The Johnny Cash Show

The Johnny Cash Christmas Show...with guests, Roy Clark...June Carter Cash...The Carter Family...The Statler Brothers...Carl Perkins... Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis...1977.

The Johnny Cash Christmas Show...with guests, Roy Clark...June Carter Cash...The Carter Family...The Statler Brothers...Carl Perkins... Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis...1977.

For his 1978 Christmas special, the third in as many years, Johnny Cash moved the taping of the Christmas Special to Los Angeles, and, predictably, the program takes on a Hollywood feel. Guests include Kris Kristofferson and singer Rita Coolidge, both friends of the Cash family who perform a heartfelt "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends," and Steve Martin, one of America's hottest new comics at the time. June Carter Cash, as always, performs with her husband, and other family members make appearances in this special as well. The show originally aired December 6, 1978.

Andy Koffman, Tom T. Hall, Anne Murray

Johnny Cash hosts this delightful, down-home music special from Maces Spring, Virginia, birthplace of his wife June Carter Cash. June takes us to her childhood home and offers a history of The Carter Family, then sings “My Clinch Mountain Home” and “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight” with sisters Anita Carter and Helen Carter. Cousins Janette Carter and Joe Carter join in on “I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home” and “Foggy Mountain Top.” Next, Merle Haggard breaks out his fiddle for “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” and “San Antonio Rose.” (This entire segment is staged on an old time radio set, like the studios the Carter Family performed in in the 1930s.)

In 1985, Johnny hosted his tenth and final Christmas Special. His first Christmas Special was held in 1971 on the "Johnny Cash Show" for ABC. Then, from 1976 to 1985, Cash hosted an annual Christmas Special on CBS.