Lloyd Thaxton clowns around during his teenage dance show in the 1960s, and in a recent photo (inset).

By Roger M. Grace

Bridgette Bardot. Beatniks. Beach Boys. Beatles. The Beaver. Brylcreem.

This was the period when Dick Clark and Lloyd Thaxton presided over enormously popular TV shows featuring teenagers gyrating to the latest rock ’n’ roll hits.

Clark on Aug. 5, 1957 brought his local Philadelphia show, “Bandstand,” to the ABC-TV network as “American Bandstand,” where it endured for 30 years.

Thaxton took his Los Angeles dance show, aptly titled “The Lloyd Thaxton Show,” into national syndication in September, 1964, via videotape — and MCA sold it in 127 markets, including Sacramento.
A few stations called upon Thaxton to make the show, which included lip-syncing and goofing off, more sophisticated.

“I never changed what I did,” he said in an interview.

At first on the syndicated show, he would identify the particular high school from which the teenagers had come, just as he had done when the show was broadcast only in Los Angeles. Thaxton remembered that it was an executive at the New York station that carried the show who admonished him:

“I want this to be my show. So I don’t want you to mention Hollywood or the high schools.”

He complied. As a result, he related, people will come up to him and remark, for example: “I watched you when you were on in Cleveland,” thinking that what they saw had been a local show.

Top recording artists of the day, such as Jan and Dean, The Statler Brothers, The Turtles and the Monkees, made guest appearances.

Some of those who were too young to remember Thaxton’s show, or who weren’t yet born then, first heard of Thaxton in a 1983 song by the Go-Gos, “Beatnik Beach.” One stanza was:

“The gang they’ll all be there.

“Join the fun and don’t be a square.

“We’ll lip-sync a go-go

“Just like the Lloyd Thaxton show. Yeah.”

Thaxton had a role in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, “The Patsy,” playing a disc jockey.

The next stop in Thaxton’s career was ABC. From Feb. 6, 1967 to Dec. 29 of that year, he was emcee of network’s daytime show, “Everybody’s Talking.” Clips were shown of person-on-the-street interviews, and celebrity contestants tried to guess what they were describing.

Ironically, a personality who had tried out as emcee but got a consolation prize as announcer was Wink Martindale, who had been a rival of Thaxton in the L.A. market for viewership of teenage rock ’n’ roll aficionados. (Martindale went on to become quizmaster on other network game shows, including “Gambit” and “Tic Tac Dough.”)

Thaxton hosted another ABC game show, “Funny You Should Ask,” from Oct. 28, 1968 to Sept. 5, 1969. Contestants tried to match the answers that were given before the show with the celebrities who had uttered them.

In 1978-79, he was the producer of “Pro-Fan,” a syndicated show he created which featured amateur and athlete contestants answering questions and doing stunts. Thaxton also served as announcer.

He went on to become producer-writer-director of “Fight Back! With David Horowitz,” both in its syndicated form, beginning in 1980, and as installments of the “Today” show on NBC. In 1989, Thaxton received a local Emmy in connection with his direction of that consumer rights show — one of five Emmys he’s garnered.

Thaxton is co-author with John Alston of a motivational book, “Stuff Happens (And Then You Fix It!),” released in January.

The book, Thaxton said, is the result of a bleak period in his life following cancellation of “The Lloyd Thaxton Show.”

“The show went off in 1968 because of the Vietnam war,” he explained. “Kids were not dancing anymore and the music turned too angry to do a teenage music show. I was unemployed and almost went under. I made a few changes in my life, took some chances and brought myself back.

“What did I do right? That is the catalyst for ‘Stuff Happens (And Then You Fix It!).’”

His daughter is Jennifer Weatherly, a country-western singer who has established herself both in the United States and Europe.