Grown out of American vaudeville, the variety show special of television's Golden Age – with the matching outfits, cotton candy and bubble color schemes, the countless celebrities and talents who broke in and "made it" and the endless stream of jaw-dropping musical performances representing a wide variety of musical and performance genres – was where so many of our most vivid musical memories and dreams were born. In the spirit of this year's Festival theme, Masters and Muses, Michael Stone and Siri Vik, who are themselves among the “TV Generation” are delighted to resurrect this magical form and share with you some of the exhilarating, inspiring, and just plain fun music and performance of the variety special. From the tragic strains of one of Mimi's great aria's in La bohème to Phyllis Diller at her hilarious best with Milton Berle or a romping duet by Carol Burnett and Cher, from playful little 1920s tunes pulled from the dusty bottom of the piano bench to the latest, most sophisticated musical theatre and jazz, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the light-hearted to the profound, from the slightly old-fashioned to the ultra-hip, it was always great fun and a joy to experience!