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Attention Submarine Watchers! Murray The "K"'s "It's What's Happening Baby" Airs on PBS March 6th!

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 3, 2021

New York D.J. Murray Kaufman, a/k/a "Murray the K", a/k/a "The Fifth Beatle" in the early 1960s presented raucous all-star rock and soul shows at Brooklyn's fabulous Fox Theater. After a 56 year absence Murray's TV special "It's What's Happening Baby" returns to the airwaves in a newly restored from the original video and audiotape presentation, featuring Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, The Miracles, Herman's Hermits, The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, The Temptations, Johnny Rivers and Marvin Gaye, among others!

The shows were notable for their racial integration at a time when that was frowned upon in certain circles (like most of America). When it first aired June 28th , 1965 on CBS (now known as the Crime Broadcasting Network because of all of the law enforcement shows it airs) it attracted 20 million viewers, most of them with acne (myself included).

The show was originally commissioned by the U.S. government's Office of Economic Opportunity as part of the war on poverty, (unlike today where the government until recently seems to have made peace with poverty). Of special note is a January 26th, 2021 interview included in the upcoming PBS show with original Supreme Mary Wilson who passed away 13 days later.

The show airs on PBS, I suspect as a worthwhile fundraiser, so you will have to endure totally uncool Boomers exuding nostalgia, staring into the camera and doing an awful job reading asinine copy instead of making what could be entertaining pitches for money. Oh well.

Watch the embedded video and if you are of a certain age (8-80), you'll surely want to tune in and watch this special. I'll be watching this Saturday night March 6th on Long Island's PBS station WLIW at 10:30PM. Check TV Guide for...oh, right. They don't publish TV guide. So check your local newspaper's TV listings. Oh, right newspapers don't publish TV listings anymore...SO GOOD LUCK FINDING OUT WHEN YOUR LOCAL PBS STATION IS BROADCASTING "It's What's Happening Baby" because it should be a lot of fun!

MURRAY THE K-Preview Clip

COMMENTS
cdvinyl's picture
Submitted by cdvinyl on Wed, 2021-03-03 21:38

Boss Groovy.

posterboy's picture
Submitted by posterboy on Thu, 2021-03-04 04:33

For a local TV guide, it's Titan TV.com.

https://www.titantv.com/default.aspx

The default home page is based on your IP addy. If you click on the white plus (+) sign at the top of the first channel listed, you can further configure the station lineup.

Since I do OTA tv, I click on Broadcast, then entire a zip code of the market I wish to receive. For the listings, you can go back 1 day, and forward 13 days.

Newer TVs may have more limited on-screen guides for the channels you have programmed.

Roy Martin's picture
Submitted by Roy Martin on Thu, 2021-03-04 06:35

,,,for submarine watchers!

PaulG's picture
Submitted by PaulG on Thu, 2021-03-04 20:06

Although I’m too young to have really experienced Murray the K in real time, there’s always been something faintly creepy about him. He seems way over the hill for the acts he was presenting and tucking your sweater into pants is a real fashion faux-pas. Tell me I’m wrong....

John G's picture
Submitted by John G on Sun, 2021-03-07 06:15

I was expecting live performances, not pre-MTV lip sync videos.

Paul Boudreau's picture
Submitted by Paul Boudreau on Sun, 2021-03-07 13:56

Thanks, I have it set up to record from WETA. Found the listing through a Tivo search.

lcater1's picture
Submitted by lcater1 on Mon, 2021-03-08 07:13

Great show! I'm old enough to remember it all, To bad about all the fund raising here in Ohio......

Trevor_Bartram's picture
Submitted by Trevor_Bartram on Tue, 2021-03-09 10:20

and you can skip thru the excruciating fund raising. Just fast forward and wait for the telephone banner at the bottom of the screen to disappear. I wonder who was hanging onto the rights for this lip sync fest for so long? I thought Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells was the best performance. Murray's dance moves were not embarrassing, he's quite the entertainer. The clothes though were, "We've Come A Long Way, Baby"

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