I have no idea how I ran across this site, but I'll bet you've NEVER seen this one before - even if you were around in the 70s!!

Wendy Miller is an Emmy-winning producer, writer, and director. She sounds like a fun and very funny lady. She has a great website and has included some great videoclips, under her "Wendyvision" section.


One is the promo for a 1970s show called CHANGING SCENE ... some sort of "variety entertainment special." It looks like they were trying to be a "hip and groovy" Ed Sullivan type of show. As the announcer describes it - "A special evening dedicated to the celebration of peace and joy in our changing world and changing times"! (Oh boy!!)







Here's Wendy's comments about the show ....






Our Bob hosted this episode - man, talk about "groovy" -
check out that super mod shirt!! .... very cool!!







In the promo, Barbara Eden is looking very good, the Osmond Brothers looking very young - and - Robert Goulet is giving William Shatner a run for his money emoting "You're Too Good Too Be True"!


I found these next 2 photos tucked away in the "Loring Photography Archives" - never knew where they were from - until now. Is our Bob singing?? Did anyone out there ever see this show and can tell us something about it????









O.K. check it out ...

CHANGING SCENE

"somewhere" in the 70s .... and check out our man Culp's very cool walk!



http://www.wendymiller.tv/wendy_vision_movies/changing_scene.htm



and here's the link for Wendy Miller's whole site -

http://www.wendymiller.tv/main.html



As always,

Tatia




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I'm speechles...

You should know Tatia that I was so motivated to watch this clip that I downloaded the Quick Time Player just so I could. I tend to be paranoid about downloading software like that, but all the trauma was worth it. Those of us who have heard the commentary track for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" know that Robert Culp couldn't have been "super-stoned" here because his one drug experience occurred during the filming of that movie and he described it in some detail. I think he was high on the belief that he was doing his part to bring in that "new day that belongs to you and to me." Or something along those lines. Mr. Culp, at least, was sincere. Fortunately I was a little too young during that period to have aspired to that level of sanctified grooviness.

IMDB lists Changing Scene as a one-time special hosted by Gene Kelly (he sings "Feelin' Groovy"--love to see that!) and also featuring Barbara Eden, James Garner, Arte Johnson and the Mike Curb Congregation. (I think that's the Mike Curb Congregation in "our" preview as well, singing about "a brand new morning, rising clean and sweet and free".) Clearly there was more than one show.

I did find a mention of the show hosted by Robert Culp on the web in a newspaper column. It says:

"Changing Scene". Robert Culp makes his singing debut during his stint as host-performer of tonight's variety special. His fans can hear him do his bit as soloist with "When I Look into Your Eyes". Other entertainers on the show include Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden, both of whom come on for solos and a duet to "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"; the Osmond Brothers for a medley of hit tunes; 15 year old Dutch singer Heintje for "I'm Your Little Boy"; comedy turns from Bernie Kopell, Yvonne Wilder, Jud Strunk, and Johnny Brown; plus an appearance by singer-composer John Denver.

We can only hope that this show will surface someday. Here is the link to the pdf file which contains that newpaper page. The TV preview column is in the upper left.


http://fultonhistory.com/Process%20small/Newspapers/Oswego%20Palladium/Oswego%20Palladium%20April-June%201971%20pdf/Newspaper%20%20Oswego%20Palladium%20April-June%201971%20-%200201.pdf

Jimmy

Far out Jimmy!! Thanks for finding out more about CHANGING SCENE !!


I, too, dearly hope that a copy will surface some day. That is one show I would truly love to see!!


And this just gets better and better ....


I couldn't open your .pdf link, so I wandered on over to the main "Fulton history" site - and began to hunt around a bit.


And here is what I found in the "Watertown NY Daily News" on April 21, 1971
... right there on Page 23





And you were right Jimmy about there being more than one of these shows - because in one TV listing it said - "It's the 4th installment of this one-hour musical variety special featuring songs and comedy with host Robert Culp." (Good deduction work, Agent Mitchell ... )

As to Bob's singing debut!! Ah-ha!! One of the pleasures of hanging around here at the FORUM, is being able to revel in the tons and tons of obscure and trivial I SPY and Culp and Cosby "trivia," we have piled together over the years.

And as the "inner sanctum" around here knows, CHANGING SCENE wasn't Bob's 1st singing debut (can you "debut" twice?? ) That would fall under his charming rendition of "When A Man Takes A Gun in His Hand" on the BONANZA episode "Broken Ballad" - that was in 1961 (thanks to good 'ol IMDB the never-ending provider of dates).









Too bad this isn't the PERRY MASON Forum, because "as my next piece of evidence" ....


Just click on the little audioplayer to hear for yourself.


http://www.4shared.com/file/93990915/33e24e3b/brokenballad.html



And there is some archeological evidence that this singing debut business may have started even earlier,
like at the University of Washington.





Guess we can't count CAIN'S 100 "The Swinger" (1962) - since Sammy Davis Jr. did the actual singing!







As to Mr. Mitchell's comment ...

Those of us who have heard the commentary track for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" know that Robert Culp couldn't have been "super-stoned" here because his one drug experience occurred during the filming of that movie and he described it in some detail. I think he was high on the belief that he was doing his part to bring in that "new day that belongs to you and to me."


Uhhh, Jimmy ... B&C&T&A came out in 1970 (thanks again, IMDB) ...






.... and CHANGING SCENE hit the airwaves in 1971.

Now I agree with you completely about Mr. Culp's solitary encounter with smoking that strange substance, and also agree with your assessment that he was probably just "high" on "celebrating the peace and joy of our changing times," as the announcer so movingly shared with us. But ... just consider that there is also the tiniest of possibilities that the influence of Mr. Gould's nefarious deed may have lingered on somewhat longer? (Of course since we are all secret agents here and not D.E.A., we'll just let it go at that. )





Hey, maybe what we saw was just a deeply focused Bob "getting his head straight"
for his 2nd (or 3rd) singing debut .... Groovy!!


As always,

Tatia



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I fixed the pdf link in my post above, but the page from the "Watertown NY Daily News" you found is better so I wouldn't bother with it. Nice work Ms. Loring. And thank you for finding this fascinating artifact in the first place.

Yeah, I prefer to think that what we saw was a "deeply focused" Bob simply "getting his head straight", and not due to Mr. Gould's lingering influence.

Jimmy

In retrospect, the late 60s/early 70s seem like an extraordinarily innocent time. We dressed as if life was one big costume party; we took drugs like we'd never need our brain cells again--at least some of us did; and we really believed the world was changing. sigh

In Culp's case, I'd say booze is a more likely suspect than hallucinogens.


Regards--