This Is Tom Jones
The Bee Gees performing on This Is Tom Jones
GenreVariety
Directed byJon Scoffield
StarringTom Jones
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes65
Production
Running time60 minutes
Production companiesAssociated Television
Incorporated Television Company
Original release
NetworkITV (UK), ABC (USA)
Release7 February 1969 (1969-02-07) –
15 January 1971 (1971-01-15)
Related
Tom Jones

This Is Tom Jones is an ATV variety series starring Tom Jones. The series was exported to the United States by ITC Entertainment and was networked there by ABC.

The series ran between 1969 and 1971 to total 65 colour episodes. Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy" in 1969.[1]

The show also featured comedy sketches by the Ace Trucking Company improvisational group, featuring Fred Willard and Patti Deutsch, among others.

Guest appearances

The show featured guest appearances by many top actors, comedians and singers of the time, including The Who, Nancy Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Mary Hopkin, Peter Sellers, Liza Minnelli, Janis Joplin, Cher, Dusty Springfield, Sérgio Mendes, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, The 5th Dimension, Bob Hope, and Herman's Hermits.

Episode guide

1st Season

2nd Season

3rd Season

Rights dispute

In recent years, distribution rights to the show have been the subject of litigation, in relation to the original licence holder, C/F International. For example, as of December 2004, C/F International was a secured judgement creditor of Classic World Productions and it principal, Darryl Payne, for approximately one million dollars, and was the principal secured creditor at the time of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company, six months later. C/F International's action against Classic World Productions and owner Darryl Payne was based on unpaid royalties in relation to "This Is Tom Jones", and related recordings.[3] The 1969-1971 "This Is Tom Jones" television shows are currently sold by Time-Life, rather than by Classic World Productions or C/F International.[4]

Its thought that Tom Jones now, by 2023, reclaimed the underlying Intellectual Property Rights of all surviving episodes, with confusingly the NTSC versions varying from the PAL versions, so theoretically 130 episodes. They haven't been re-issued in a complete box set yet, due to the standard Rights Clearance issues of various Music Publishing Owners, the existing Sound Recordings used, the Image Rights of certain performers, Sketch Writers, and certain material "of its time" with outdated views, portrayals and attitudes, as well as any "disgraced" celebrities, that Tom Jones would not want to be associated with. So, edited compilations are now the standard way to remove these issues from the releases, as mentioned in the Rights Dispute section of this page.

Home releases

A triple-DVD compilation of performances from the show, subtitled Rock 'n' Roll Legends, was released by Time Life Entertainment (under licence from Paul Brownstein Productions) on 26 June 2007, having previously been issued, in various forms, by Classic World Productions. It features performances from Richard Pryor, Mary Hopkin, Peter Sellers, The Who, Burt Bacharach, Anne Bancroft, Glen Campbell, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Big Jim Sullivan, Little Richard, Stevie Wonder, Bob Hope and Aretha Franklin. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were featured in early promotional copies, but these were withdrawn when rights issues prevented their performance being released; Little Richard was substituted for the final copies.

Another triple-DVD compilation of performances from the show, subtitled Legendary Performers, was released by Time Life on 12 February 2008. It features performances from Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, David Steinberg, Liza Minnelli, Rich Little, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash and June Carter.

References

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