ONCE UPON A MATTRESS 64 TV PRODUCTION complete 

I loved this as a kid. I’m 72 now and remembered every lyric!!! What a blast! Thanks for the memories!! ❤

Lovely Jane White, here reprising her stage role of the queen was actually African American. Truely a trailblazer.

This brings back memories of what watching TV specials as a kid was like.

The first television adaptation of this musical aired June 3, 1964 on CBS. The production was videotaped in black and white in front of a live audience and featured Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred, Joseph Bova as Prince Dauntless, Jack Gilford as King Sextimus the Silent, and Jane White as the Queen, from the original Broadway cast. New principals Bill Hayes, well known as Doug on Days of Our Lives, as the Minstrel, Shani Wallis, known to many as Nancy in the 1967 movie Oliver!, as Lady Larken, and Elliott Gould (in his first appearance on any screen) as the Jester were added to the cast. Once Upon a Mattress (1964) Songs Used: Shy (first number sung in this production) Normandy (sung by the Minstrel and Lady Larken) Sensitivity The Swamps of Home The Spanish Panic (with a different melody) Song of Love Quiet (Act 2 begins at 41:23) Daddy’s Soft Shoes Man to Man Talk Nightingale Lullaby Finale (A princess is a delicate thing…) Songs Not Used: Many Moons Ago We Have an Opening for a Princess In a Little While Happily Ever After Yesterday I Loved You Due to the reduced running time of 90 minutes, several songs, characters, and scenes were either cut or shortened. Some differences between the 1959 stage version and this 1964 version are: There is no Sir Harry. The character of Sir Harry, who made Lady Larken pregnant, from the stage version has been omitted and replaced by the Minstrel as Lady Larken's love interest. The pregnancy conflict concerning Sir Harry and Lady Larken from the original stage play was downplayed to the two lovers having been secretly married against the laws of the kingdom in this television version. The Minstrel is fired for mocking the Queen in song. The Minstrel is to be beheaded since he attempted to take Lady Larken out of the kingdom. The King discovers the plot of the pea while in the stage version it is the Minstrel who does. The Queen uses only the revolving mirror and the warm milk with opium. She doesn’t use the incense, so there are only two ladies in waiting.

What a pleasure it is to see this musical in such a clear copy! The kinescope that was on RU-vid before was lacking in picture and sound! This copy was procured by Jack Gilford's (he played the King) son...❤

One of the gtreatest musical comedies ever. This is such a terrific recording, I can't thank you enough!

Loved it! I haven't seen this since the original broadcast. Thanks so much!

my god, she is absolutely perfect. i've never seen anyone do this role better.

Carol Burnett is a national treasure!

I remember playing the Minstrel when I was in Grade 12 - so many great memories of that show. :)

Doing this show next month as the Minstrel! So happy to see this! Also I didn't know the Minstrel was married to Larken in this version! That's so weird having it be more than a crush/love triangle.

I remember seeing this when it first aired . What great fun to watch it again. Thank you .

I remember the 1972 version of this with Carol and Ken Berry, but I have never seen this one! Thank you for posting!

Thank you for posting the tape version... the sound on the kinescope that's been circulating for years can't compare... so wonderful!

43:00 - Elliott Gould as the jester, singing and dancing, remembering "When Daddy Wore His Very Soft Shoes". 👍

the minstrel/narrator is none other than Bill Hayes who (among many accomplishments) played Doug Williams on Days of Our Lives for over 50 years.

The missing scene (about 10 minutes) comes at 48 minutes in the videotape. There's a scene of Dauntless and Winifred together in his bedroom doing his homework. With the Video Calibration text coming up, I'm thinking that there was a hard cut there from the source tape and this part of the broadcast just didn't make it from the video master. 2" video is finicky and sometimes things can get lost, so that doesn't surprise me. When An Evening with Fred Astaire was restored only 30 years after it first broadcast, the kinescope had to be utilized as well. Videotape was never intended to be a preservation format and we're lucky this much survived. Thank you OP!

I was 4 yo when this aired. I remember having my mom borrow the original cast recording from the library just about every time we went there. Thank you for sharing this!

There wasn't one song that made it to "mainstream" radio as a crossover hit the way others did. But it doesn't take away from the show's enduring and endearing run as a genuine crowd pleaser. I remember as a kid seeing Carol in the original, and enjoyed the album many times subsequently.

What a huge difference from the actual stage show...so many changes!

Thank you! I've seen so many Burnett versions of this favorite musical. Like so many others, I've done this show so I'm always surprised which songs and what adaptations the filmed versions make. Having just done a high school production I wrote the production team of the 1972 version with my “criticism of cut numbers” (young & arrogant 😂) and my favorite response was from Joe Hamilton: “You win some, you lose some”. Well, I missed “Happily Ever After” here, but … what Joe said 😉

i love how she really can feel the pea too :D

I get to play Winnifred at my school!

So HAPPY to see this version. They took out two songs: Many Moons Ago, and the best song In A Little While. Also cut the Spanish Panic back, probably to fit into 1.5 hours for TV.

I had a sonsband, too.

THANKS LIPTON TEA!

Ah swam th' mote. Remember that from when i was a kid.

There's a version on here that a high school did in 2014 that I think Carol would've loved.

I was fortunate to have watched the live presentation. I must have been 8. Imagine that. Thanks RU-vid

3:06 It's Elliot Gould... since nobody else bothered to name him.

32:18 "Do you know any social dances?" 'Oooh, I know the Swamp Stomp!'

So so good. Ty for posting

While this is the best-looking ’64 “Mattress” I have seen, it omits an entire act in which Dauntless coaches Winifred for the test, with math and other subjects. Winifred’s song, “Under a Spell” (which replaces ‘Happily Ever After”), is also omitted.

i recognize the Wizard-Jack Fletcher. He was Whittendale on Jeffersons and Swackhammer on Gimme a Break!

When you see this you really understand why Carol got famous, she is absolutely free iin this part. Such magnificence! Btw, is tha Elliot Gould as the Jester?

Just watched the Disney version last night in which Carol Burnett plays the queen instead of the princess. I much prefer this version!

Thanks for this, my mom always asks if I'm this, but it's was always "Once upon a mattress " with Carol B. as the Queen and Tracy Olmen (sorry if spelled wrong) as "Fred"

This feels like Laugh-In.

Note a very young Elliot Gould in the cast.

I like the harry and Larkin in this version best

It's too bad that CBS doesn't show this every year so that the younger generations can see what good, clean entertainment is!

Did Dr. Seuss write this adaptation?

The author was making fun of sensitivity.

Even if she could actually feel the pea it's only in one spot under the mattresses and she could have just moved to another part of the bed. I mean it just did't make sense, really.