Joseph Cates

Hollywood celebrities assist magicians in a program of magic and illusion.

A landmark two-hour television variety special recorded live at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on NBC on March 6, 1981, to honor President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Ann-Margret's television special taped in front of a live audience at the Las Vegas Hilton.

A three-hour program chronicling the history of country music up to 1978, hosted by Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, and Roy Clark and featuring performances by many iconic and contemporary stars of the genre, including Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Crystal Gayle, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, and Johnny Cash.

A grim police detective embarks on a one-man crusade to track down a depraved sex maniac when a nightclub deejay receives a disturbing series of obscene phone calls. Finding himself getting far too close to the victim for comfort, the hard-boiled cop must track down the unbalanced pervert before he can carry out his sick threats.

Brooke Adams is the real-life Diane Dupuy, the Canadian woman whose vision and drive molded a group of developmentally-challenged young adults into the Famous People Players, a professional puppet troupe that has become world-renowned, having performed Radio City Music Hall and Las Vegas (Liberace's opening act in 1975) to the People's Republic of China.

Hollywood celebrities assist magicians in a program of magic and illusion.

A landmark two-hour television variety special recorded live at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on NBC on March 6, 1981, to honor President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Ann-Margret's television special taped in front of a live audience at the Las Vegas Hilton.

A three-hour program chronicling the history of country music up to 1978, hosted by Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, and Roy Clark and featuring performances by many iconic and contemporary stars of the genre, including Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Crystal Gayle, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, and Johnny Cash.

A grim police detective embarks on a one-man crusade to track down a depraved sex maniac when a nightclub deejay receives a disturbing series of obscene phone calls. Finding himself getting far too close to the victim for comfort, the hard-boiled cop must track down the unbalanced pervert before he can carry out his sick threats.

A grim police detective embarks on a one-man crusade to track down a depraved sex maniac when a nightclub deejay receives a disturbing series of obscene phone calls. Finding himself getting far too close to the victim for comfort, the hard-boiled cop must track down the unbalanced pervert before he can carry out his sick threats.

Brooke Adams is the real-life Diane Dupuy, the Canadian woman whose vision and drive molded a group of developmentally-challenged young adults into the Famous People Players, a professional puppet troupe that has become world-renowned, having performed Radio City Music Hall and Las Vegas (Liberace's opening act in 1975) to the People's Republic of China.

Steve Martin's second NBC special was made up entirely of sketches. Highlights include: Marty Robbins' "El Paso" with monkeys; "The Death Of Socrates"; and "Bizarre Oddities Of The World."

Steve Martin's second NBC special was made up entirely of sketches. Highlights include: Marty Robbins' "El Paso" with monkeys; "The Death Of Socrates"; and "Bizarre Oddities Of The World."

Kathy DeMaio checks into the hospital and thinks she sees a body being loaded into the trunk of a car. When the body turns up later and the murderer, Dr. Highley, thinks that DeMaio can identify him, her life is put in jeopardy. Originally made for television and adapted from a novel by Mary Higgins Clark, the interesting twist to this thriller is that several cast members of the daytime soap opera "Guiding Light" play those same roles here.

The juxtaposition may seem strange, but the Cash clan’s roots are in Scotland—even if Johnny’s speculation about descent from the 12th-century King Malcolm may be more guesswork than genealogy. Andy Williams guest-stars.

Bobbie is a sensitive, lonely call girl who is manipulated and ultimately used by her madam.

A mostly-deserted island, which is believed to be the home to the fountain of youth, is off the coast of Florida. The island gets some visitors in the form of a teenage boy band, "the Wild Ones", and their gang of swimsuit-clad young people, who head there in a crowded powerboat ostensibly for a scavenger hunt.

Steve Martin's first network special for NBC offers part concert footage (shot at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles) and part sketch comedy.

Dames at Sea is a musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise. The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the bus from the Midwest to New York City, steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star. It originally played Off-Off-Broadway in 1966 at the Caffe Cino and then played Off-Broadway, starring newcomer Bernadette Peters, beginning in 1968 for a successful run. The television version was broadcast on the Bell System Family Theater on NBC on November 15, 1971. The cast had extra chorus girls and boys, and there were full production numbers, turning into the very thing it was spoofing. Ann Miller was singled out for praise, especially when "she was allowed to tap out her brassy...temperamental star..."

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" takes a contemporary jolt in this original musical set in modern-day Tennessee. Cyrus Flint is a mean old banker whose one and only concern is the welfare of Flint City Bank. Dennis and Laura Pritchett are two parents struggling to make enough money to pay for an operation their son needs. Flint is organizing a songwriting and singing contest with a $2,000 first prize to promote his bank.

Steve Martin's third NBC special serves as a salute to 1970s television commercials. Taking shots at everything from "Suzy Chapstick" to Palmolive to advertising agencies, this special showcased Martin's genius for physical comedy.

In this NBC Christmas Special from 1984, Mr. T plays a street Santa Claus who meets a young boy, played by Emmanuel Lewis of TV's Webster, who doesn't share the spirit of Christmas. Mr. T sets out to change Billy's mind, taking him around the city to FAO Schwartz, where he gets a magic lesson from David Copperfield, and then to Radio City Music Hall, where he listens to Christmas songs sung by Maureen McGovern, imagines himself as one of the toy soldiers in the Rockettes' Christmas Show, meets Willie Tyler and his dummy Lester, and finally is moved to realize the true meaning of Christmas, before being reunited with his parents.

For his 1976 Christmas special taped November 1-6, Cash went home to the family's farm in Bon Aqua, Tennessee, and to their house in Hendersonville, outside Nashville. The rural setting at Bon Aqua invites city-boy/country-boy ribbing between Cash and his first guest, Manhattan-born pop veteran Tony Orlando, who points out that "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" is "my prison song". Join other special guests Roy Clark, Merle Travis, Barbara Mandrell and Billy Graham in this holiday-inspired first Christmas special from the legendary Johnny Cash.

A bachelor account executive with an advertising agency thinks he has the perfect set-up with three girlfriends. And then there is Marion his devoted secretary who worships him and will do anything for him.

A bachelor account executive with an advertising agency thinks he has the perfect set-up with three girlfriends. And then there is Marion his devoted secretary who worships him and will do anything for him.