Dolly Parton Said Her Short-Lived TV Show ‘Sucked Chaff’
Dolly Parton has released albums, starred in films, and headed a TV show on ABC. She’s done it all, often to acclaim, but not all of her projects have been a success. Neither of her talk shows ever got much traction, despite high hopes. Parton’s first variety show only ran for one season, and her second suffered the same fate. She explained why she thought her 1987 show was a disaster.
Dolly Parton said her TV show was doomed from the start
In 1987, the variety show Dolly premiered on ABC. Parton welcomed musical guest stars, put on skits, and sang. While the premiere was a huge success, ratings only dropped as weeks passed.
“The truth was that people had tuned in out of curiosity and because the show had been hyped through the roof,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “The ratings fell steadily after the premiere until they leveled off at about a fourteen share, which I think represents my core of true fans who would watch me if I went on TV and milked a goat. Come to think of it, milking a goat would have been more entertaining than some of the stuff that machine put out.”
The network canceled the show after just one season. Parton was disappointed, but ultimately saw it as a good thing. She hadn’t thought the show was all that good to begin with.
“If my TV show had gone on, I would have missed many wonderful opportunities that have come my way since then,” she wrote. “I believe that when you pray in earnest and really look for answers, you’ll find them. If you’re really able to get in touch with God and your own subconscious, which I believe are inseparable, you will be able to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’ and your true way will be made clear to you. My network TV show sucked chaff.”
Dolly Parton said she still enjoyed some elements of her TV show
Despite her overall disappointment and belief that the show wasn’t good, Parton still enjoyed some aspects of making it.
“I take full responsibility for it. I’m not blamin’ anybody for it,” she told Interview Magazine in 1989, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “The people involved did their best; it just wasn’t good enough. I managed to enjoy it, though. I decided to do the most with the parts that were workin’ and enjoy that, and not to let it drive me crazy.”
She enjoyed her guests and costumes, but she was mostly grateful for the learning experience.
“I loved the clothes, I loved the guests that we had, I loved to get the chance to meet the people, I loved the chance just to do it,” she said. “And I learned a lot — what to do and what not to do. I don’t think the show hurt my career. If I’d continued with the show for another season, it could have done great damage to my career, because people would not have respected me for going on with it.”
The musician hopes to launch her own TV network
Parton hasn’t had the most successful run with her network TV shows. Perhaps to remedy this, she plans to start her own network.
“I’m actually hoping to start my own network and actually have movies and other programming on that, so that’s something that is coming up,” she told Forbes. “I’m writing a cookbook with my sister Rachel, doing a movie based on the novel that I wrote with James Patterson called Run, Rose, Run. We’re doing that this summer, so there’s a whole lot of good things that I want to do, but I guess the network would be one of the things that I have not dabbled in of my own. I never know! I wake up with new dreams everyday.”
