After Judy Garland left MGM, Warner Brothers jumped into the breach with their new freckle-faced star Doris Day in “Calamity Jane”, co-starring the great Howard Keel. The mid-50’s saw the birth of rock and roll and the first pop musicals, but many of the greatest traditional musicals of all times were filmed during this era: “The King and I”, “High Society”, “Gigi”, “West Side Story”, “My Fair Lady”, Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music”. Then came the success of television and videos, and the golden age of musicals appeared to be coming to an end, but not without a grand finale to the 60’s with Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl”.
Producer: Pete Myers
Broadcast: 13 September 13, 1991