title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" retook the Nielsen ratings lead the week of December 11, 1995, and held onto that position for 852 consecutive weeks until the week of April 9, 2012, when "Good Morning America" topped it again. "Today" maintained its No. 2 status behind "GMA" from the summer of 2012 until it regained the lead in the aftermath of anchor Matt Lauer's departure in November 2017. In 2002, "Today" was ranked No. 17 on "TV Guide"s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The entertainment magazine "Variety" reported the 2016 advertising revenue during the first two hours of the show was $508.8 million.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On July 15, 2020, NBC launched "Today" All Day, a 24-hour digital streaming extension of the program available through its website and Peacock.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The show's first broadcast aired on January 14, 1952 as the brainchild of television executive Sylvester Weaver, who was then vice president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1956, during which time "Today"s late-night companion "The Tonight Show" premiered. In pre-production, the show's proposed working title was "The Rise and Shine Revue". The show was first supervised by Jerome Alan Danzig.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" was the first program of its genre when it premiered with original host Dave Garroway. The program blended national news headlines, interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks (including the presence of the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs who served as the show's mascot during the early years), and local news updates from the network's stations. It has spawned several other shows of a similar type, including ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS' now-defunct "The Early Show". In other countries, the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's "BBC Breakfast" and ITV's "Good Morning Britain", and in Canada with "Your Morning" on CTV Television Network.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: When "Today" debuted, it was seen live only in the Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone, broadcasting for three hours each morning but seen for only two hours in each time zone. Since 1958, "Today" has only broadcast live on the Eastern Time Zone, and has been on broadcast delay for the five other U.S. time zones (Central, Mountain Time Zone, Pacific Time Zone, Alaska Time Zone and Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone). Partly to accommodate host Dave Garroway's declining health, the program ceased live broadcasts in September 1959, opting instead to broadcast an edition taped the previous afternoon punctuated with live newscasts each half-hour. The experiment, which drew criticism from many sides, ended when John Chancellor succeeded Garroway in July 1961.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" was a two-hour program for many years, airing from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all time zones except for Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, until NBC expanded the program to three hours (extending the program until 10:00 a.m.) on October 2, 2000. A fourth hour (which extended the program until 11:00 a.m.) was eventually added on September 10, 2007.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The program airs live in the Eastern Time Zone and on tape delay beginning at 7:00 a.m. in each of the remaining time zones. The remaining three feeds are frequently updated with minor fixes and repairs, and often, correspondents will tape updates that are then edited into the delayed feeds. NBC affiliates in some markets including in the east coast, such as WYFF in Greenville, South Carolina, air the third and fourth hours of "Today" on tape delay to accommodate live syndicated programmes airing at such times.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: When breaking news stories warrant, "Today" will produce a West Coast edition by broadcasting parts of the show live for viewers there. In such an event, the live portion does not typically go beyond the 7:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) half-hour or the bloc before the first set of advertisements. Once completed, the remaining blocs/segments taped from the East Coast edition will follow. Throughout the live segment, the presenters will explicitly make some reference to the show being live on the west coast from time to time until the tape-delayed segments resume.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In some instances, when an NBC News Special Report of breaking news or a live event occurs during the "Today" show time slot in the eastern time zone, the show's anchors will assume hosting responsibilities and the show will go live across all time zones until such time when the Special Report segment finishes. At that point, viewers outside the Eastern Time Zone will return to regularly-scheduled programming (i.e. the segment of the "Today" show feed already in progress in their corresponding time zone or their local newscast).


title: Today (American TV program)

text: During the first two hours of the program, local network affiliates are offered a four-minute window at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour to insert a local newsbreak (which usually also includes a local forecast, and in large and mid-sized markets, a brief traffic report) and local advertisements. Certain NBC affiliates that produce an additional morning newscast for a sister station or digital subchannel may prerecord the local inserts aired during the first one to two hours of "Today" to focus production responsibilities on just one of their local channels.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Starting in June 2014, SiriusXM began simulcasting "Today" on a new channel called Today Show Radio, Channel 108, with "The Best of Today" starting at 6am (Eastern) and the "Today Show"'s live broadcast from Studio 1A at Rockefeller Center in New York City starting at 7:00 a.m. (Eastern), with a tape delayed broadcast at beginning 7:00 a.m. Pacific time. On Mondays "The Hoda Show" with Hoda Kotb is broadcast exclusive on the Today Show Radio channel. On Tuesdays "Off the Rails" with Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones airs at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern). On Wednesdays "The Happy Hour" with the producers of "Kathie Lee and Hoda" airs, and on Thursdays "Today Show Confidential" with the producers of "TODAY" airs. The channel also simulcasts "NBC Nightly News" with Lester Holt at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern) The Today Show Radio service is not currently available on SiriusXM's sister service in Canada and Channel 108 is locked out for Canadian subscribers.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The "Today" program first originated from the RCA Exhibition Hall on 49th Street in Manhattan in a space now occupied by the Christie's auction house, just down the block from the present-day studio. The first set placed a functional newsroom in the studio, which Garroway called "the nerve center of the world.” The barrier between backstage and on-stage was virtually nonexistent. Garroway and the on-air staff often walked through the newsroom set. Glimpses of the camera crew and technicians were a frequent occurrence, as were off-screen voices conversing with Garroway. Gradually, machines and personnel were placed behind the scenes to assemble the news and weather reports, and the newsroom was gone by 1955.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In the summer of 1958, television manufacturer Philco complained to NBC that staging "Today" in a studio explicitly called the RCA Exhibition Hall was unfair (RCA owned NBC at the time). The network bowed to the pressure, and on July 7, 1958, "Today" moved across the street to Studio 3K in the RCA Building, where it remained through the early 1960s.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On July 9, 1962, the program returned to a street-side studio in the space then occupied by the Florida Showcase. Each day, the "Today" production crew would have to move the Florida-related tourism merchandise off the floor and wheel in the "Today" news set, desks, chairs and cameras. When the show wrapped at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the news set would be put away and the tourism merchandise returned to the floor.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: After three years in the Florida Showcase, "Today" moved back to the RCA Building on September 13, 1965. The network converted its news programming to all-color broadcasts at that time, and NBC could not justify allocating four (then-expensive) color cameras to the Florida Showcase studio. For the next 20 years, the show occupied a series of studios on the third, sixth, and eighth floors of NBC's headquarters; most notably Studio 3K in the 1970s, Studio 8G (adjacent to Studio 8H, home to "Saturday Night Live"; also the current home of "Late Night with Seth Meyers") in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and finally Studio 3B from 1983 to 1994.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" moved to the new street-side studio on June 20, 1994, providing a link to the show's 1950s origin.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Since the debut of the 1990s set, the national morning news programs of each of the major broadcast and cable-news networks have moved street-side – including two of "Today"s Rockefeller Center neighbors, Fox News' "Fox & Friends" (at Sixth Avenue) and CNN's since-cancelled "American Morning" (in the summer of 2005, CNN reversed the trend, abandoning its street-level studio and moving upstairs in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle). ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcasts from Times Square Studios, although only a portion of its studio is street side.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In 2006, Studio 1A underwent a major renovation to prepare for the upgrade to high-definition television broadcasts. After the departure of Katie Couric and while a new set was readied (during the summer of 2006), the program was broadcast from a temporary outdoor studio in Rockefeller Plaza, the same set that NBC used at the Olympic Games since 2004. During the week of August 28, 2006, the show was moved to a temporary location outside of Studio 1A because MTV was converting the outdoor studio into their red carpet booth for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. A mock set was set up in "Dateline NBC"s studio, which was also used during inclement weather. The program also used a temporary outdoor set at NBC Studios, and MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (which joined at Studio 1A in 30 Rock on October 22, 2007).


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On September 13, 2006, "Today" moved back into the revamped Studio 1A space. The new studio was divided into five different sections on the lower level including an interview area, the couch area, the news desk, the performance/interview/extra space area, and home base, which is where the anchors start the show. A gigantic Panasonic 103-inch plasma display monitor is often used for graphic display backgrounds. A kitchen set is located upstairs from the main studio. The blue background that is seen in the opening of the show in home base moves up and down to allow a view of the outside from the home base.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Some minor changes were implemented throughout the early and middle part of 2013, not only in the way that things are presented, but also with modified graphics and minor updates to the set. That year, a new, larger anchor desk was introduced with space to seat all four main anchors (Guthrie, Lauer, Morales and Roker). The new desk brought an end to the "news desk", as the third "news reader" (Morales) now sits at the main anchor desk. Other minor changes included a new larger desk for the third hour. After the August 16, 2013, broadcast, the program vacated Studio 1A, while the space underwent a remodeling with a more modern look with (as stated by executive producer Don Nash) "a lot more bells and whistles to play with.”


