November 30, 2008

Ray Stevens: A Ray of Sunshine on your Screen

In 1970 Ray Stevens was a recurring guest on Andy Williams TV show. In the summer of 1970, Ray was picked to host the summer edition, which would air on NBC-TV. The most of what is remembered about Ray's TV show is that it's theme song, "Everything Is Beautiful", emerged from the show to become Ray's first #1 pop hit and his first Grammy winning song and his first Top-40 entry on the country music charts. The TV show aired once a week, eight times during the summer of 1970, covering the time period of late June through early August. The show's cast included Mama Cass from The Mamas and The Papas as well as British singer, Lulu. Steve Martin was on hand as was comedy duo Tom Solari and Clark Carr, Billy Van and Dick Curtis. The program ran one hour, 7:30pm-8:30pm, on Saturday nights.

The show was featured in a write-up in TV Guide on which the cover subject happened to be Bill Bixby from The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The series, which was officially titled Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens but also known as The Ray Stevens Show has never been aired since the final broadcast in August 1970. Even more frustrating to a lot of us Ray Stevens fans is that no episodes have surfaced...it would be nice to see the program on DVD...even a cheap DVD would be sufficient. Sadly, all that seems to be available are pictures...actual video of his show have yet to surface.

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