Rhino Factoids: The Everly Brothers Show

45 years ago, Don and Phil Everly were deemed ready to play for prime-time, a status which lasted until September 9, 1970, which is when the tenth and final episode The Everly Brothers Show, aired on ABC.

In fairness, The Everly Brothers Show was only intended to be a summer replacement series, anyway, filling the void while The Johnny Cash Show was enjoying its vacation from the airwaves, but there had certainly been other instances where summer series ended up getting a reprieve and returning for another go-round the following year. That wasn’t to be the case this time, though, which is a shame, given the sort of talent that Don and Phil were able to corral to appear alongside them on a weekly basis.

It’s a mark of quality for any series to secure Albert Brooks to do a comedy bit, as he did on the first installment of the Everlys’ program, but the hallmark of the series was the musical guests. Over the course of 10 episodes, Don and Phil were joined by Arlo Guthrie, Jackie DeShannon, Marty Robbins, Neil Diamond, Evie Sands, the Statler Brothers, B.J. Thomas, Ike and Tina Turner, Mac Davis, Bobby Sherman, Doug Kershaw, and the Lennon Sisters. Now, if that’s not musical variety, we don’t know what is. Plus, the Everlys turned in some unexpected covers along the way, tackling “Hey Jude” with Guthrie and doing their own versions of “Lady Madonna,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Proud Mary,” and “People Get Ready,” plus a version of “Happy Together” with Evie Sands.

Sadly, there’s no DVD release of the series to be had, but there is at least an album which shares the name of the series. It doesn’t feature all of the duets, but it does show the Everly Brothers stepping outside the box and trying to stay contemporary. Granted, it doesn’t always work, but you can’t say they weren’t at least trying to be hip.