The Dick Clark Show


The Dick Clark Show is an American musical variety show broadcast weekly in the United States on the ABC television network 7:30-8 p.m. on Saturdays from February 15, 1958, to September 10, 1960, sponsored by Beechnut Gum.

Summary

, hosting throughout the entire series, introduced musical guests, who sang/performed their latest popular hit. Often, after a performance, Clark interviewed the musician. Between performances on some shows, he also interviewed non-musical celebrity guests, usually a television or movie star—Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Tony Randall, and Chuck Connors, among others.
The show was typically staged live, in New York City, at Manhattan's Little Theater. For the Manhattan broadcasts, the audience sat in theater seats, rather than standing and dancing as in Clark's concurrent pop-music show, American Bandstand—this distinction is the best method to identify whether a video recording of an artist's performance is from this show, or from American Bandstand.
The show was occasionally broadcast from remote locations across the United States. The May 30, 1959, show was broadcast from the Sheraton Hotel in Binghamton, New York. Three shows, spanning from August 22, 1959, through September 5, 1959, were broadcast remotely from Hollywood, California. Another set of five shows were broadcast remotely from various locations across the country between June 11, 1960, and July 9, 1960.
Given that the show ran continually year-round for over two-and-a-half years, resulting in 136 episodes, there were no seasons as such. However, the "first season" of 29 shows could be said to have run from the premiere through August 30, 1958, the "second season" of 53 shows, September 6, 1958, through September 5, 1959, and the "third season" of 54 shows, September 12, 1959, through September 10, 1960.

Top Ten

At the end of each show, Clark would announce the ten most popular songs from the current Top 40 in reverse order from number 10 on down to number 1, as the "American Bandstand Top Ten". On the first show, Clark played a brief soundclip from each top ten record as its title was announced. On each subsequent show, Clark played the soundclip only for those records which were "new" on the Top Ten that week.

First show

The first show was broadcast February 15, 1958, with no sponsor—Beechnut began sponsoring the show the third week. Guests on the first show were:

Guests

Guests included almost every popular American singer of the 1950s. Jackie Wilson and Bobby Rydell were the most frequent guests, each appearing on fourteen different shows. Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka, each with ten appearances, were the next most frequent guests. Next was Jack Scott, on nine shows. Bobby Darin and Dion and the Belmonts were next with eight appearances each; Johnny Maestro, Annette Funicello, the Four Preps, Freddy Cannon, and Fabian were next at seven times each. At six times each were Neil Sedaka, Anita Bryant, Conway Twitty, Lloyd Price, Duane Eddy, and Jimmy Clanton.
Excluding the names listed above, at least seventy-five other singers and musicians appeared on two or more shows. Among them, along with a sampling of the songs they sang, were:
Among the single-appearance guests were:

Notable episodes

Source:
  • February 22, 1958
  • March 8, 1958
  • May 10, 1958
  • November 29, 1958
  • January 3, 1959
  • May 3, 1959
  • May 30, 1959
  • 1959 summer-series of three consecutive remote shows broadcast from Hollywood, California
  • December 31, 1959
  • 1960 summer-series of five consecutive remote shows
  • August 6, 1960

Final show

The last show was September 10, 1960. Highlights of the series were shown from past shows: