Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters

This show was one of the best things about Saturday nights when I was a kid. I used to love the kraft puppets. we looked forward to Sat at 7:pm at our house. Mandrell was a big star, that led to other big stars doing her show.

I was just thinking about the night before the 1981 Super Bowl I was staying with my grandparents in rural Kansas and we watched the show and laughed and had a great time.. some people may have thought the show was corny. but when you are a kid you do not care. you just like TV. The shows's humor was vary much family based. It centered around Mandrell and her two sisters.

Was never into country music and still not into country, but I liked this show. I used to watch it all the time when I was little and really enjoyed it. Thought Barbara and her sisters were pretty decent singers and the skits were funny and cute....etc.... Just a good family show, that my parents didn't have to worry about me watching. Sure the show was on the corny side, but all in all, it was fun to watch. Did manage to catch a few several years ago when the reruns were being aired, and I found I still enjoyed watching the show. Would love to see this on DVD someday. It's been so long since I've watched the show, I can't remember particular shows except maybe a Christmas one????

I am truly offended by the comments of others about this show. If you were forced to watch it, then you probably weren't nor are you now a country music fan. If you thought it was a lamefest, as someone put it, then you are failing to realize it was in the early 80's and not much from the 80's holds up well, e.i. clothes and hair styles. Country music as a whole(along with all genres from the 70's) are campy now looking back I personally loved this show as a kid and am still a fan of Barbara's to this day. This show was totally awesome from opening to the closing. My whole family always sat down to watch this show and my parents went to watch a live taping and they said it was great. Her piano player at the time, Gary Smith, is my pastor's brother-in-law, and they went with him to the show.

Barbara was the first woman in country music to become a huge star! Yes Patsy's and Loretta and Tammy were pioneers, but Barbara became one of the first international music stars! Some would say Dolly was the first, but Dolly actually didn't hit her mega stardom until the 80's also, even though she hit the seen in the 70's with the Porter Wagnor show.

Just thought I would stand up and defend!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, Barbara had to cancel this show well before her car accident due to physical exhaustion and damage to her vocal cords. As variety shows go, this one was quite entertaining, although I'm sure it does seem lame to those used to the junk on TV today...

The Mandrell sisters wrote a lot of the material for this show based on actual experiences in their lives, which gave it a more legitimate air and made the show that much more credible.

This show was nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe. It won several Music City News Awards. It would be great to have this show on DVD so that a new generation can experience the innocent humor of the Mandrell sisters, rather than the 'reality' TV garbage we are all exposed to nowadays.

And to those who 'swear' that the show was on until Barbara's car wreck, just do the math. The show ended in 1982; Barbara's car wreck was in 1984. Hmmmm, not rocket science.

I so wish they would offer the show for streaming on one of the various sites in the business of being providers today. The idea that, at the moment and still up to this date, the show and all it's episodes not being made available for my generation, my parents generation and any others who would find they like it is just sad. Having the talent and great effort put into shows designed to simply entertain and find you admiring people who could pull off vocals without autotune, simple comedy and what was more about you enjoying yourself and having a few laughs is still sitting on a shelf somewhere and not made available to many who could use the spirit lifting simplicity of what family tv was before tv needed ratings and disclosures. I wish they would make all these variety shows of the 70's-80's available for viewing since I, for one, would greatly enjoy the choice.