Let It Be Forgot

Last November Sammy Davis Jr. typed his new TV series as "one variety show that's really going to be different --all the way." Somewhere between the type and the tape, someone tripped. Last week's premiere (NBC, Friday night) was the familiar mixture of songs, patter and guest stars.

There was the mandatory Frank Sinatra Joke, an orgy of network self-promotion (walk-ons by NBC stars), a tiresome, ten-minute flamenco ballet. As for the much-ballyhooed TV debut of Sammy's big drawing card, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Burton--well, television has rarely seen such a bust.

Actor Burton started things off with a dramatic recital of the closing lines from Camelot ("Don't let it be forgot"). Then he brought on his wife, offering the viewing public more square inches of Elizabeth Taylor than have ever been seen before onscreen. Displaying a ballooning figure that erupted from a low-cut red dress, Liz appeared somewhat disarrayed, as if she had just left a hot, messy kitchen to answer the front door. Burton disclosed that his wife had been invited by Oxford University to play Helen of Troy, "if," giggled Liz, "I lose 20 pounds." Sammy laughed, perhaps too uproariously. Whereupon the Burtons launched into a shatteringly off-key rendition of a folk song in Welsh. "I love it!" cried Sammy. Burton's reply was more to the point: "It's hopeless." For a closer, the three sang an arrangement of What Do Simple Folk Do?, during which the Burtons shuffled, snapped their fingers, bellowed, and otherwise cavorted just like simple folk do.

The Sammy Davis Jr. Show is likely to be a success in the ratings despite last week's shambles. Using the guest-star gimmick for promotional values, it will no doubt keep pulling audiences. After all, only Sammy Davis could have induced the world's most famous lovers to appear on television, and only he, apparently, can top that coup. This week he will be away, and in his place will be Sean Connery. "If that doesn't get us a fat Nielsen," says an NBC executive, "we might as well all give up and go to the movies."

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