The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956-1961)
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show is an American variety series hosted by Dinah Shore, and sponsored by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors and its theme song, sung by Shore, was "See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet", which continued to be used in Chevrolet advertising for several more years after the cancellation of the show. The program began as a series of nine monthly specials substituting in the regular time slot of the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. NBC first tested the singing star in an hour long format with two prime time specials early in 1956. The first Chevy Show episode aired on October 5, 1956 with Frank Sinatra as guest. By this time, Shore was already a veteran television performer, having hosted five seasons of the 15-minute-long Dinah Shore Show, also sustained by Chevrolet. It was in its final season (the final season for all 15-minute prime time network entertainment series) when The Dinah Shore Chevy Show was launched. The series featured celebrity guests from the worlds of music, theater, sports, and movies. During the fourth season, Carl Reiner was one of the show's writers and sometimes appeared on-camera as well, adding levity to a show which primarily focused on music.
The program was well-received and renewed the following fall as a weekly Sunday night series, broadcast in color, where it remained until Bonanza, another Chevy sponsored hour, moved from Saturday at 7:30 p.m. into that time slot for the 1961-62 season. Dinah ended her decade-long association with Chevrolet in 1961 and returned as part of an alternating Friday night lineup, with the show retitled simply The Dinah Shore Show, with S & H Green Stamps becoming her primary sponsor. In her final season, from October 14, 1962 to May 12, 1963, she appeared on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. following Bonanza. After 12 years with NBC, Dinah signed with ABC-TV in the fall of 1964 hosting four hour long specials sponsored by Purex. In 1970 Dinah Shore returned as a staple of American television in various daytime talk shows for NBC and syndication for more than twenty years after the conclusion of this series.
