Elvis’ Comeback Special Changed His Life — Read About It Or Listen to Our Classic TV Podcast (Exclusive)

“The Colonel Will See You Now”

“To make a long, long story short,” says Steve, “the minute I met Colonel Parker he said, ‘Okay, here’s the show,’ and he handed me a quarter-inch audio tape — which I still have — of 20 Christmas songs, all pre-recorded. That was the Colonel’s gift to disc jockeys all over America for Christmas time. It had a picture on the front cover of Elvis inside a wreath, and he said, ‘NBC and myself have agreed that this is the show.’ So I knew instantly I didn’t want to do it, but I kept my mouth shut.

“Next thing I know,” he continues, “he’s doing his shtick of telling me that if this works out, I’ll be directing Elvis’ next movie and so forth. And it’s going in one ear and out the other. So I leave his office and head back to my office in Hollywood, all the time knowing this is definitely not what I want to do.”

Maybe not, but the Colonel now wanted him to do it, and arranged for Elvis to come to Steve’s office the next afternoon.

Steve Binder Meets the King

The next afternoon at 4 p.m., Elvis and his entourage arrived, though he and Steve went into the latter’s office to talk. “The first question he asked me was, ‘What do you think of my career?'” he recalls. “I said, ‘Honestly, I think your career’s in the toilet.’ He looked at me and broke out laughing. One thing you should know is that Finkel was a producer/director in his fifties and he was thinking of directing the special himself, but he could never get Elvis past calling him ‘Mr. Finkel.’ He just felt he had to get somebody young, around Elvis’ age and somebody who could relate to him. At the same time, the problem was that Elvis didn’t want to honor the contract with NBC.

“The Colonel,” he continues, “when he made the deal with NBC was really only looking for financing for the next Elvis movie, because all the film studios had dried up and didn’t want to make another one. NBC said they would provide the money for the next film, which was A Change of Habit with Mary Tyler Moore, but the one condition was that Elvis was going to have to do a television special for them. Well, Elvis balked at that; he didn’t want to do television. So the problem was that they had a signed deal, but they couldn’t get the horse to water. So Elvis and I finally met and we began to talk.”

The Challenge: Changing Elvis’ Mind About TV

“We didn’t talk about television,” Steve explains. “We just talked about the music business and about how the quality of musicians was getting better; the engineering was getting better. This was the time of the British Invasion and The Beatles, the Stones and so forth, and he said, ‘You know, Steve, I’ve been away from the public for eight years. I’m not sure they’ll accept me again. I’m real leery about it, and, besides, television is not my turf.’ I said, ‘Well, what is your turf?’ And he said, ‘My turf is making records,’ so I said, ‘Okay, you make an album and I’ll put pictures to it.’ Priscilla told me a few years later that when Elvis came home from that meeting with me, he said, ‘I don’t care what the Colonel says; I’m going with this guy Binder.’ And he did. He never questioned anything. After we pitched him the show, we hardly varied from the original idea at all. The only thing really different, which was the heart and soul of the whole special, was convincing him to do the improv with an audience acoustically.”

Discovering the Magic of Elvis Presley

During production of the special, Elvis decided to live at NBC, having a bed put into his dressing room. “Every day after rehearsal,” Steve details, “he would go into this dressing room, get around the piano with whoever happened to be around at the time and jammed. They would just go on for hours every single day. He was telling stories about the past, and at the last minute I actually got the Colonel’s permission to recreate what I saw, first person in the dressing room, out on the stage. That’s when we got to see the real Elvis. It wasn’t because of the big production numbers and the gospel numbers and the guitar man sequence and all the sets and costumes and extras. To me, the reason that the ’68 special holds up 50 years later is because it’s totally Elvis.”