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On September 16, 2013, "Today" debuted a new set and graphics package (it was originally set to debut on September 9, 2013, but was delayed one week to complete final design details). The "home base" is located on a platform that can spin 360°, therefore allowing the view and direction of the camera to change depending on the half-hour. A new couch and background was added in the "sofa area" (where the anchors sit and discuss topics). A social media area known as the "Orange Room,” was also added to Studio 1A, which contains screens that display Twitter comments or trending topics, Carson Daly was hired to present segments from the room during the broadcast. Six screens that also connect to one 6' x 16' screen were added in the fashion/special topic area. During its first two days of use, the show transitioned away from its news and entertainment format to a format that emphasized the social interaction of the anchors, Roker and newsreader.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The graphics were also overhauled with introduction of the new set (a slightly modified version of this package and the revised logo debuted on "Early Today" that November, further integrating the early-morning news program's branding with "Today"). The logo-to-peacock animation was moved from the left corner to the bottom right side corner of the screen. The logo that was first previewed on September 13, 2013, pared down the number of circular arches from five to three with its coloring switching from different variations – generally shades of red, orange and yellow to depict a sunrise – to entirely orange.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In September 2015 "Today" updated the set once again, the update included new floors, a new couch, and a new anchor desk. The new set retains the 360 home base used in the previous design. The new set replaced much of the dark wood colors with lighter colors and removed the emphasis of orange in previous design in favor of orange accents.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In February 2018, while Guthrie and Kotb were at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the studio received minor changes including new screens and flooring in the former screen area; and by November of the same year, the Orange Room got a minor change that included a triangular-pattern wall and wooden flooring.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: During the week, the flagship hours of "Today" (7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.) are co-anchored by Savannah Guthrie (2012–present) and Hoda Kotb (2018–present) alongside co-hosts Al Roker (weather anchor, 1996–present), Craig Melvin (news anchor, 2018–present) and Carson Daly (features anchor, 2013–present)


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer – who appear on the main show as contributors – serve as the co-hosts (with Roker and Melvin) of "3rd Hour Today" at 9:00 a.m.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Saturday editions are anchored by Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker alongside co-hosts Joe Fryer (features anchor) and Somara Theodore (weather anchor) from Washington, D.C.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" anchors started out as "Communicators". Creator Pat Weaver envisioned a person whose responsibilities would go beyond the bounds of traditional sit-down news anchors. The Communicator would interview, report, moderate dialogue and generally tie the show together into a coherent whole. Garroway and his successors have all followed that model, with little variation. Now, the hosts are expected to do much the same, and on any given day will talk with correspondents, newsmakers and lifestyle experts; introduce and close each half-hour, conduct special segments (such as cooking or fashion) and go on-assignment to host the program from different locations. Although the "Communicator" nomenclature has since dropped out of favor, the job remains largely the same.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Including Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, eight men and eight women have served as primary "Today" hosts since the program's inception:


title: Today (American TV program)

text: From the show's inception, the idea of providing the latest news headlines has been critical to the function of the program. In that vein, there has always been at least one person on set whose job it is to prepare and deliver newscasts. In 1952, that person was called the "news editor" or (informally) "news chief". In modern parlance, the term "newsreader" or "news anchor" is preferred. Under the two-hour format, four newscasts were delivered, once every half-hour. Presently, there are only two newscasts, delivered at the top of each of the first two hours. Some anchors, including Jim Fleming, Lew Wood, Floyd Kalber and John Palmer, were seasoned journalists before joining the program. Others, including Ann Curry, have used the position to increase their journalistic acumen, at times leaving the newsdesk behind to venture into the field. News anchors have included the following:


title: Today (American TV program)

text: For the program's first 25 years, weather reports were delivered by the host or newsreader. Dave Garroway illustrated the day's forecast by drawing fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States, based on information gathered earlier in the morning from the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C. Subsequent hosts John Chancellor and Hugh Downs dropped the chalkboard weather map concept, and instead read a prepared weather summary over a still image of a weather map. When the show converted to all-color broadcasts in 1965, weather maps were prepared and projected on a screen behind Frank Blair, who delivered the forecast immediately after his news summaries. Following Blair's retirement on March 14, 1975, Lew Wood took over the newsreader and weather reporting duties (using Blair's format). When Floyd Kalber became newsreader in 1976, Wood was relegated to weather, sports, roving reporter assignments, and presenting live on-air commercials until his departure in 1978.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The weather is reported every half-hour during the program's first two hours, though since Al Roker was named weather reporter on January 26, 1996, an interview is conducted by him in place of the national weather forecast at least once during the show, leaving only the local weather inserts by NBC stations.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Prior to Roker, "Today" weather reporters were Bob Ryan (1978–1980) and Willard Scott (1980–1996). Until Ryan's hiring, no one on the show had practical experience or academic credentials in meteorology. With NBC's purchase of The Weather Channel in 2008, personnel from that network frequently participate in "Today" forecast segments, at the site of a weather event or from the cable channel's suburban Atlanta headquarters, or as a fill-in for Roker. This lasted until ten years later when TWC was later acquired by Entertainment Studios.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: NBC owned-and-operated stations and network affiliates are given a 30-second window to insert a local forecast segment into the program following the national weather report; Roker's outcue for the local break is "That's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods," although in recent years, this outcue was used during only starting the second half-hour. During the first half hour, Roker simply uses "your local forecast" which appears after a 30-second commercial. Those not watching on an affiliate which provides local weather segments following the outcue (including international viewers, as well as NBC stations that do not have a news department) see a national summary of temperatures on a weather map.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The semi-retired Scott, who gained fame through his antics that included costumes and props, still appeared on-air to continue his tradition of wishing "happy birthday" to centenarians. Scott's traditional local cue was "Here's what's happening in your world, even as we speak." He retired completely from television on December 15, 2015.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The job of "panelist" has no set definition. Panelist duties can range from conducting interviews to reporting on a number of topics in-studio and in the field. Regular panelists on the program include the following:


title: Today (American TV program)

text: From 1952 to 1964, a notable member of the cast was a woman, often an entertainer, the "Today" Girl. Usually, she discussed fashion and lifestyle, reported the weather, covered lighter-fare stories or engaged in verbal jousting with Garroway. Estelle Parsons was the first to hold the job, though her title at the time was "Women's Editor". Upon her departure in 1955, the "Today" Girl name was adopted. The last to hold the position, Barbara Walters, discussed the job in her autobiography "". She wrote that the era was before the feminism, and it was believed that nobody would take a woman seriously reporting "infotainment", Walters described the position as a "tea pourer". In 1966, Walters was promoted to co-anchor alongside Hugh Downs, and the "Today" Girl position was eliminated. Those who held the position were:


title: Today (American TV program)

text: From 1953 to 1957, the program featured J. Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee whose antics entertained viewers, but frustrated the program's staff, especially Dave Garroway. Also occasionally appearing was J. Fred's "girlfriend" Phoebe B. Beebe.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In 1989, Deborah Norville (then anchor of the network's early-morning news program at the time, "NBC News at Sunrise") replaced John Palmer at the "Today" newsdesk, at which point he assumed her previous role on "Sunrise". She also began substituting for Tom Brokaw on "NBC Nightly News". Shortly after Norville's appointment as "Today"s news anchor, the decision was made to feature her as an unofficial third host. Whereas Palmer had read the news from a desk separate from where Gumbel and Pauley sat, Norville was seated alongside the program's hosts at the opening and closing of every show. Before long, gossip columns and media observers predicted that NBC would remove Jane Pauley from the program and replace her with Norville in an effort to improve the program's recently declining viewership among young women, the demographic most coveted by morning shows. During this period, "Saturday Night Live" featured a sketch titled "All About Deborah Norville" (a takeoff on the classic film "All About Eve"), which depicted Norville as ruthlessly scheming to take Pauley's place as "Today" co-host.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In October 1989, it was announced that 13-year veteran Pauley would leave "Today" at the end of the year. NBC, as expected, announced that Norville would become co-host. An emotional Norville hugged Pauley on the air after the announcement was made, and many at the network hoped the negative press generated by Norville's increased presence on the program would end. However, this turned out not to be the case. Prior to the announcement of Pauley's departure, much of the criticism had focused on Norville's youth and beauty, with many branding her "the other woman" and a "home wrecker", in a reference to what some felt seemed like her intent on "breaking up" the television marriage of Gumbel and Pauley.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The negative press only heightened after the announcement of Pauley's resignation, and Norville was put under a gag order by NBC brass, which prevented her from defending herself from the widespread and erroneous reports that she somehow orchestrated her rise on "Today". In January 1990, the new anchor team of Bryant Gumbel and Deborah Norville, minus Jane Pauley, debuted with disastrous results. Nielsen ratings for the program began to plummet. Critics felt that Gumbel and Norville lacked chemistry and many loyal viewers began turning to rival ABC's "Good Morning America" ("GMA").


