Hullabaloo is an American musical variety series that aired on NBC from January 12, 1965, to April 11, 1966 (with repeats to August 1966). Similar to ABC's Shindig! and in contrast to American Bandstand, it aired in prime time.
Overview
Directed by Steve Binder, who went on to direct Elvis Presley's 1968 "comeback" special, Hullabaloo served as a big-budget, quality showcase for the leading pop acts of the day, and was also competition for another like-minded television showcase, ABC's Shindig! A different host presided each week Sid Bernstein was the booking agent for Hullabaloo. Peter Matz, later of The Carol Burnett Show, was the orchestra leader.), the episodes were wiped and only three half-hour episodes are known to exist in their original color videotaped form.
The three surviving color episodes were hosted by Michael Landon, Jerry and Gary Lewis (both co-hosted the same episode) and Paul Anka, respectively and featured: the Byrds, and David Winters (Landon), Paul Revere & the Raiders (both Landon and Lewis') the Cyrkle, Lesley Gore, Peter and Gordon (Anka), Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Barry McGuire (Lewis’).
Dancers
The show was choreographed by David Winters, who selected and choreographed the Hullabaloo Dancers, a team of four men and six women who appeared on a regular basis. Two of them, Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, went on to achieve considerable fame on Broadway. Dancer Patrick Adiarte, who also attempted to launch a solo singing career on the series, went on to play Ho-Jon in the television series M*A*S*H. Another female dancer, model/actress Lada Edmund Jr. (known today as Lada St. Edmund), was best known as one of the caged "go-go girl" dancers in the "Hullabaloo A-Go-Go" segment near the closing sequence of the show.</blockquote>
The show was also featured in the movie Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998).
In Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, fictional actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) appears as a guest host on Hullabaloo, singing the 1956 song "Green Door".