Dolly Parton’s Variety Show Made 1 Country Icon ‘so Damn Mad’
In 1976, country singer Marty Robbins tuned into Dolly Parton’s variety show for the first and last time. The show, which was meant to introduce Parton to a broader audience, was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved. Her friends did not feel that the problem showed Parton’s authentic self and she agreed. Robbins felt similarly. He felt her guest on the show was almost insulting to her talent.
Dolly Parton’s show didn’t feel authentic to another country singer
Parton’s short-lived variety show, Dolly, premiered in 1976. In the first episode, Parton’s guest was Captain Kangaroo, a children’s television show character. Robbins had tuned in to watch his peer’s show, but he couldn’t stomach it. He felt it was an insult to Parton’s talent.
“I only saw one of those shows,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “That’s the one with that Captain Kangaroo on it. I saw this guy feedin’ this little monkey popcorn while she was singing ‘Abba Dabba Honeymoon.’ That made me so damn mad — Dolly playing second fiddle to a monkey — that I turned it off. That’s not Dolly Parton.”
Parton’s makeup artist, Jo Coulter, agreed that the singer wasn’t able to be herself in the show.
“Here, again, they wouldn’t let Dolly be herself,” Coulter said. “Innately she’s a very funny person … all you need to do is turn a camera on Dolly and let her go. But some of the lines that were written for her were just not what Dolly would say. But she had a contract, and she had to abide by it.”
Dolly Parton agreed with her fellow country singer
Parton said that while she liked the guests who appeared on her show, she would have picked a completely different lineup if she could.
“I liked all of the people who were on. We became friends. But I would have had a different lineup of guests myself,” she said. “I was so involved in so many things that I didn’t have time to book guests, and a lot of the people I wanted on, they didn’t seem to think would be of the right caliber for what they had in mind for me doing.”
She said that she wasn’t able to be true to herself on the show.
“If we couldn’t see eye to eye on who we should have on, I wasn’t about to stand and argue about it,” she said. “But I think the show hurt me more with what I was trying to do, as far as people understanding me crossing over in a way to where I’d have broader appeal or at least promoting it that way. What I did on television was sing songs that were totally out of my category, like ‘My Funny Valentine’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ when I could have been singin’ ‘Lying Eyes.’ I couldn’t sing them songs anyway. That’s just not me.”
She said the show ended up being a disappointing experience for her
When reflecting on the show, Parton wished she could have had more creative control over it.
“I think I would take more of the blame for the show not being what I wanted more than anybody,” she said. “It was prematurely done, and it was too time-consuming, leaving me very little time to be creative, to write.”
She believed she showed viewers a false version of herself. While she was reaching a national audience, she wasn’t showing them her true personality.
“So, yeah, it was really bad for me, that TV show,” she said. “It was worse for me than it was good because the people who didn’t really know me who liked the show thought that’s how I was… I mean, I still come through as myself, even with all the other stuff, but not really like I should. Not my real, natural way. And the people who did know me thought I was crazy. They knew that wasn’t me. Including me. I didn’t know that woman on TV!”
The show only lasted one season.