title: Today (American TV program)

text: By the end of 1990, "Today", the longtime dominant program, was officially the second-place morning show behind "GMA," and most of the blame was pinned on Norville. By the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, Norville saw her role as co-host continually minimized. "Today" aired special editions of the program called ""America at War"", with Gumbel anchoring most of the show alone. It was not uncommon for Norville not even to appear until the two-hour show's second half-hour. In addition, she was directed not to initiate conversation on the show and only speak when asked a question by Gumbel. Norville left the show for parental leave in February 1991. It was announced that Katie Couric would substitute co-host during Norville's absence. Ratings for the program rose immediately following Norville's departure and Couric's arrival.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Midway though her maternity leave, Norville was interviewed by "People". In the story, she avoided conversation about her recent trouble on "Today", and instead focused on her newborn baby boy. She was photographed breastfeeding her son, a seemingly innocuous event, but NBC management was said to be greatly displeased by this, believing the photo to be "in poor taste". By April 1991, in light of improved ratings on "Today" and NBC's displeasure at the "People" photograph, it was announced that Norville would not return to "Today" and that Katie Couric had been named the program's co-host. Norville, it was disclosed, would continue to be paid in accordance with her contract, although she would no longer appear on any NBC News programs.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On April 5, 2006, Katie Couric announced on her 15th anniversary as co-host of "Today" that she would leave the program and NBC News at the end of May to become the new anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News". Couric's final broadcast, on May 31, 2006, was dedicated to her 15 years as one of the show's co-hosts, and celebrated her move to the anchor chair at CBS, where she also became a correspondent for the network's Sunday night newsmagazine program "60 Minutes". Couric said during the show, "It's been a pleasure hosting this program, and thank you for fifteen great years." A special video presentation was broadcast, recapping her best moments and news stories on "Today" during her 15 years with the show.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The day after Couric's announcement, Meredith Vieira, then a host of ABC's "The View" announced on that show that she would take over as Lauer's co-anchor in September. Lauer and Vieira began co-hosting together on September 13, 2006.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On June 1, 2006 (the day after Couric's departure), NBC News announced that for the summer of 2006, "Today" would move to a temporary outdoor studio as Studio 1A was going through renovations to prepare for its switch to high-definition. On that same day, NBC News launched a new advertisement promoting Vieira's arrival. That summer, Couric's anchor seat was filled by various hosts, consisting of Curry, Morales and Campbell Brown (all of whom were considered candidates to replace Couric), until Vieira took over that fall.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In March 2010, Vieira signed a contract to keep her with the program until at least September 2011. However, she announced on May 9, 2011, that she would depart as co-host in the following month, but would remain at NBC News as a special correspondent.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: After announcing her resignation, Meredith Vieira departed the program on June 8, 2011. Vieira's spot was filled by the program's longtime news anchor Ann Curry, appearing alongside Matt Lauer as co-host. Correspondent Natalie Morales replaced Curry as news anchor in turn, with Al Roker remaining as the weather anchor. Savannah Guthrie joined Morales and Roker as co-host of the third (9:00 a.m.) hour.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Almost a year after her departure, Vieira returned briefly to "Today" as a special correspondent for events relating to Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Celebration. On June 5, 2012, she co-presented the show with Lauer from London.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: NBC revealed on June 28, 2012, that Ann Curry would no longer co-host "Today", and would continue to work for NBC News (where she remained until her departure in January 2015), including continuing to appear on "Today". Curry's title was changed to "Today Anchor at Large and NBC News National & International Correspondent," with responsibilities including leading a seven-person unit producing content for "NBC Nightly News", "Dateline NBC", "Rock Center with Brian Williams" and "Today", with occasional anchor duties for "Nightly News". Curry also reported for NBC's coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On July 9, 2012, Savannah Guthrie succeeded Curry as co-anchor alongside Lauer, Roker and Morales.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Ann Curry's final show as co-anchor was subdued compared to the earlier departures of Katie Couric and Meredith Vieira, as it did not include retrospectives of Curry's 15-year run on the program or goodbye to messages from colleagues and celebrities, although Curry – seated alongside Lauer, Natalie Morales and Al Roker in the couch area of the Studio 1A set – gave a tear-filled farewell message to viewers. Rumors of Curry's departure from "Today" began weeks before NBC formally announced that she would no longer be co-host, spurring negative press similar to that resulting from the departure of Jane Pauley and her replacement by Deborah Norville 23 years earlier, as early reports suggested that Matt Lauer had a hand in the program's decision to let Curry go. Viewership declines for the program that began in the months following Curry becoming co-host precipitated in part due to public criticism over Lauer's alleged involvement in Curry's departure; loyal viewers once again began turning to the competing "Good Morning America", which toppled "Today"s 16-year consecutive run as the top-rated morning news program during the week of April 9, 2012. The public relations problems for Lauer that resulted from the accusations, led then-executive producer Jim Bell to admit responsibility for the negative press, in defense of Lauer, in a series of interviews with "The New York Times", "The Hollywood Reporter" and the Associated Press.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On November 29, 2017, Hoda Kotb became the interim co-anchor after Matt Lauer was terminated. Prior to that, she has been a featured co-anchor of "Today", sitting alongside Lauer and Guthrie at the beginning of the second half-hour. She held that position on April 17, 2017, after her return from maternity leave until Lauer's termination on November 29, 2017. On January 2, 2018, her interim status became permanent, making her and Savannah Guthrie the first all-female anchor duo in "Today's" history and the second all-female anchor duo overall.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said in an email that Kotb has "seamlessly stepped" into the position, and with Guthrie, "quickly hit the ground running". "They have an undeniable connection with each other and most importantly, with viewers, a hallmark of Today," Lack added.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Just before the holidays, NBC executives offered the job to Kotb. She also continued to co-host the fourth hour of the show, a role she has held since 2007.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In 1989, Bryant Gumbel wrote a memo to the program's then-executive producer Marty Ryan, which was critical of other "Today" personalities, and was leaked to the press. In the memo, Gumbel commented that Willard Scott "holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste... This guy is killing us and no one's even trying to rein him in." He commented that Gene Shalit's movie reviews "are often late and his interviews aren't very good".


title: Today (American TV program)

text: There was enough negative backlash in regard to Gumbel's comments toward Scott that Gumbel was shown reconciling with Scott on "Today".


title: Today (American TV program)

text: After the killing of Trayvon Martin, "Today" ran a selectively edited version of the 9-1-1 call that George Zimmerman made prior to shooting and killing Martin (which he defended as being committed in self-defense while standing trial for the shooting, for which he was acquitted on charges of murder in July 2013), which had the effect of making Zimmerman appear racist. In a March 2012 edition of the program, "Today" played a recording of Zimmerman saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black." However, several seconds of the call were cut from the 911 tape, removing Zimmerman's description of Martin, and a question asked to him about the teenager by the 911 operator. In the original, unedited tape, Zimmerman said, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." The operator then asked, "OK, and this guy – is he black, white or Hispanic?", to which Zimmerman answered, "He looks black."


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "The Washington Post" wrote that "Today"s alteration "would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiing. In reality's version, Zimmerman simply answered a question about the race of the person whom he was reporting to the police. Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry... it's a falsehood with repercussions. Much of the public discussion over the past week has settled on how conflicting facts and interpretations call into question whether Zimmerman acted justifiably or criminally... To portray that exchange in a way that wrongs Zimmerman is high editorial malpractice..."


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Following an internal investigation into the production of the segment, NBC News fired two employees who were involved in the piece, including a producer based at the division's Miami bureau, in April 2012. In December 2012, George Zimmerman filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC for the editing of the 911 call. Florida Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson dismissed the suit on June 30, 2014, citing that there were "no genuine issues of material fact upon which a reasonable jury could find that the Defendants [NBCUniversal] acted with actual malice," but although Zimmerman could not prove that he was the victim of "actual malice", stated that the malice standard was appropriate since Zimmerman is a public figure.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On September 11, 2012, "Today" sparked outrage after the program neglected to interrupt an interview with "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" co-star Kris Jenner to broadcast the 11th anniversary remembrance ceremonies of the September 11 attacks at 8:46 a.m. Eastern. NBC was the only national television news outlet in the United States that did not interrupt regular programming to broadcast the moment of silence live. While the coverage of the ceremonies was not seen on the NBC network feed in most of the country, the network's New York City flagship owned-and-operated station WNBC interrupted the "Today" broadcast to run locally produced special coverage of the entire ceremony.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On November 29, 2017, NBC terminated Lauer following allegations of "inappropriate sexual behavior". NBC News chairman Andrew Lack announced Lauer's termination, stating: "It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards. As a result, we've decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident. Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender." Lauer would eventually be replaced by the long-time anchor of Today's 4th Hour, Hoda Kotb.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Although NBC did not publicly report or comment on the specifics of the allegations, the entertainment industry publication "Variety" ran a two-month long investigation involving interviews with Lauer's former NBC colleagues on his behavior towards them, which included lurid accusations of making verbal and typed lewd comments, as well as making suggestive references to a colleague's sexual performance.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: During the episode of October 23, 2018, Megyn Kelly participated in a panel discussion on the appropriateness of blackface in Halloween costume on her morning show "Megyn Kelly Today". During the segment, Kelly recollected that "when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character", and added that "[Luann de Lesseps] wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don't know how that got racist on Halloween." Her comments were widely criticized for being interpreted as defense of the practice, which is generally considered to be a derogatory caricature of African-Americans. Critics likened Kelly's remarks to a previous incident during her tenure at Fox News Channel, where Kelly asserted that Jesus and Santa Claus were white.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Later that day, Kelly issued an internal email apologizing for the remarks, stating that "I realize now that such behavior is indeed wrong, and I am sorry", and that "I've never been a 'pc' kind of person — but I understand that we do need to be more sensitive in this day and age. Particularly on race and ethnicity issues which, far from being healed, have been exacerbated in our politics over the past year. This is a time for more understanding, love, sensitivity and honor, and I want to be part of that. I look forward to continuing that discussion."


