Dolly (TV series)

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Dolly
Dolly Parton and Miss Piggy performing a musical number on an episode of Dolly
Genre	Variety
Running time	60 minutes (per episode)
Creator(s)	Dolly Parton Sandy Gallin
Starring	Dolly Parton
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 27, 1987–May 2, 1988
No. of episodes	23

For the 1976 TV series featuring Dolly Parton, see Dolly!

Dolly was a television variety show that ran on ABC during the 1987-1988 season featuring Dolly Parton.

The show was, to date, network TV's last attempt at a "traditional" variety series, featuring music, comedy skits and various guest stars. It had been roughly a decade since the last successful variety series, The Carol Burnett Show, had gone off the air, and it was regarded as a gamble to try and revive the genre. Banking on Parton's talent and appeal, however, ABC paid the performer a reported $44 million for a two-year contract.

Print ad promoting Dolly Parton's ABC television variety show

It was acknowledged that a great deal of talent and work went into producing the show, but the initially high ratings during the first few episodes steadily declined, and despite many format changes and other attempts to create interest, ratings did not improve. Halfway through the run, Parton, who retained creative control over the show, took command and jettisoned many of the lavish, splashy segments that she felt were not working in favor of a more "down home" feel. By this time, however, many of the initial viewers had already stopped watching. Around this same time, Parton also hired then-relatively-unknown Brett Butler as one of the writers.

Guest stars included Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Tyne Daly, Bruce Willis, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Tom Selleck, the Neville Brothers, Dudley Moore, and Oprah Winfrey.

The opening theme song was Parton's 1978 hit, "Baby I'm Burnin'" (later to be replaced with "Hoedown-Showdown"); as with her 1976 series, Parton closed each week with her signature song, "I Will Always Love You."

Though most of the show's episodes were filmed in ABC's studios in Los Angeles, a numbers of "special" episodes were filmed on location, including one in Hawaii, one in New Orleans, one in Nashville (featuring most of the cast of the Grand Old Opry), and a Thanksgiving episode in Parton's hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, featuring most of her extended family.