The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963–1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star. Garland, who for years had been reluctant to commit to a weekly series, saw the show as her best chance to pull herself out of severe financial difficulties. Despite it being cancelled relatively early on, it is now revered and considered an important piece of television history.

Production difficulties beset the series almost from the beginning. The series had three different producers in the course of its 26 episodes and went through a number of other key personnel changes. With the change in producers also came changes to the show's format, which started as comedy and variety but switched to an almost purely concert format. (In fact, as of episode 20, the on-screen title of the show became Judy Garland In Concert.)

While Garland herself was popular with critics, the initial variety format and her co-star, Jerry Van Dyke, were not. The show competed with NBC's Bonanza, then the second most popular program on television,^[1] and consistently performed poorly in the ratings. Although fans rallied in an attempt to save the show, CBS cancelled it after a single season.

TV Guide included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".^[2]

Garland's history with CBS prior to the series was a checkered one. She had previously headlined several specials for the network. The first was the inaugural episode of the Ford Star Jubilee which aired in 1955.^[3] The special, the first full-scale color telecast on CBS,^[4] was a ratings triumph, garnering a 34.8 Nielsen rating.^[5] This success led to Garland's signing a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only a single special aired, a live General Electric Theater episode in 1956, before the pact was terminated.^[6] The relationship between CBS and Garland and her then-husband and manager, Sid Luft, dissolved in acrimony in 1957, after they and agent Freddie Fields were unable to come to terms with the network over the format of her next special.^[7] Garland filed a US$1.4 million lawsuit against CBS for libel and breach of contract. (CBS filed a counterclaim) that was not settled until 1961, when Garland and CBS each agreed to drop their claims and negotiations began for a new round of Garland specials for the network.^[8]

The first of two specials under this new relationship aired on February 25, 1962.^[9] The Judy Garland Show special,^{[lower-alpha 1]} guest starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, was nominated for four Emmys.^[11] Its success led to CBS signing Garland in December 1962 for her weekly series, premiering in fall 1963.^[12] Garland's second special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, was presented in March 1963.^[13] Alternately promoted as a preview and a pilot for Garland's upcoming regular series,^[12] this special was also nominated for an Emmy.^[13][14]

Judy Garland's four-year contract for the series called for 26 weekly shows, for which Garland's corporation, Kingsrow Enterprises, would be paid $140,000 per episode. Of that Garland was guaranteed between $25,000 and $30,000 per show.^[15] Kingsrow Enterprises would also retain ownership of the tapes, allowing Garland to sell the series into syndication.^[16] Although Garland had said as early as 1955 that she would never do a weekly television series,^[3] in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. Garland was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the IRS, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952.^[17] The commercial disappointment of the film A Star is Born meant that her share of any profits from that film would be eaten up immediately.^[18] A successful run on television would secure Garland's financial future.

The first episode of The Judy Garland Show aired on September 29, 1963. The show, featuring guest star Donald O'Connor, was the seventh one taped. Episodes would continue to be shown out of sequence throughout the series' run. The show scored an 18.7 rating^[32] and reviews were largely positive. Variety wrote "If Judy Garland ... is of a mind to work every week with the same dedication and zeal that characterized her premiere this week, Bill Paley and his associates should be in clover. ... Miss Garland was in fine fettle." The San Francisco Chronicle characterized the show as "tasteful, elegant and exciting." Not every review was as glowing, with the New York Herald Tribune noting "Miss Garland is fine, just fine. The rest of the show, however, needs help." Other negative reviews were in a similar vein, focusing on Van Dyke in particular and the show's format and writing in general.^[33]

CBS publicly responded to the critiques by issuing a statement through talent chief Michael Dann. "We have decided that [Judy] should never appear in sketches and never play any character but herself. And she'll be singing more songs, more medleys, more standards. Songs are her babies. We told her what we think and she's listening. She's far too insecure about television to exercise her own judgment. She knows what's good for her."^[34]

Behind the scenes, however, the network continued to tinker with the show. In addition to the replacement of key production staff and constantly revising the format, Garland was also summoned to New York to receive such bits of information as she was touching her guests too much and was instructed to stop.^[35] As well, Van Dyke was let go almost immediately after the reviews came out, taping his last show on October 11.

Nevertheless, numerous episodes featuring Van Dyke had already completed taping and would continue to air, meaning that the changes in the show's format would not be apparent to viewers for several weeks. Accordingly, reviews about the show's format (as opposed to Garland's singing) continued to be negative, as the Garland-deprecating humor continued to attract criticism rather than viewers. Saturday Evening Post reviewer Richard Warren Lewis wrote, "The absurd notion of debasing Judy's reputation as a legendary figure and molding her show into an imitation of other prosaic variety shows has been a disaster where it hurts most, in the audience-rating polls."^[36] Indeed, Garland's show was averaging an 18 rating, about half of the audience represented by Bonanza and its 35 rating.^[35]

After the departure of Jewison as producer and of Jerry Van Dyke (whose exit from the show was lauded by one contemporary reviewer as "a marvelous idea but it came too late")^[37] the focus of the show changed yet again to emphasize Garland's performances, singly and with guests. This format, including several "Judy Garland in Concert" solo episodes, would remain more or less intact for the remainder of the series. Despite continuing positive critical comment about Garland's performances, the ratings remained flat. Fans of the show formed a "Save The Judy Garland Show committee" and organized an early letter-writing campaign on behalf of the series^[38] but their efforts were not enough to spare the show from cancellation. The final Judy Garland Show, another concert episode, was broadcast on March 29, 1964.

Between 1999 and 2006 Pioneer Entertainment released all 26 episodes on DVD, as well as three compilation DVDs. These releases are listed in the table below.