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Kelly opened the October 24 episode with a public apology, as well as a follow-up discussion with African-American commentators Amy Holmes and Roland Martin on why blackface is considered controversial. The same day, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Kelly had left the Creative Artists Agency, and had hired an attorney. It was also reported that, prior to the incident, Kelly and NBC had been discussing cancelling the program so she could focus more on serving as a correspondent, but that the comments may have an impact on her future at the network. The week's remaining episodes were replaced by encores.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On October 26, 2018, NBC News confirmed the cancellation of "Megyn Kelly Today" and announced that the show's existing anchors would temporarily fill the third hour.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" first expanded to weekends on September 20, 1987, with the debut of the Sunday edition. Five years later on August 1, 1992, the Saturday edition made its debut, expanding the program to seven days a week. The Sunday broadcast was originally 90 minutes in length, until the third half-hour being dropped with the expansion of "Meet the Press" to an hour-long broadcast in 1992; it now airs for one hour, while the Saturday broadcast airs for two hours.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The weekend broadcasts continue the "Today" format of covering breaking news, interviews with newsmakers, reports on a variety of popular-culture and human-interest stories, covering health and finance issues, and national weather reports. NBC feeds the Saturday edition from 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. (although it is often shortened to air the network's kids' block in full when there is an early start to sports) and the Sunday edition from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. (both in the Eastern Time Zone), although many of the network's affiliates air local newscasts in those time slots and carry the network broadcast earlier or later in the morning; many NBC affiliates also bookend the Sunday edition with local morning newscasts that immediately precede and follow the program. NBC's New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles owned-and-operated stations air "Weekend Today" simultaneously (but not live) at 9:00 a.m Eastern, 8:00 a.m. Central and 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Weekend editions are tailored to the priorities and interests of weekend viewers – offering special series such as ""Saturday Today" on the Plaza", featuring live performances by major music acts and Broadway theatrical productions outside the studio throughout the summer.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: During NBC Olympic broadcasts, the weekday anchors and staff present the majority of the program on both Saturday and Sunday throughout the two weeks to maintain promotional momentum, with limited contributions from the weekend team from New York.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The first brand extension of "Today" was created in 1982. The early morning news program "Early Today" was conceived as a lead-in for "Today", featuring the same anchors as the main program at the time, Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley. The half-hour program was fed twice to allow affiliates to carry one or both broadcasts. NBC canceled the program after a year, and replaced it with "NBC News at Sunrise", originally anchored by Connie Chung.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In April 1999, NBC canceled "Sunrise" for two brand extensions of "Today". One was "Early Today" which was revived September 7, 1999; the revived program originally was produced by CNBC and focused on business and financial news before switching to general news under the same production staff as "MSNBC First Look" in 2004. "Early Today" continues to air on the network, airing live each weekday morning at 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time (with an updated telecast for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone), and on tape delay until 10:00 a.m. Eastern – corresponding with the start time of "Today" in the Pacific Time Zone – to allow for adjustment in airtimes for other time zones and for certain NBC stations without a local morning newscast to air "Early Today" in lieu of one.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Today 3rd Hour (sometimes called The 3rd), the current name for the third hour of "Today", features anchors who appear in the first two hours of the program. After "Megyn Kelly Today" was cancelled on October 26, 2018, NBC announced that "Today" anchors would host the third hour. The new third hour premiered on October 29, 2018, with Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Al Roker anchoring for the first 20 minutes from Studio 1A, reporting on the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, with Savannah Guthrie anchoring live from Pittsburgh. At the top of the program, Kotb said:


title: Today (American TV program)

text: After 20 minutes, the program continued with Jenna Bush Hager from Studio 6A, the former home of "Megyn Kelly Today", where broadcasts of the third hour would begin to be based. Since its debut, the third hour has used a modified nameless opening title sequence compared to the other editions of "Today". Various other "Today" and NBC News personalities filled in until January, when it was announced that the official hosts would be Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones, Dylan Dreyer and Craig Melvin. On December 4, 2018, an NBC News spokesperson confirmed that the third hour would move to Studio 1A to streamline the production process and create a more seamless broadcast. The last day at Studio 6A was January 4, 2019, with new broadcasts in Studio 1A beginning on January 7.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today with Hoda & Jenna" premiered on April 8, 2019, as the fourth hour of "Today", succeeding "Kathie Lee & Hoda". The program is hosted by Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, and continues to follow a similar format as its predecessor as its own distinct entity.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On July 15, 2020, NBC launched "Today" All Day, a digital extension of "Today" which is a streaming video channel on the program's website and Peacock. It features blocks of soft news and lifestyle segments drawn from the program, as well as original content hosted by the program's personalities. NBC plans to eventually widen its distribution via third-party internet TV services in addition to its own.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On September 7, 1999, NBC launched Later Today, a talk show that was intended to air immediately following the then two-hour "Today". Replacing "Leeza" (which would continue in first-run syndication for one more year) on the network's morning schedule, "Later Today" was hosted by Jodi Applegate, Florence Henderson and Asha Blake. The program was cancelled on August 11, 2000, due to lackluster ratings; it was replaced two months later by the third hour of "Today", later known as "Today's Take".


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Today's Take (sometimes called "The Take") was the third-hour segment of "Today". This "show-within-a-show" had its own anchors (although featuring on-air staff that appears during the first two hours of the program), opening title sequence and theme music.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On October 2, 2000, NBC expanded "Today" to three hours, with the addition of an hour from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. For its first twelve years, the format of the third hour was originally structured similarly to "Today"s first two hours, using the same anchors as that portion of the broadcast; separate anchors began to be used for the third hour over time, with only the news anchor (Ann Curry until 2011, then Natalie Morales) and the weather anchor (Al Roker) being shared with the main 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. block – this was particularly the case during instances where Matt Lauer or his co-host (Katie Couric, then Meredith Vieira from 2006 to 2011, Ann Curry from 2011 to 2012, and finally Savannah Guthrie during the final months of the original format) could not be present for the entire hour due to reporting assignments or personal commitments. Vieira, outside of breaking news situations, was specifically disallowed by contract from any duties in the third hour due to her hosting commitments to the syndicated version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" by Disney–ABC Domestic Television.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: The network revamped the format of the third hour on November 12, 2012, and gave it the in-program title "Today's Take". Roker was joined during the revamped third hour by Natalie Morales and Willie Geist (who had recently joined "Today" after ending his run as the original anchor of MSNBC's "Way Too Early"); MSNBC anchor and "Today" correspondent Tamron Hall was added as a co-host for that hour of the program on February 24, 2014, and Ellie Kemper joined the program on June 29, 2015, as a temporary co-host (until July 17, 2015).


title: Today (American TV program)

text: With the change, traditional news segments at the beginning of the hour were abandoned in favor of a topical "host chat" format similar to the opening segment of the succeeding fourth hour of the program (with the only difference being that top general news events are discussed somewhat more often, in addition to featuring topical discussions on offbeat and pop culture-related stories and periodic clips from television programs aired the previous night and viral video). Instead, the news segment (titled "News with Natalie", anchored by Morales, and alternately titled "Today's News" on days when Morales is off) is featured prior to the local update cutaways near the end of the first half-hour; national weather segments are also retained following the host chat segments in both half-hours. Beginning in May 2015, the "News with Natalie"/"Today's News" segment moved to 9:30 a.m. and the national weather segment to follow and the host chat at 9:30 a.m. was discontinued.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On August 22, 2016, both Morales and Geist left "Today's Take" and former "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush officially joined the set. Bush was later suspended and eventually fired from the segment as well as the program following Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape during U.S. Republican and presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign in October 2016.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On February 1, 2017, Hall left "Today's Take". Weekend co-anchor Sheinelle Jones and weekend meteorologist Dylan Dreyer filled in as co-hosts alongside Roker until a new morning lineup began in the fall.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today's Take" aired its final episode on September 22, 2017, and "Megyn Kelly Today" replaced it on September 25, 2017.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Megyn Kelly Today" premiered on September 25, 2017, as a replacement for "Today's Take". It was hosted by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, and was structured as a daytime talk show.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In the wake of stable but lower viewership in comparison to the timeslot's predecessor, a desire by Kelly to focus more on her overall role at NBC News, and in the wake of controversy over a recent segment discussing blackface, the show was officially cancelled on October 26, 2018. Kelly never again appeared on NBC and departed the network three months later.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda" was the fourth-hour segment of "Today" hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, which aired from April 7, 2008, to April 5, 2019. It replaced the original fourth hour that debuted earlier that fall on September 10, 2007, originally hosted by Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, and Hoda Kotb. The program was its own distinct entity, with its own website and social media presence. The fourth hour does not have news or weather segments or input from the earlier hosts and is structured virtually as a standalone talk show, with an opening "host chat" segment reminiscent of the one popularized by Gifford and Regis Philbin on "Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee" (which aired on ABC between 1987 and 2000), as well as interviews and features focusing on entertainment, fashion and other topics aimed at female viewers.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: On December 11, 2018, NBC and Gifford announced that she will be retiring from her position of anchoring the fourth hour in April 2019, her 11th anniversary since joining "Today". Kotb continues co-anchoring the fourth hour. On February 26, 2019, NBC announced that Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of former U.S. President George W. Bush would replace Gifford.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Today" host Dave Garroway selected Les Brown's "Sentimental Journey" as the program's original theme music, which was used during Garroway's entire run from 1952 to 1961. In 1962, when Hugh Downs became host, Django Reinhardt's "Melodie au Crepuscule" was chosen as the new theme; it was replaced in 1963 by "Misty", an instrumental ballad composed by Erroll Garner and performed by Bobby Hackett and John B. Seng.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: "Misty" served as "Today"s theme until 1971, when NBC News correspondent Frank McGee joined the show. Composer Ray Ellis penned an instrumental theme entitled "This is "Today"", a jazzy, up-tempo piece that served as the program's main theme until 1978. Because "This is Today" closely resembled Stephen Schwartz's song "Day by Day" from the musical "Godspell", Schwartz successfully sued for copyright infringement. "This is "Today"" was revised as a result, with the second version of the piece incorporating the familiar NBC chimes was used until 1981, at the close of the Tom Brokaw–Jane Pauley era. The chimes were also used throughout the program to introduce and conclude segments, usually in combination with the familiar "Today" sunburst logo.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: By the time Bryant Gumbel was appointed co-anchor of the program in 1982, a new version of Ellis' "This is "Today"" theme was introduced, using a looser, more relaxed arrangement that continued to feature the NBC chimes in its melody. A shorter arrangement of "This is "Today"" was used for the show open (featuring a rotating globe and the "Today" sunburst) from 1983 to 1985. The main theme was used until 1985, and due to its popularity with viewers was resurrected as the show's secondary theme in January 1993. The 1982 theme later served as the program's official "anniversary" music, used to open and close retrospective segments in the leadup to "Today"'s 60th anniversary in 2012.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: 1985 saw the end of the synthesizer era at NBC as composer John Williams wrote a series of themes for all NBC News programs, with a cut entitled "The Mission", serving as the principal theme for "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw". Williams also composed two themes for "Today": an opening fanfare for the program that was derived from the opening of "The Mission", and a two-minute closing theme for the show entitled "Scherzo for Today", a dramatic arrangement that made heavy use of strings and flutes. In the late 1980s, "Scherzo" was played in its entirety multiple times daily during the weather scrolls that ran during local commercial breaks; however, most NBC affiliates preempted these segments with locally slotted advertising. The new "Today" themes – used in tandem with the show's new opening sequence featuring the Statue of Liberty and a new living room studio set – gave the program a distinctly modern look and sound beginning in September 1985. A series of Williams-penned bumpers featuring "The Mission" signature were also used to open and close segments. "Scherzo for Today" was used as the program's closing theme until 1990, and "The Mission" bumpers were used until 1993 (one of them could be heard as a station break lead-in on NBC's "Meet The Press" until 2004).


