The Jim Nabors Hour

This is the last in the series of cast members of the Andy Griffith Show who got their own variety series. Of the three Jim Nabors was the most successful. On the Andy Griffith Show Jim astounded the world when he opened his mouth to sing and out came this great baritone voice. It added a new depth to his character Gomer Pyle and to his spin off show Gomer Pyle USMC. Whenever Gomer or any of his friends needed money and he wanted to help he could always sing and someone would pay him. In the 60’s it seemed like people couldn’t get enough of Jim Nabors. He had two hit shows under his belt by 1969 and had started a recording career. Just as Gomer Pyle USMC was canceled in September of 1969 Jim Nabors new variety show first aired on September 25, 1969. It didn’t leave him much time to shift gears from a sit-com mentality to start thinking of how to host a variety show. However, he had familiar company as Frank Sutton and Ronnie Schell came along with him. On the show Jim had a segment, like many variety show hosts did, where he took comments and questions from the studio audience. The only part of this that I remember is when Jim seemed almost embarrassed when a young girl said how happy she was for him that his Christmas Album went gold. Back then that was the highest that an artist had ever gone till they started giving out platinum records. One of the best continuing sketches from the show was the Brothers-in-Law. The three of them were the brothers-in-law when Frank married Jim’s sister played by Karen Morrow. Frank was always trying to tell his wife and Jim that the world was an eat or get eaten world and Jim always did better then Frank when he smiled and treated others the way he would want them to treat him. Ronnie was the brother-in-law who drank too much and would stumble in drunk. He made a lot of noise trying to get upstairs and thought no one saw or heard him. Usually Frank and Jim did see him. Ronnie Schell deserved a hit show with him as the star. He was a good mimic. Almost as good as Rich Little or Frank Gorshin. He proved he could do physical comedy and also was a good straight man when he played Duke on Gomer Pyle. After this variety series he was hardly seen. He did show up in a few movies from time to time. I remember seeing him in the Disney movie the Devil and Max Devlin but nothing after that. The Jim Nabors Hour fared better then Don Knotts or Ken Berry did with their variety shows. His was renewed for a second season. I don’t know if the ratings were bad or if Mr. Nabors wanted out of the show but it ended its run on May 20, 1971. On June 28, 1974 Frank Sutton passed away of a heart attack. In August a pilot for a new TV show that he was to be in aired. It was called Ernie, Madge and Artie. Also, in September of that year the last TV movie he stared in, Hurricane, was aired. It was the last time his fans would see him. Click here to see a fan site for Frank Sutton.