Barbara Mandrell`s NBC-TV series, ”Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters,” originally telecast from 1980 to 1982, is being resurrected by the Nashville Network beginning March 31. The rebroadcasts will continue through 1991.
”These shows provide a wealth of performance that just can`t be done on a weekly basis on television today,” says C. Paul Corbin, TNN`s director of programming. ”This is the first off-network series that TNN has purchased, and we feel that a variety program that showcases so many superstar talents will appeal tremendously to our audience.”
The first show features Kenny Rogers and Andrae Crouch, and subsequent guests will include Dolly Parton, Bob Hope, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Charley Pride and Mickey Gilley.
”It was definitely the single most educational thing I`ve ever done,”
Mandrell has said of the series. ”In doing a true variety show, you are called on to do almost everything, from comedy skits to dancing to writing. It was a real challenge. I`m very proud of it and of my sisters.”
Speaking of her sisters, in the first show Louise and Irlene are featured with Barbara playing a variety of instruments, singing ”Johnny B. Goode” and ”The South`s Gonna Do It” and doing sketches and reminiscences about their lives together.
On the record: The Forester Sisters` ”Leave It Alone” is striving to become their 14th consecutive Top 10 hit. It is currently well into the Top 20. . . . Before the recent release of his debut Warner Bros. LP, ”Simple Life,” singer-songwriter Mac McAnally had not only written such hits as Ricky Van Shelton`s ”Crime of Passion,” Alabama`s ”Old Flame” and Shenandoah`s current ”Two Dozen Roses,” he also had sung or played guitar on LPs by Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Steve Wariner, Jimmy Buffett, Keith Whitley, Patty Loveless and others. . . . Song Title of the Week: ”I Watched It All (On My Radio)” by Lionel Cartwright and Don Schlitz.
Through June 15, the Oak Ridge Boys are being featured on some 24 million packages of Totino`s Party Pizza, a product of the Pillsbury Co. Buyers will be offered an on-package deal to send in a combination of money and proofs of purchase to receive either a music video or an audio cassette, neither of which has been released by the group before.
The video is 20 minutes long and contains live performances of ORB hits
”Elvira” and ”Bobbie Sue” as well as behind-the-scenes footage, an interview and even some footage shot by the Oaks themselves.
The audio cassette features a half-dozen of their favorite hits, including ”Elvira” and ”An American Family.”
On the road: Tammy Wynette will make her long career`s first appearance at the Roxy in Los Angeles on March 14. This memorable first will be accompanied by another: Her opening act will be a great traditionalist newcomer named Doug Stone, a Georgia native who will be making his first appearance in California. . . . The Red Clay Ramblers, who have appeared in such diverse Off-Broadway productions as Roger Miller`s ”Big River” and Sam Shepard`s ”A Lie of the Mind” (for which the band wrote and performed the score), are scheduled to perform at Chicago`s Old Town School of Folk Music Saturday at 7:30 p.m. At 2 p.m. Sunday, the Ramblers` banjo player, Tommy Thompson, will perform his one-man musical theater work, ”The Last Song Of John Proffit.”
Garth Brooks-who since last May has been opening for such acts as Reba McEntire, George Strait, George Jones and the Statler Brothers-will be opening for McEntire again at a lot of fairs in 1990 as well as co-headlining on the West Coast with Holly Dunn.
With what could be another No. 1 single going up the country charts in
”Not Counting You,” Brooks still is receiving mail about his last one,
”If Tomorrow Never Comes.” He reportedly gets about 50 letters a month from fans touched by the lyrics of the song, which Brooks wrote for his wife, Sandy.
”These letters are, as (award-winning Nashville songwriter) Max D. Barnes put it, `trophies of the soul,` ” Brooks says. ”If I never receive any awards, these letters from the real people in the heartland are why I`m out there every night.”
Et cetera: Oral surgery recently turned into hospitalization for Johnny Cash. First, according to reports, he had an abcessed tooth, but when it still hurt after treatment, he was found to have a cyst in the gum; then, after treatment of the cyst, the gum became infected. The problem apparently won`t affect the the upcoming tour by the Highwaymen (Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson), which is scheduled to begin March 3. . . . Hank Snow recently observed his 40th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. . . . The debut issue of the ”Inside Country Music” video magazine features a cover story on Randy Travis and Tammy Wynette and sells for $19.95 per issue-of which 6 per year are planned. Its publicists say research indicates the public will spend $3.8 billion on pre-recorded videotapes in 1990 and that more than 80 per cent of American homes will have a VCR by 1991. Speaking of video, the Nashville Network is launching four new 60-minute music video shows in late March.
They will be ”Music Row Video,” featuring contemporary hits by country music`s biggest stars, beginning March 26 at 7 p.m.; ”VideoGold,” a live video-countdown series employing the most popular songs according to independent research of country radio stations, premiering at 4 p.m. March 26; ”Country Beat,” which will use upbeat videos from the cutting edge of country music, beginning at 5 p.m. March 31; and ”Country Standard Time,”
which will offer vintage country hits, beginning at 3 p.m. March 26.