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Meanwhile, Williams' opening fanfare had opened the program ever since its 1985 introduction, with two brief interruptions; new opening themes were briefly introduced and quickly discarded in the summer of 1994 (to mark the debut of Studio 1A) and in 2004. The fanfare was iconically accompanied by Fred Facey announcing "From NBC News, this is "Today"… with (anchor) and (anchor)" (with "Live from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza" being added to the introduction on June 20, 1994, when the show moved to its new studio). Although Facey died in April 2003, his introduction of the Couric–Lauer team was used for the duration of Couric's era (except for special editions requiring special introductions). "Weekend Today" announcer Les Marshak became the new voice of the weekday program on September 13, 2006. A lighter theme employing the NBC chimes was used to open the show's 7:30 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. half-hour segments, and was also used as a closing theme.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: In March 2013, "The Mission" was replaced with a theme composed by Adam Gubman for Non-Stop Music. Along with Non-Stop Music, Gubman's rebranding could be heard dating back to "Today"s coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April 2011. Gubman went on to write music for the network's 2012 election coverage, and continues to provide audio content for "Today".


title: Today (American TV program)

text: From 1995 to 2012, "Today" generally beat ABC rival "Good Morning America" in the Nielsen ratings among all network morning programs. By the week of September 11, 2006, the program earned 6.320 million total viewers, 1.6 million more than the 4.73 million viewers earned by "Good Morning America". This gap eventually decreased, as by the week of June 30, 2008, "Today" was watched by an average of 4.9 million viewers, compared to "Good Morning America"s 3.8 million.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: Furthermore, by the week of October 12, 2008, "Today"s total viewership had gone up to 4.910 million viewers, compared to second place "Good Morning America"s total viewership of 4.25 million (and significantly above the 2.66 million viewers earned by CBS' "The Early Show"). For the week above, the third hour (referred as "Today II" by NBC exclusively for Nielsen ratings counts) drew 2.9 million viewers and the fourth hour (referred in Nielsen ratings as "Today III"), delivered 1.7 million.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: For the week of January 4, 2009, the 8:00 a.m. hour of "Today" averaged 5.998 million viewers; the 9:00& a.m. hour, meanwhile, averaged 4.447 million total viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults aged 25–54, marking that hour's best ratings since the week of August 11, 2008. The 10:00 a.m. hour averaged 2.412 million total viewers and a .8 rating in the demographic, the highest total viewership for that portion of the program since the week of December 31, 2007.


title: Today (American TV program)

text: For the week of April 11, 2011, the program passed its 800th consecutive week as the No. 1 rated network morning news program, with 5.662 million total viewers (ahead of "Good Morning America" by approximately 1.2 million viewers).


title: Today (American TV program)

