A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History

Subject: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 08:24 PM

Hey gang....There's a 75 year retrospective on the Opry on A&E right now. Lasts two hours and repeats several times tonight. Seems pretty good so far!

Spaw

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: mkebenn
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 11:27 PM

MORE MARTY ROBBINS!!!!!!

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 11:41 PM

Not a bad program at all.....Lots of old pictures, film and video clips, audio clips.......A&E does a good job with these things such as their "Biography" series. Glad I watched.

Spaw

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 02:05 AM

Great show. I would have liked a little more lingering on the oldsters but that's my age showing. Well done, and I enjoyed it very much.

At the end, wasn't that Hank Williams, Sr.'s grandson? I know he's related. Does that mean he's Hank Williams, Jr.'s son?

Ebbie

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: GUEST,Mike
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 03:59 AM

Hank 111 is Hank Jr, son.

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:15 PM

Thanks Spaw. Watched it twice. Sure wish they'd spent more time on "country" music than the folks who've already been featured on A and E's "Biography", but what the heck, enjoyed it anyway.

Gawd, I wish someone would gather all those old Black and White kinescopes of Monroe, and Hank etc. and put 'em out.

Rick

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:49 PM

I was at my parents doing some tending, and saw this. What a mindless programme. Boy, TV is sure depressing. All these really dreary production rules that have taken over. You could just see the producers going, 3,4,5, seconds on one person -- fade to a picture, anything but stick with the music. We have to mention the black guy, and have a segment about women, and we have to have Garth Brooks in case anyone gets too lost. Every person gets their ration of time depending on their importance: Kitty Wells gets 7 seconds and two pictures; Hank Williams gets 50 seconds, matched by Patsy Cline's 50 seconds. You could just see the accounting going on. And if one heard that the Ryman was the "mother church" of country music once more, I was sure gonna spit. A totally manufactured event with zero spontaneity. The best thing on the programme was the lunatic, bizarre appearance of Richard Nixon.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 07:18 PM

Peter T, I agree that the machinations were pretty obvious. However, having to format the show to two hours means they had to do some serious culling. There is enough material to easily fill three times that many hours.

What I really enjoyed was seeing the 'oldsters', the ones I heard and saw from the time I was young. The new ones- Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson, etc- I have no emotional ties to but I can see why they had to be on the show. Without them, today's fans would not have watched the show.

So, all in all, I enjoyed the show very much.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: GUEST,(Edgar A.)--a.k.a. Art Thieme
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 10:57 PM

I knew they were gonna do the old cut-em-off-short thing.--They always do that now. In the past I've taped some of these shows and was too depressed by the resulting edits to bother keeping the videos. And The Nashville Network is even worse.

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: GUEST,Zorro
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 11:03 PM

I liked it. I too, would have liked more coverage of the oldsters but... It was better than I expected. I'm considering buying the video. Z

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 11:44 PM

I dunno'......I liked it for what it had and it could have had a lot more. Problem is that there is so damn little ever shown anywhere of the old stuff that its almost like I'm thankful for whatever tidbits I can get.

The problem of anyone telling a story of a life or a place such as the Opry in a one or two hour period is pretty tough and I applaud A&E for making the effort. I feel shorted on a lot of their "Biography" series, but it beats the nothin' that a lot of others never do.

Spaw

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Gern
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 09:31 AM

Peter T. nailed it: this special was nothing but talking heads in cowboy hats, flatulently effusive in their self-congratulation. How could you prepare a two-hour special on the Opry and somehow neglect to include any music? The longest musical segment was ten seconds of Nixon playing "God Bless America," at the only venue where he could safely make a public appearance at the time. Way too much Pam Tillis and no Grandpa Jones. Did they mention that several stars of the Opry house band were summarily fired last year after decades of service, in an effort to bring the Opry sound in line with contemporary CMA-dictated musical styles? Marty Stuart sounded like the reverant young star, but he didn't mention calling the old guard "old farts" during a broadcast from the Opry last year. The old farts passed around a petition to kick him and his silly hair out of the Opry. He has since learned to genuflect. This show was better than the upcoming network Opry tribute will be (on Thanksgiving night, I believe) but it was still People magazine tripe.

Subject: RE: A&E Grand Ole Opry Special-History
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 10:45 PM

And not ONE mention of Skeeter Davis' suspension for opposing the Vietnam war. I would think that in a documentary that could be mentioned.

Rick