In 1978, when the movie Grease was a smash hit, Sid and Marty Krofft's company sold CBS on maybe doing a weekly comedy-variety show with a similar theme. Bobby Vinton was selected as host and the idea was to have each week's episode feature some stars from his era and some contemporary stars.
There would also be a troupe of comedy players to anchor the sketches, and there'd be a squad of dancers…or in this case, dancer-skaters. Roller disco was big at the time and since that fad was a throwback (sorta) to the fifties, the dancers would often be on wheels. The whole thing was to be called Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n' Rollers, and we taped a special that would serve as a pilot.
That's right. I said "we." I was the Head Writer. The other two writers were Lorne Frohman and Rowby Goren, plus we brought in the brilliant Billy Barnes to compose special musical material. Bonny Dore was the producer, Jack Regas was the director and we had quite a cast: In addition to Mr. Vinton, the guests were Fabian, Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Stockard Channing, Penny Marshall and Erik Estrada. The sketch players were Susan Buckner, Louise DuArt, Paul Gale, David Levy and Frank Welker. The whole thing wound up being, at the time, one of the most expensive variety specials ever produced for television.
The special aired on a Monday night in a time slot that was then occupied by a then-new series called White Shadow. This was, we were told, because CBS was ready to cancel White Shadow and stick us in there if our show did well. Our show did well, and The Hollywood Reporter announced that we'd be a mid-season replacement for White Shadow.
I'm still not sure why that didn't happen. The rumor was that there was a high-level CBS exec who loved White Shadow and reacted badly upon hearing that his underlings were cancelling it…so they didn't. In fact, it lasted out the entire season and two more after that. Meanwhile, we were assured that CBS would find the perfect time slot for Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n' Rollers and would then pick it up as a series. I guess they're still looking. If they don't find one in the next five or six years, I may lose hope.
Shortly before we taped, a fellow who worked in the promo department at CBS came by to chat with me about what "exploitable" elements we had that he could use in its commercials. He was excited about Penny Marshall and Erik Estrada (they had hit shows in '78) and really excited about the fact that we had a beach party sketch, which meant attractive ladies in swimwear. Somehow, it came up in the conversation that a couple of the female dancer-skaters we'd hired were former members of The Golddiggers and/or The Ding-a-Ling Sisters on The Dean Martin Show. One of these was a lady after whom the Promo Guy lusted from afar. He said to me — and this is darn near a direct quote — "If she's in a bikini and I can come to the taping, I'll get you 50% more on-air promos."
She'd already been fitted for the bikini and of course the guy supervising the promos could come to the taping. Still, we made the "deal" and the show did seem to get a lot of on-air promotion. The clip below is a 20 second one with a voiceover by Dick Tufeld, who was then heard on about half the promo spots done in this city…and as it happens, he was also the announcer of our show. Some of you will also recognize him as the voice of the robot on Lost in Space. Also notice the subtle way in which the Promo Guy, who wrote the copy, managed to tip the fact that our show resembled the movie, Grease.