text: During the week of April 25, 2011, "Today" averaged 6.424 million viewers, marking its best weekly total viewership since August 11, 2008, during the 2008 Summer Olympics. This was largely buoyed by the April 29 coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, which earned 9.628 million viewers (beating "Good Morning America"s coverage by more than 1.6 million viewers), and was also the best single day rating since November 8, 2000, the day after the 2000 presidential election.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work premiered in 1949 on Broadway and was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances. The plot is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book "Tales of the South Pacific" and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his Asian sweetheart. The issue of racial prejudice is candidly explored throughout the musical, most controversially in the lieutenant's song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught". Supporting characters, including a comic petty officer and the Tonkinese girl's mother, help to tie the stories together. Because he lacked military knowledge, Hammerstein had difficulty writing that part of the script; the director of the original production, Logan, assisted him and received credit as co-writer of the book.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The original Broadway production enjoyed immense critical and box-office success, became the second-longest running Broadway musical to that point (behind Rodgers and Hammerstein's earlier "Oklahoma!" (1943)), and has remained popular ever since. After they signed Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin as the leads, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote several of the songs with the particular talents of their stars in mind. The piece won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. Especially in the Southern U.S., its racial theme provoked controversy, for which its authors were unapologetic. Several of its songs, including "Bali Ha'i", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair", "Some Enchanted Evening", "There Is Nothing Like a Dame", "Happy Talk", "Younger Than Springtime", and "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", have become popular standards.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Libretto, and it is the only musical production to win Tony Awards in all four acting categories. Its original cast album was the bestselling record of the 1940s, and other recordings of the show have also been popular. The show has enjoyed many successful revivals and tours, spawning a 1958 film and television adaptations. The 2008 Broadway revival, a critical success, ran for 996 performances and won seven Tonys, including Best Musical Revival.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Although book editor and university instructor James Michener could have avoided military service in World War II as a birthright Quaker, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 1942. He was not sent to the South Pacific theater until April 1944, when he was assigned to write a history of the Navy in the Pacific and was allowed to travel widely. He survived a plane crash in New Caledonia; the near-death experience motivated him to write fiction, and he began listening to the stories told by soldiers. One journey took him to the Treasury Islands, where he discovered an unpleasant village, called Bali-ha'i, populated by "scrawny residents and only one pig". Struck by the name, Michener wrote it down and soon began to record, on a battered typewriter, his version of the tales. On a plantation on the island of Espiritu Santo, he met a woman named Bloody Mary; she was small, almost toothless, her face stained with red betel juice. Punctuated with profanity learned from GIs, she complained endlessly to Michener about the French colonial government, which refused to allow her and other Tonkinese to return to their native Vietnam, lest the plantations be depopulated. She told him also of her plans to oppose colonialism in French Indochina. These stories, collected into "Tales of the South Pacific", won Michener the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: "Tales of the South Pacific" comprises nineteen stories. Each stands independently but revolves around the preparation for an American military operation to dislodge the Japanese from a nearby island. This operation, dubbed "Alligator", occurs in the penultimate story, "The Landing at Kuralei". Many of the characters die in that battle, and the last story is titled "The Cemetery at Huga Point". The stories are thematically linked in pairs: the first and final stories are reflective, the second and eighteenth involve battle, the third and seventeenth involve preparation for battle, and so on. The tenth story, at the center, is not paired with any other. This story, "Fo' Dolla' ", was one of only four of his many works that Michener later admitted to holding in high regard. It was the one that attracted Rodgers and Hammerstein's attention for its potential to be converted into a stage work.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: "Fo' Dolla' ", set in part on the island of Bali-ha'i, focuses on the romance between a young Tonkinese woman, Liat, and one of the Americans, Marine Lieutenant Joe Cable, a Princeton graduate and scion of a wealthy Main Line family. Pressed to marry Liat by her mother, Bloody Mary, Cable reluctantly declines, realizing that the Asian girl would never be accepted by his family or Philadelphia society. He leaves for battle (where he will die) as Bloody Mary proceeds with her backup plan, to affiance Liat to a wealthy French planter on the islands. Cable struggles, during the story, with his own racism: he is able to overcome it sufficiently to love Liat, but not enough to take her home.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Another source of the musical is the eighth story, "Our Heroine", which is thematically paired with the 12th, "A Boar's Tooth", as both involve American encounters with local cultures. "Our Heroine" tells of the romance between Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, from rural Arkansas, and a wealthy, sophisticated planter, Frenchman Emile De Becque. After falling in love with Emile, Nellie (who is introduced briefly in story No. 4, "An Officer and a Gentleman") learns that Emile has eight daughters, out of wedlock, with several local women. Michener tells us that "any person ... who was not white or yellow was a nigger" to Nellie, and while she is willing to accept two of the children (of French-Asian descent) who remain in Emile's household, she is taken aback by the other two girls who live there, evidence that the planter had cohabited with a darker Polynesian woman. To her great relief, she learns that this woman is dead, but Nellie endangers her relationship with Emile when she is initially unable to accept Emile's "nigger children". Nellie overcomes her feelings and returns to spend her life with her plantation owner.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Additional elements of "South Pacific" had their genesis in others of Michener's 19 tales. One introduces the character of Bloody Mary; another tells of a British spy hidden on the Japanese-controlled island who relays information about Japanese movements to Allied forces by radio. Michener based the spy, dubbed "the Remittance Man", on Captain Martin Clemens, a Scot, who unlike his fictional counterpart, survived the war. The stories also tell of the seemingly endless waiting that precedes battle, and the efforts of the Americans to repel boredom, which would inspire the song "There Is Nothing Like a Dame". Several of the stories involve the Seabee, Luther Billis, who in the musical would be used both for comic relief and to tie together episodes involving otherwise unconnected characters. A 2001 article in "Islands Magazine" states that Michener renamed Aoba Island Bali-ha'i. The author interviewed the proprietor of a resort on Espiritu Santo, who claimed that Emile was modeled on his father and that the "real Bloody Mary" lived on Espiritu Santo for many years after the war and lived to the age of 102.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: In the early 1940s, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, each a longtime Broadway veteran, joined forces and began their collaboration by writing two musicals that became massive hits, "Oklahoma!" (1943) and "Carousel" (1945). An innovation for its time in integrating song, dialogue and dance, "Oklahoma!" would serve as "the model for Broadway shows for decades". In 1999, "Time" magazine named "Carousel" the best musical of the century, writing that Rodgers and Hammerstein "set the standards for the 20th-century musical". Their next effort, "Allegro" (1947), was a comparative disappointment, running for less than a year, although it turned a small profit. After this, the two were determined to achieve another hit.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: According to director Joshua Logan, a friend of both theatre men, he and Leland Hayward mentioned Michener's best-selling book to Rodgers as a possible basis for the duo's next play, but the composer took no action. Logan recalled that he then pointed it out to Hammerstein, who read Michener's book and spoke to Rodgers; the two agreed to do the project so long as they had majority control, to which Hayward grudgingly agreed. Michener, in his 1992 memoirs, however, wrote that the stories were first pitched as a movie concept to MGM by Kenneth MacKenna, head of the studio's literary department. MacKenna's half brother was Jo Mielziner, who had designed the sets for "Carousel" and "Allegro". Michener states that Mielziner learned of the work from MacKenna and brought it to the attention of Hammerstein and Rodgers, pledging to create the sets if they took on the project.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Hayward attempted to buy the rights from Michener outright, offering $500; Michener declined. Although playwright Lynn Riggs had received 1.5% of the box office grosses for the right to adapt "Green Grow the Lilacs" into "Oklahoma!", Michener never regretted accepting one percent of the gross receipts from "South Pacific". As Rodgers and Hammerstein began their work on the adaptation, Michener worked mostly with the lyricist, but Rodgers was concerned about the implications of the setting, fearing that he would have to include ukuleles and guitars, which he disliked. Michener assured him that the only instrument he had ever heard the natives play was an emptied barrel of gasoline, drummed upon with clubs.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Soon after their purchase of the rights, Rodgers and Hammerstein decided not to include a ballet, as in their earlier works, feeling that the realism of the setting would not support one. Concerned that an adaptation too focused on "Fo' Dolla' ", the story of the encounter between Cable and Liat, would be too similar to "Madama Butterfly", Hammerstein spent months studying the other stories and focused his attention on "Our Heroine", the tale of the romance between Nellie and Emile. The team decided to include both romances in the musical play. It was conventional at the time that if one love story in a musical was serious, the other would be more comedic, but in this case both were serious and focused on racial prejudice. They decided to increase the role played by Luther Billis in the stories, merging experiences and elements of several other characters into him. Billis's wheeling and dealing would provide comic relief. They also shortened the title to "South Pacific" – Rodgers related that the producers tired of people making risqué puns on the word "tales".


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: In early drafts of the musical, Hammerstein gave significant parts to two characters who eventually came to have only minor roles, Bill Harbison and Dinah Culbert. Harbison is one of the major characters in "Tales of the South Pacific"; a model officer at the start, he gradually degenerates to the point where, with battle imminent, he requests his influential father-in-law to procure for him a transfer to a post in the United States. Hammerstein conceived of him as a rival to Emile for Nellie's affections, and gave him a song, "The Bright Young Executive of Today". As redrafts focused the play on the two couples, Harbison became less essential, and he was relegated to a small role as the executive officer to the commander of the island, Captain Brackett. Dinah, a nurse and friend of Nellie, is also a major character in Michener's work, and was seen as a possible love interest for Billis, though any actual romance was limited by Navy regulations forbidding fraternization between officers (all American nurses in World War II were commissioned officers) and enlisted men. "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" originated as a duet for Dinah and Nellie, with Dinah beginning the song and developing its theme. According to Lovensheimer, Nellie's and Dinah's "friendship became increasingly incidental to the plot as the writing continued. Hammerstein eventually realized that the decision to wash Emile out of her hair had to be Nellie's. Only then did the scene have the dramatic potential for Nellie's emotional transition" as she realizes her love for Emile. In the final version, Dinah retains one solo line in the song.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Joshua Logan, in his memoirs, stated that after months of effort in the first half of 1948, Hammerstein had written only the first scene, an outline, and some lyrics. Hammerstein was having trouble due to lack of knowledge of the military, a matter with which Logan, a veteran of the armed forces, was able to help. The dialogue was written in consultation between the two of them, and eventually Logan asked to be credited for his work. Rodgers and Hammerstein decided that while Logan would receive co-writing credit on the book, he would receive no author's royalties. Logan stated that a contract putting these changes into force was sent over to his lawyer with instructions that unless it was signed within two hours, Logan need not show up for rehearsals as director. Logan signed, although his lawyer did not then tell him about the ultimatum. Through the decades that followed, Logan brought the matter up from time to time, demanding compensation, but when he included his version of the events in his 1976 memoirs, it was disputed by Rodgers (Hammerstein had died in 1960). Rodgers biographer Meryle Secrest suggests that Logan was compensated when "South Pacific" was filmed in 1958, as Logan received a substantial share of the profits as director. According to Michener biographer Stephen J. May, "it is difficult to assess just how much of the final book Josh Logan was responsible for. Some estimates say 30 to 40 percent. But that percentage is not as critical perhaps as his knowledge of military lore and directing for the theatre, without which the creation of "South Pacific" would have collapsed during that summer of 1948."


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Rodgers composed the music once he received the lyrics from Hammerstein. A number of stories are told of the speed with which he wrote the music for "South Pacific" 's numbers. "Happy Talk" was said to have been composed in about twenty minutes; when Hammerstein, who had sent the lyrics by messenger, called to check whether Rodgers had received them, his partner informed him that he had both lyrics and music. Legend has it he composed "Bali Ha'i" in ten minutes over coffee in Logan's apartment; what he did create in that time frame was the three-note motif which begins both song and musical. Hammerstein's lyrics for "Bali Ha'i" were inspired by the stage backdrop which designer Jo Mielziner had painted. Feeling that the island of Bali Ha'i did not appear mysterious enough, Mielziner painted some mist near the summit of its volcano. When Hammerstein saw this he immediately thought of the lyric, "my head sticking up from a low-flying cloud" and the rest of the song followed easily from that.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: In May 1948, Rodgers received a telephone call from Edwin Lester of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. Lester had signed former Metropolitan Opera star Ezio Pinza for $25,000 to star in a new show, "Mr. Ambassador". The show had not been written, and it never would be. Lester hoped that Rodgers would take over Pinza's contract. Pinza had become bored as the Met's leading lyric bass, and having played the great opera houses, sought other worlds to conquer. Rodgers immediately saw Pinza as perfect for the role of Emile. Lester carefully broached the subject to Pinza and his wife/business manager and provided them with a copy of "Tales of the South Pacific". When Pinza read the book, he told Lester, "Sell me right away!" Pinza's contract for "South Pacific" included a clause limiting his singing to 15 minutes per performance. With Pinza's signing, Rodgers and Hammerstein decided to make his the lead male role, subordinating the story of the pair of young lovers. It was unusual on Broadway for the romantic lead to be an older male.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: For the role of Nellie, Rodgers sought Mary Martin, who had nearly been cast to originate the role of Laurey in "Oklahoma!" Martin was playing the title role in the touring company of "Annie Get Your Gun". After Hammerstein and Rodgers saw her play in Los Angeles in mid-1948, they asked her to consider the part. Martin was reluctant to sing opposite Pinza's powerful voice; Rodgers assured her he would see to it the two never sang at the same time, a promise he mostly kept. Rodgers and Martin lived near each other in Connecticut, and after her tour Rodgers invited Martin and her husband, Richard Halliday, to his home to hear the three songs for the musical that he had completed, none of them for Nellie. "Some Enchanted Evening" especially struck Martin, and although disappointed the song was not for her, she agreed to do the part. Although Nellie and Emile were already fully developed characters in Michener's stories, during the creation of "South Pacific", Rodgers, Hammerstein and Logan began to adapt the roles specifically to the talents of Martin and Pinza and to tailor the music for their voices.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Martin influenced several of her songs. While showering one day during rehearsals, she came up with the idea for a scene in which she would shampoo her hair onstage. This gave rise to "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair". Built around a primitive shower that Logan remembered from his time in the military, the song became one of the most talked-about in "South Pacific". To introduce another of Martin's numbers to her, Rodgers called her over to his apartment, where he and Hammerstein played "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" for her. When Martin essayed it for herself, she sang the final 26 words, as intended, with a single breath, and fell off her piano bench. Rodgers gazed down at her, "That's exactly what I want. Never do it differently. We must feel you couldn't squeeze out another sound."


