Prime-Time Smokey

BUT HIS STAR-STUDDED TV SERIES WAS A PECULIAR CREATURE

On this date, Smokey Robinson’s birthday, there are so many memories – music, magic, Miracles – to call upon. No need to write about them, right? Just pull out the vinyl or the CDs (perhaps not the 8-tracks) or fire up the streaming service of your choice.

And yet…

Like any showbiz career, Smokey’s contains curiosities: that moment, for example, when, at age 45, he complained about the explicit lyrics of contemporary songs. “I don’t believe in censorship,” he wrote in a guest column for the Detroit Free Press, “but I think it’s time that the music industry takes upon itself the responsibility for taking care of the public that supports us.” I forget, did Smokey appear at the U.S. Senate hearings on that issue, back in 1985?

He even came up with a song about the issue, which included this couplet: “You gotta watch what you say and what you do/Our little brothers and sisters look up to you.” Moreover, he roped in the Temptations to record it (“Be Kind To The Growing Mind”) for his Smoke Signals album.

What he didn’t do was sing it on his own prime-time television series, The Motown Revue Starring Smokey Robinson. That was in 1985, too. Paradoxically, he had a couple of purveyors of explicit lyrics on editions of the show, namely, Vanity and the Mary Jane Girls, and there certainly was a raunchy moment or two in the latter’s performance.

Then again, The Motown Revue was a peculiar creature. Billed by America’s NBC-TV network as a five-part, “music-comedy series,” its attempts at humour were almost entirely painful, and it turned out to have six episodes, not five, when broadcast on Friday nights that summer. Guest stars included the cream of the Motown crop (Diana Ross, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves) and other A-listers of the day: Natalie Cole, Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt. But also…Dean Martin. Weird Al Yankovic. Pee Wee Herman. And even if there was a reasonable case for booking, say, Rick Nelson with the pension-age Jordanaires, Smokey – or anyone – might have suggested they perform a livelier song than “Lonesome Town.” (It may, incidentally, have been one of Nelson’s last TV appearances; he died later that year.)

There was a hint of trouble on July 3, 1985, when NBC officially announced the series. “In the shows, Robinson will perform some of his numerous record hits,” declared the press release, “such as ‘More Love’ and ‘I Don’t Care.’ ” Leaving aside the fact that the former wasn’t one of the Miracles’ biggest hits, could someone at Rockefeller Plaza have at least got the correct title for “Being With You”?

VIEWED BY MILLIONS

Nevertheless, Smokey was delighted to have his own television series. That was apparent when he fronted the network’s press conference about it, and also in the fifth episode when he talked on-air about the “50 million” viewers. About that scale, he appeared genuinely affected.

If the jokes were poor, Robinson’s vocal performances throughout The Motown Revue were peerless, including most of the duets with guests, and he delivered virtually all of his signature songs. For half of “The Tracks Of My Tears,” he was accompanied only by guitar – Marv Tarplin? – and the result was magic. Similarly, “Cruisin’ ” was a stand-out, made all the better for a slight edge to his voice. Other delights were “(You Can) Depend On Me,” “I’ll Try Something New” and “Ain’t That Peculiar.”

However, Robinson’s renderings of “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me,” “Shop Around” and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” were accompanied by dumb-ass videos, including one showing him being thrown around a wrestling ring by Lisa Sliwa of the Guardian Angels. Equally excruciating were his remarks in the first episode, when he told a corny tale about the time he was – allegedly – mistaken at an airport for Lionel Richie. “Tonight, if you like the show,” he grinned at the camera, “I’m Smokey Robinson. If you have any complaints, I’m Lionel Richie.”

A regular presence in all six episodes was comedian Arsenio Hall, but the calibre of most of his lines and sketches was nothing to celebrate. Actor/singer George Solomon was another regular, thankfully amusing with a speed-talking Supremes song-title routine, and with his depiction of a record-store clerk who becomes starry-eyed and obsequious as superstar Smokey arrives to buy some albums. When Robinson asks to pay by cheque, Solomon turns instantly serious: “Do you have any ID?”

The Motown Revue was created by Motown Productions, in partnership with veteran Hollywood exec George Schlatter, and steered by Suzanne de Passe, still aglow with the success of 1983’s Motown 25 TV spectacular and, earlier in 1985, Motown Returns To The Apollo. Of Smokey’s series, George Solomon recalled for me, “Mr. Gordy was around the set often, and Suzanne was there, constantly, completely in charge. Initially, I was used as a consultant [for the show], but I very much wanted to be on it. I had to audition for George Schlatter, and wrote the routine playing the record-store clerk who could speed-talk. I knew they’d have to use me for the bit – and it worked.

