Trivia

Although the reviews for "The Judy Garland Show" were good, and she was on her best professional behavior throughout, the show was beaten in the ratings, virtually every week, by Bonanza (1959) on rival network NBC. This, coupled with the fact that then-CBS President James Aubrey intensely disliked Garland, and didn't bother to hide it, ultimately doomed the show to a one-season run. Its failure is thought, by some, to be one of the major contributing factors to Garland's final tormented years and subsequent early death.

Garland had been one of JFK's most vocal supporters, and had campaigned tirelessly for him in 1960. Upon hearing of his assassination on November 22, 1963, she insisted on cancelling the episode scheduled for taping that night, and instead doing a solo concert show of her singing classic American standards in tribute to the fallen leader. When told that CBS didn't care for the idea, Garland went ahead and did it anyway, further infuriating network executives, who were already looking for an excuse to cancel the show.

The original fifth episode was scripted and scheduled to be taped August 2, 1963, featuring Nat 'King' Cole and Jack Carter as guests. The episode was canceled when George Schlatter was fired as the series' producer. Cole was invited to appear on a later episode but, bitter about being dropped, refused the invitation.

This series proved to be colossally expensive, far more so than intended, and was made under very difficult circumstances, without being a ratings hit. It was described by one commentator as "the 'Cleopatra' of television". Mel Torme wrote a fairly devastating memoir of his time on the show, although it was not published until after Judy Garland's death.

For the opening moments of the premiere episode, Garland tried to convince Cary Grant to sit in the studio audience and introduce her with his oft-imitated line, "Judy! Judy! Judy!" Grant refused, pointing out that he had never actually said the line in any of his movies, adding that he was tired of fans and co-workers constantly asking him to "repeat" it.