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Hello, Gorgeous! The Streisand Television Specials (1965/1966)
Description
One performer. No guest stars. No dancing chorus to hide behind. Just one unbelievably talented and chutzpah-filled 22-year-old staring down the biggest network in America—and winning all the marbles.
It’s Barbra Streisand in the 1960s.
Today, we revisit her first two iconic CBS television specials, My Name Is Barbra (1965) and Color Me Barbra (1966), and explore how a girl barely out of her teens could make an hour of pure singing feel like must-see television. These weren’t conventional variety shows. They were something closer to the prototype for the modern music video—built around persona, irony, theatrical movement, visual storytelling, and, above all, Streisand’s ability to inhabit a song rather than merely sing it.
We dig into the creative gamble behind Streisand’s five-million-dollar contract, the three-act structure that makes each special play like a miniature stage production, and the extraordinary way she turns every song into a character piece. Along the way, we get into all the backstage happenings: the elusive studio audience, the tale of five ill-fated penguins, an overly amorous llama, and all the fascinating production choices that helped make these specials feel so different from anything else on television at the time.
So join us as we take a trip into "Streisandland" circa the 1960s. It’s a journey you won’t soon forget.
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