“Arsenio and I were the first hired as regulars. We would drive to work together. A favourite memory is arriving at NBC in Burbank, and finding there were parking spaces with our names on them. I took a picture of Arsenio in his space!”

IN DEMAND FOR DUETS

The Motown Revue was said to be NBC’s first prime-time music variety show broadcast in stereo; the producers/writers were Robert Iiles and James Stein, the director was Steve Binder. Among others credited were choreographer Kenny Ortega, who later worked on Michael Jackson tours, and audio consultant Russ Terrana, the Motown studio engineer. Berry Robinson, Smokey’s teenage son, was employed on-set as a runner.

“All the big stars wanted to be on the show,” recalled Solomon, “because everyone wanted to sing with Smokey.” The most memorable? Duets with Ray Charles, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Wells – and Diana Ross. For the last of these, the production team had to travel to Las Vegas, where she was playing Caesar’s Palace. “It was such a treat watching Diana and Smokey work together,” said Solomon. “It was clear that they loved each other very much.” That was equally apparent on-screen, when the pair sang Diana’s then-recent, post-Motown hit, “Missing You.”

***George Solomon: ‘Do you have any ID?’***

For all its star power, Robinson’s show drew a ho-hum response (or worse) from critics. “A mixed bag of comedy and singing performances that provided just enough entertainment to justify the prime-time hour,” judged trade magazine Variety. “Various comic bits intended to bridge musical numbers were mostly lightweight and short on yocks.” Gannett News’ reviewer thought the show clumsy “when the ‘humour’ is tackled by singers like Robinson, better when it’s done by a pro comic like Arsenio Hall. And it becomes excellent when the gags stop and the powerful Motown music returns.”

The critic for Knight Ridder newspapers pulled fewer punches, questioning the need for Robinson to be tossed around by a wrestler, for one. “Strange interludes like this leave an impression that NBC worries that Robinson may only be a back number now,” wrote Lee Winfrey, “and that it is necessary both to remind youngsters who he is and to trick up his act to make him currently appealing.” The network “ought to allow Robinson to be presented with the dignity he deserves.”

Years later, Suzanne de Passe was candid about the experience. “I knew we shouldn’t have done that show,” she said, “but I let myself get talked into it by the network. They came to me and said, ‘It’s now or never,’ and I am not an idiot – never means never knowing when you will get another shot.” The audience ratings confirmed the mistake: the opening episode “didn’t light any Nielsen flares,” noted Variety, and the numbers went down thereafter. Robinson’s reference to 50 million viewers sounded like optimism, not reality.

“There was talk of NBC continuing with the show in a live format with rotating hosts,” recalled Solomon, “much like Saturday Night Live. I know they kept the set assembled for quite a while, but obviously it didn’t happen.”

THOSE ORANGE SUNGLASSES

Still, this wasn’t Motown Productions’ last hurrah in music television. One year later, the company debuted Motown On Showtime for that cable channel, kicking off with a one-hour Temptations/Four Tops special, followed by episodes on Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and…Smokey Robinson. Later still, de Passe conjured up a couple of popular mini-series, The Temptations (“Sex, Drugs & Rhythm and Blues”) and The Jacksons: An American Dream, as well as still more Motown anniversary shows.

But let’s give Smokey the last word, voiced on-screen 36 summers ago. Evidently proud to be fronting his own series, he declared, “This is a long, long, long way from the very first television show I ever sang on: The Ed McKenzie Amateur Hour. It was nationwide all over Detroit!” For that appearance, he was a member of the Five Chimes, singing the Diablos’ “Adios, My Desert Love” and securing a $50 prize. The group, he said, wore bright orange sunglasses on that occasion.

Then, on the Burbank set of The Motown Revue Starring Smokey Robinson, he took out a pair of bright orange sunglasses…

THE MOTOWN REVUE STARRING SMOKEY ROBINSON (1985 airdates*)

August 9: The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, DeBarge, Vanity.

August 16: The Mary Jane Girls, Weird Al Yankovic, Diana Ross, Mary Wells.

August 23: Ashford & Simpson, Pee Wee Herman, Dean Martin, Kim Carnes.

August 30: Natalie Cole, Rick Nelson with the Jordanaires, Martha Reeves, El DeBarge.

September 6: Wilson Pickett, Culture Club, Linda Ronstadt, Bill Maher.

September 13: Chaka Khan, Tears For Fears, Ray Charles.

*The show was mostly aired Fridays at 9pm or 8pm, but some stations aired the show on the weekend

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