proved they were America's Sweethearts when they next came out with their number, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" which had a great beat to it. There was also the "Three Musketeers" of Clay Hart, Buddy Merrill and Neil Levang with their guitars with "Gentle On My Mind" in which Clay sung the vocals. I also forgot there's Richard Maloof on bass, also known as the "fourth" musketeer.

This show was also fun for one other reason, we get to hear Buddy Merrill sing, here he sings "It May Be Silly", who would have thunk that Buddy was also a good singer in addition to being a fine guitarist?

There were plenty of fine numbers in the show, such as "Calcutta", "True Love" by Guy & Ralna and "It's A Most Unusual Day" sung by Gail Farrell and her friends below. It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite numbers on the show, musically and visually.

Tanya was next with "That's Amore" along with Dick Dale singing "Manny Sue" with a little help from Barney Liddell at trombone. And for a great way to conclude the last ever program on PBS, have Bob Lido, Mary Lou Metzger and the Hotsy Totsy Boys go crazy with "Runnin' Wild", and I can betcha that the network drove itself crazy when the lost a good share of their ratings to syndication!

Time now for Mary Lou's interview segment, and it was Dick Dale in the hot seat. He talked about his start in showbiz, growing up in Algona, Iowa....and the interesting people he met during his years of performing. Would you believe that Dick came to the Music Makers from Harold Loeffelmacher and his Six Fat Dutchmen?

That's this week's show in a nutshell....next week it's another instant classic, Salute To Roses, see you all on the flip side!