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The producers held extensive auditions to fill the other roles. Myron McCormick was cast as Billis; according to Logan, no one else was seriously considered. The two roles which gave the most trouble were those of Cable and Bloody Mary. They tried to get Harold Keel for the role of Cable (he had played Curly in the West End production of "Oklahoma!") only to find that he had signed a contract with MGM under the name Howard Keel. William Tabbert was eventually cast as Cable, though Logan instructed him to lose . African-American singer Juanita Hall was cast as Bloody Mary; Logan recalled that at her audition, she took a squatting pose which proclaimed, "I am Bloody Mary and don't you dare cast anyone else!" Betta St. John, who under the name Betty Striegler had replaced Bambi Linn as Louise in "Carousel", took the role of Liat. Logan directed (he and Hayward co-produced with Rodgers and Hammerstein), Mielziner did the stage design, Trude Rittmann and Robert Russell Bennett prepared the orchestration, and Elizabeth Montgomery of Motley Theatre Design Group designed the costumes. Salvatore Dell'Isola served as music director.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Rehearsals began at Broadway's Belasco Theatre on February 2, 1949. There was no formal chorus; each of the nurses and Seabees was given a name, and, in the case of the men, $50 to equip themselves with what clothing they felt their characters would wear from the military surplus shops which lined West 42nd Street. Don Fellows, the first Lt. Buzz Adams, drew on his wartime experience as a Marine to purchase a non-regulation baseball cap and black ankle boots. Martin and Pinza had not known each other, but they soon formed a strong friendship. Of the mood backstage, "everyone agreed: throughout the rehearsals Logan was fiery, demanding, and brilliantly inventive." He implemented lap changes (pioneered by Rodgers and Hammerstein in "Allegro"), whereby the actors coming on next would already be on a darkened part of the stage as one scene concluded. This allowed the musical to continue without interruption by scene changes, making the action almost seamless. He soon had the Seabees pacing back and forth like caged animals during "There Is Nothing Like a Dame", a staging so effective it was never changed during the run of the show. One Logan innovation that Rodgers and Hammerstein reluctantly accepted was to have Cable remove his shirt during the blackout after he and Liat passionately embrace on first meeting, his partial nakedness symbolizing their lovemaking. As originally planned, Martin was supposed to conclude "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" with an exuberant cartwheel across the stage. This was eliminated after she vaulted into the orchestra pit, knocking out Rittman.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: There were no major difficulties during the four weeks of rehearsal in New York; Martin later remembered that the "gypsy run-through" for friends and professional associates on a bare stage was met with some of the most enthusiastic applause she could remember. One of the few people having trouble was Pinza, who had difficulty adjusting to the constant alterations in the show – he was used to the operatic world, where a role rarely changed once learned. Pinza's mispronunciations of English exasperated Logan, and driving to New Haven, Connecticut for the first week of previews, Pinza discussed with his wife the possibility of a return to the Met, where he knew audiences would welcome him. She told him to let "South Pacific"'s attendees decide for themselves. When the tryouts began in New Haven on March 7, the play was an immediate hit; the "New Haven Register" wrote, ""South Pacific" should make history".


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Nevertheless, a number of changes were made in New Haven and in the subsequent two weeks of previews in Boston. The show was running long; Logan persuaded his friend, playwright Emlyn Williams, to go over the script and cut extraneous dialogue. There were wide expectations of a hit; producer Mike Todd came backstage and advised that the show not be taken to New York "because it's too damned good for them". The show moved to Boston, where it was so successful that playwright George S. Kaufman joked that people lining up there at the Shubert Theatre "don't actually want anything ... They just want to push money under the doors."


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: "South Pacific" opened on Broadway on April 7, 1949, at the Majestic Theatre. The advance sale was $400,000, and an additional $700,000 in sales was made soon after the opening. The first night audience was packed with important Broadway, business, and arts leaders. The audience repeatedly stopped the show with extended applause, which was sustained at length at the final curtain. Rodgers and Hammerstein had preferred, in the past, not to sponsor an afterparty, but they rented the St. Regis Hotel's roof and ordered 200 copies of "The New York Times" in the anticipation of a hit. "Times" critic Brooks Atkinson gave the show a rave review.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Three days after the opening, Pinza signed a contract with MGM to star in films once his obligation to appear in the show expired. He left the show June 1, 1950, replaced by Ray Middleton, though Pinza missed a number of shows due to illness before that. Martin recalled that, unused to performing eight shows a week, the former opera star would sing full out early in the week, leaving himself little voice towards the end, and would have his understudy go on. Nevertheless, during the year he was in the show, and although aged 58, he was acclaimed as a sex symbol; George Jean Nathan wrote that "Pinza has taken the place of Hot Springs, Saratoga, and hormone injections for all the other old boys".


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A national tour began in Cleveland, Ohio, in April 1950; it ran for five years and starred Richard Eastham as Emile, Janet Blair as Nellie and Ray Walston as Billis, a role Walston would reprise in London and in the 1958 film. For the 48,000 tickets available in Cleveland, 250,000 requests were submitted, causing the box office to close for three weeks to process them. Jeanne Bal and Iva Withers were later Nellies on this tour. A scaled-down version toured military bases in Korea in 1951; by the request of Hammerstein and Rodgers, officers and enlisted soldiers sat together to view it.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Martin left the Broadway production in 1951 to appear in the original London West End production; Martha Wright replaced her. Despite the departure of both original stars, the show remained a huge attraction in New York. Cloris Leachman also played Nellie during the New York run; George Britton was among the later Emiles. The London production ran from November 1, 1951, for 802 performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Logan directed; Martin and Wilbur Evans starred, with Walston as Billis, Muriel Smith as Bloody Mary and Ivor Emmanuel in the small role of Sgt. Johnson. Sean Connery and Martin's son Larry Hagman, both at the start of their careers, played Seabees in the London production; Julie Wilson eventually replaced Martin. On January 30, 1952, King George VI attended the production with his daughter Princess Elizabeth and other members of the Royal Family. He died less than a week later.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The Broadway production transferred to the Broadway Theatre in June 1953 to accommodate Rodgers and Hammerstein's new show, "Me and Juliet", although "South Pacific" had to be moved to Boston for five weeks because of schedule conflicts. When it closed on January 16, 1954, after 1,925 performances, it was the second-longest-running musical in Broadway history, after "Oklahoma!". At the final performance, Myron McCormick, the only cast member remaining from the opening, led the performers and audience in "Auld Lang Syne"; the curtain did not fall but remained raised as the audience left the theatre.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: On a South Pacific island during World War II, two half-Polynesian children, Ngana and Jerome, happily sing as they play together ("Dites-Moi"). Ensign Nellie Forbush, a naïve U.S. Navy nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, has fallen in love with Emile de Becque, a middle-aged French plantation owner, though she has known him only briefly. Even though everyone else is worried about the outcome of the war, Nellie tells Emile that she is sure everything will turn out all right ("A Cockeyed Optimist"). Emile also loves Nellie, and each wonders if the other reciprocates those feelings ("Twin Soliloquies"). Emile expresses his love for Nellie, recalling how they met at the officers' club dance and instantly were attracted to each other ("Some Enchanted Evening"). Nellie, promising to think about their relationship, returns to the hospital. Emile calls Ngana and Jerome to him, revealing to the audience that they are his children, unbeknownst to Nellie.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Meanwhile, the restless American Seabees, led by crafty Luther Billis, lament the absence of available women – Navy nurses are commissioned officers and off-limits to enlisted men. There is one civilian woman on the island, nicknamed "Bloody Mary", a sassy middle-aged Tonkinese vendor of grass skirts, who engages the sailors in sarcastic, flirtatious banter as she tries to sell them her wares ("Bloody Mary"). Billis yearns to visit the nearby island of Bali Ha'i – which is off-limits to all but officers – supposedly to witness a Boar's Tooth Ceremony (at which he can get an unusual native artifact); the other sailors josh him, saying that his real motivation is to see the young French women there. Billis and the sailors further lament their lack of female companionship ("There Is Nothing Like a Dame").


