Television series
The Julie Andrews Hour
For one lavish season in 1972, ABC gave Julie Andrews an hour of song, sketch comedy and orchestral spectacle, built entirely around her effortless warmth and genuine musical chops. It won Emmys and lost the ratings war within a year — a polished, old-fashioned entertainment collapsing right as television's tastes turned sharper and grittier around it.
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The Carol Burnett Show1967
The gold standard of the variety hour: sharper sketches, a fearless ensemble, and Burnett's own physical comedy anchoring music, guests and parody in equal measure across eleven seasons.
But Eleven seasons is a lot to wade through, and some recurring sketches have aged better than others.
The Dean Martin Show1965
Same star-powered format, but looser and boozier — Martin barely rehearsed and let the chaos of live improvisation carry the hour instead of Andrews' careful polish.
But The laid-back charm can tip into laziness; some episodes feel thrown together rather than performed.
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour1971no page yet
A married-couple variety hour running at the exact same moment as Andrews', trading orchestral polish for bickering banter, glitter and genuinely great musical numbers.
But The comedy leans heavily on the couple's real-life tension, which can feel uncomfortable in hindsight.
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Something you would not have found on your own.
Your Show of Shows1950
This is the direct ancestor of the format itself — live comedy-variety television invented two decades before Andrews inherited it, with the same DNA of sketch, song and star turn, done cruder and faster.
The template Andrews' hour was quietly built on — live, electric sketch comedy from Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, written by a young Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.
But Kinescope picture quality is rough, and plenty of the humor is very much of its exact moment.
More like this (6)
The Muppet Show1976
Takes the exact bones of the format — host, guest star, musical number, sketch — and hands them to felt puppets with far weirder, funnier instincts.
But If you came for human variety-show glamour, puppets doing vaudeville might feel like a bait-and-switch.
Donny & Marie1976no page yet
The next generation's take on the wholesome sibling-hosted variety hour, all bright smiles, disco-era production numbers and gentle family-friendly comedy.
But Noticeably slicker and shallower than Andrews' version — more sugar, less substance.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In1967
The wilder, weirder cousin — rapid-fire jokes, psychedelic editing and real political bite that pushed the variety format somewhere stranger and funnier than anything Andrews attempted.
But The frantic pace and dated topical gags can feel exhausting or baffling decades later.
The Flip Wilson Show1970no page yet
Same network, same era, built around Wilson's characters and stand-up energy rather than song — a breezier pace that broke real ground for Black-hosted variety television.
But Some of the character comedy leans on broad stereotypes that read very differently now.
The Judy Garland Show1963no page yet
The closest true parallel: another beloved musical star handed her own hour, canceled after a single season despite genuine talent and near-universal critical respect.
But It's a melancholy watch knowing Garland's personal struggles were unfolding just off camera the whole time.
Victor/Victoria1982
Same star, same musical timing and comic instincts honed on stages like her variety hour — but here she aims them at something ABC would never have let her attempt on primetime.
Andrews at her most daring, playing a woman playing a man playing a woman in a gender-bending musical comedy that trades wholesome for genuinely subversive.
But The gender-swap plot and 1930s Paris setting are a world away from the cosy variety-hour format you'd expect from her.
People
Cast
Julie AndrewsHost