Andy Williams & Aretha Franklin, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Roger Miller (1969) (remastered audio)

After a five-season run (1962-67) that garnered three Emmys for best musical-variety series, Andy Williams scaled back his television show to three specials a year during the 1967-68 and 1968-69 seasons. His approach to each special was innovative and different. The last one, "The H. Andrew Williams Magic Lantern Show Co.," aired on NBC on May 4, 1969 and employed cutting-edge special effects in presenting the pop music of the era.

In this six-minute segment, Andy and his guests pop in and out of chroma-key green screens to do "Think" (with Aretha Franklin), "Mas Que Nada" (with Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66), and "King of the Road" (with Roger Miller). Andy dances and jumps over video boxes containing his guests, and he later conducts four images of himself singing and dancing their way through a jazzy choral version of "Moon River." All of this was an ambitious undertaking that took, according to Williams, 18 hours to shoot. Without the grind of a weekly series, he had the drive and the time to enhance the creative and production aspects of his television specials.

Had this been a master or first generation copy, the ambitious video effects would have been clearer and crisper. Still, there is much to appreciate in the artistry and energy of this production.

Producer: Andy Williams
Director: Marty Pasetta
Musical Director: Jimmie Haskell
Vocal Director and Special Vocal Material: George Wyle