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: U.S. Marine Lieutenant Cable arrives on the island from Guadalcanal, having been sent to take part in a dangerous spy mission whose success could turn the tide of the war against Japan. Bloody Mary tries to persuade Cable to visit "Bali Ha'i", mysteriously telling him that it is "his" special island. Billis, seeing an opportunity, urges Cable to go. Cable meets with his commanding officers, Captain George Brackett and Commander William Harbison, who plan to ask Emile to help with the mission because he used to live on the island where the mission will take place. They ask Nellie to help them find out more about Emile's background, for example, his politics and why he left France. They have heard, for instance, that Emile committed a murder, and this might make him less than desirable for such a mission.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: After thinking a bit more about Emile and deciding she has become attracted on the basis of little knowledge of him, Nellie tells the other nurses that she intends to end her relationship with him ("I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"). But when he arrives unexpectedly and invites Nellie to a party where he will introduce her to his friends, she accepts. Emile declares his love for Nellie and asks her to marry him. When she mentions politics, he speaks of universal freedom, and describes fleeing France after standing up against a bully, who died accidentally as the two fought. After hearing this, Nellie agrees to marry Emile. After he exits, Nellie joyously gives voice to her feelings ("I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy").


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Cable's mission is to land on a Japanese-held island and report on Japanese ship movements. The Navy officers ask Emile to be Cable's guide, but he refuses their request because of his hopes for a new life with Nellie. Commander Harbison, the executive officer, tells Cable to go on leave until the mission can take place, and Billis obtains a boat and takes Cable to Bali Ha'i. There, Billis participates in the native ceremony, while Bloody Mary introduces Cable to her beautiful daughter, Liat, with whom he must communicate haltingly in French. Believing that Liat's only chance at a better life is to marry an American officer, Mary leaves Liat alone with Cable. The two are instantly attracted to each other and make love ("Younger Than Springtime"). Billis and the rest of the crew are ready to leave the island, yet must wait for Cable who, unbeknownst to them, is with Liat ("Bali Ha'i" (reprise)). Bloody Mary proudly tells Billis that Cable is going to be her son-in-law.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Meanwhile, after Emile's party, he and Nellie reflect on how happy they are to be in love (Reprises of "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", "Twin Soliloquies", "Cockeyed Optimist" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"). Emile introduces Nellie to Jerome and Ngana. Though she finds them charming, she is shocked when Emile reveals that they are his children by his first wife, a dark-skinned Polynesian woman, now deceased. Nellie is unable to overcome her deep-seated racial prejudices and tearfully leaves Emile, after which he reflects sadly on what might have been ("Some Enchanted Evening" (reprise)).


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: It is Thanksgiving Day. The GIs and nurses dance in a holiday revue titled "Thanksgiving Follies". In the past week, an epidemic of malaria has hit the island of Bali Ha'i. Having visited Bali Ha'i often to be with Liat, Cable is also ill, but escapes from the hospital to be with Liat. As Liat and Cable spend more time together, Bloody Mary is delighted. She encourages them to continue their carefree life on the island ("Happy Talk") and urges them to marry. Cable, aware of his family's prejudices, says he cannot marry a Tonkinese girl. Bloody Mary furiously drags her distraught daughter away, telling Cable that Liat must now marry a much older French plantation owner instead. Cable laments his loss. ("Younger Than Springtime" (reprise)).


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: For the final number of the Thanksgiving Follies, Nellie performs a comedy burlesque dressed as a sailor singing the praises of "his" sweetheart ("Honey Bun"). Billis plays Honey Bun, dressed in a blond wig, grass skirt and coconut-shell bra. After the show, Emile asks Nellie to reconsider. She insists that she cannot feel the same way about him since she knows about his children's Polynesian mother. Frustrated and uncomprehending, Emile asks Cable why he and Nellie have such prejudices. Cable, filled with self-loathing, replies that "it's not something you're born with", yet it is an ingrained part of their upbringing ("You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"). He also vows that if he gets out of the war alive, he won't go home to the United States; everything he wants is on these islands. Emile imagines what might have been ("This Nearly Was Mine"). Dejected and feeling that he has nothing to lose, he agrees to join Cable on his dangerous mission.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The mission begins with plenty of air support. Offstage, Billis stows away on the plane, falls out when the plane is hit by anti-aircraft fire, and ends up in the ocean waiting to be rescued; the massive rescue operation inadvertently becomes a diversion that allows Emile and Cable to land on the other side of the island undetected. The two send back reports on Japanese ships' movements in the "Slot", a strategic strait; American aircraft intercept and destroy the Japanese ships. When the Japanese Zeros strafe the Americans' position, Emile narrowly escapes, but Cable is killed.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Nellie learns of Cable's death and that Emile is missing. She realizes that she was foolish to reject Emile. Bloody Mary and Liat come to Nellie asking where Cable is; Mary explains that Liat refuses to marry anyone but him. Nellie comforts Liat. Cable and Emile's espionage work has made it possible for a major offensive, Operation "Alligator", to begin. The previously idle fighting men, including Billis, go off to battle.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: Nellie spends time with Jerome and Ngana and soon comes to love them. While the children are teaching her to sing "Dites-Moi", suddenly Emile's voice joins them. Emile has returned to discover that Nellie has overcome her prejudices and has fallen in love with his children. Emile, Nellie and the children rejoice ("Dites-Moi" (reprise)).


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A number of songs were extensively modified or omitted in the weeks leading up to the initial Broadway opening. They are listed in the order of their one-time placement within the show:


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: The first Australian production opened in September 1952 at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne, playing for 10 months and 333 performances. It then played seasons in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide until late 1954, before returning to Melbourne for a further season.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A limited run of "South Pacific" by the New York City Center Light Opera Company opened at New York City Center on May 4, 1955, closing on May 15, 1955. It was directed by Charles Atkin, and had costumes by Motley and sets by Mielziner. The cast included Richard Collett as Emile, Sandra Deel as Nellie, Carol Lawrence as Liat, Sylvia Syms as Bloody Mary and Gene Saks as the Professor. A second limited run of the same production with a different cast opened at City Center on April 24, 1957, closing on May 12, 1957. It was directed by Jean Dalrymple, and the cast included Robert Wright as Emile, Mindy Carson as Nellie and Hall reprising the role of Bloody Mary. That production was given again in 1961, this time with Ann McLerie and William Chapman in the lead roles.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: There have been many stock or summer revivals of "South Pacific". One, in 1957 at Long Island's Westbury Music Fair, occurred at the same time that Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus was resisting the integration of Central High School by the Little Rock Nine. Nellie's pronouncement that she was from Little Rock was initially met with boos. Logan refused to allow Nellie's hometown to be changed, so a speech was made before each performance asking for the audience's forbearance, which was forthcoming.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: There were two revivals at Lincoln Center. Richard Rodgers produced the 1967 revival, which starred Florence Henderson and Giorgio Tozzi, who had been Rossano Brazzi's singing voice in the 1958 film. Joe Layton was the director; Eleanor Calbes's casting as Liat led to the addition of a reprise of "Bali Ha'i" for her. The cast album was issued on LP and later on CD. The musical toured North America from 1986 to 1988, headlined by Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden, with David Carroll as Cable, Armelia McQueen as Bloody Mary and Lia Chang as Liat, first directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald and then Ron Field. A New York City Opera production in 1987 featured alternating performers Justino Díaz and Stanley Wexler as Emile, and Susan Bigelow and Marcia Mitzman as Nellie.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A 1988 West End revival starred Gemma Craven and Emile Belcourt, supported by Bertice Reading, among others, and was directed by Roger Redfern. It ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre from January 20, 1988, to January 14, 1989.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A new production with slight revisions to the book and score was produced by the Royal National Theatre at the company's Olivier Theatre in London for a limited run from December 2001 through April 2002, timed to celebrate the centenary of Richard Rodgers' birth. Trevor Nunn directed, with musical staging by Matthew Bourne and designs by John Napier. Lauren Kennedy was Nellie, and Australian actor Philip Quast played Emile. Borrowing from the 1958 film, this production placed the first Emile-Nellie scene after the introduction of Cable, Billis and Bloody Mary.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A British touring production of "South Pacific" opened at the Blackpool Grand Theatre on August 28, 2007. The tour ended at the Cardiff New Theatre on July 19, 2008. It starred Helena Blackman as Nellie and Dave Willetts as Emile. Julian Woolford directed, with choreography by Chris Hocking. This production was most noted for its staging of the overture, which charted Nellie's journey from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the South Pacific. On entering the theatre, the audience first saw a map of the U.S., not the theater of war.


title: South Pacific (musical)

text: A Broadway revival of "South Pacific" opened on April 3, 2008, at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. Bartlett Sher directed, with musical staging by Christopher Gattelli and associate choreographer Joe Langworth. The opening cast starred Kelli O'Hara as Nellie, Paulo Szot as Emile and Matthew Morrison as Lt. Cable, with Danny Burstein as Billis and Loretta Ables Sayre as Bloody Mary. Laura Osnes replaced O'Hara during her seven-month maternity leave, beginning in March 2009, and also between January and August 2010. Szot alternated with David Pittsinger as Emile. The production closed on August 22, 2010, after 37 previews and 996 regular performances. The production, with most of the original principals, was taped and broadcast live in HD on August 18, 2010, on the PBS television show "Live from Lincoln Center". With a few exceptions, the production received rave reviews. Ben Brantley wrote in "The New York Times":