Realizing the True Secret of His Success

Muses Steve, “Before 1968, Elvis always thought that his real success was based on Colonel Parker and his brilliance as a manager making decisions; or RCA’s huge publicity and marketing machine. He never felt he was responsible for his ow success. For me, when I go back to the ’68 special, I see a man rediscovering himself. It’s like that moment when Sally Field, at the Academy Awards said, ‘You like me. You really like me.’ Where you would think these people would be the most secure people in the world, I find almost all artists, once they’re in front of that camera and being judged by millions and millions of people, they’re scared. They’re insecure. The goal of being a director is that you don’t have to speak their language, you just have to give them a look that tells that that what they’re doing is great. Even when you’re doing a dramatic film and the actors are doing multiple takes, they’re looking at you for a positive sign that you like what they’re doing.”

Connecting with the Fans

As noted, the heart of the special was Elvis taking to the stage, surrounded by fans, performing acoustically and sharing stories of his life (very much a forerunner to MTV’s Unplugged). However, at the last minute Elvis was refusing to go out there, claiming he couldn’t remember the songs they’d rehearsed, the stories he told and so on. Steve jotted down notes of what he himself remembered, handed it to Elvis and said, “You just gotta go out there. Even if you just say hello and goodbye and come off the stage.” He adds with a smile, “Next thing I know, he forgot he was doing television. He was just out having the time of his life.

“There’s that cliche in Vaudeville where you’ve got to get the hook to get them off the stage. Well, that was Elvis. He did two hours of that stuff. You can’t articulate exactly what you felt or saw, but I feel that even if you’re paying money at the box office to see a movie, I have to feel emotion. I don’t care how many millions of dollars they paid for the technical side of things or the scenery; I’ve got to laugh. I’ve got to feel something inside. Well, when I watch that ’68 special — and it’s not because I did it — it’s like Elvis was uncaged. We didn’t get to rehearse the special when it came to the improv. I mean, the guys — Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana — hadn’t played with Elvis for probably 15 or 20 years, but they just came in and picked up from where they left off all those years earlier. Elvis, too. He’s in this little boxing ring with no ropes, and he’s just picking up where he left off years and years earlier. I’ve convinced he forgot he was even being televised; he was just out there doing what he loved doing. And the audience was stunned.”

Things Worked Despite Colonel Parker

“The Colonel tried to sabotage the improv session,” Steve proclaims. “Even to the point where he insisted that he would give out the tickets to the audience and when I showed up, there was no audience. We had to beg people, even at a drive-in restaurant eating breakfast, to come over and see Elvis Presley. The Colonel was all about control and power, period. I had put no Christmas songs in the show and he refused to even let it be broadcast initially. Every day he would come in insisting that I put Christmas songs in the show. Elvis is the one who said, ‘I don’t care what the Colonel says, don’t put one in.’ And I didn’t. Then we got to the end where I delivered the master, and, thank God, in the improv, which was not scripted or rehearsed, he sang ‘Blue Christmas.’ But I saw major executives cower to the Colonel. It’s like the Colonel had some magical powers or something. I could care less; I could always go to work at my dad’s gas station.

“When we were in the middle of production, Elvis and I get called to the Colonel’s little office near the stage. Elvis is standing alongside of me, and the Colonel says, ‘Elvis wants a Christmas song in the show, don’t you, Elvis?’ I look over and Elvis has his head bowed and his hands covering his crotch like a little kittle kid and he says, ‘Yes, sir,’ to the Colonel. I said, ‘If Elvis wants a Christmas song in the show, I’ll put a Christmas song in the show.’ The Colonel says, ‘Okay, boys, go back to work,’ and we walk out of his office. Elvis jabs me in the ribs, comes to life and says, ‘F–k him!’ We walked down on stage and they never put a Christmas song in the show.”

Trying, but Failing, to Find His Voice

“Elvis was a country boy for real,” Steve offers in explanation as to why the King didn’t push back against the Colonel. “I think he had a sense of gut loyalty because his father, Vernon, evidently had bonded with Parker, and I guess between the Colonel and Vernon they could get Elvis to do anything. You know, when we parted ways at the end, Elvis told me that after the experience he was never going to sing a song he didn’t believe in; he was never going to make a movie where he didn’t work with a great director. He went on and on and I said, ‘Elvis, I hear you, but I’m not sure you’re strong enough to stand up for yourself to do all that.”

Less Than 10 Years Later, Things Had Taken a Tragic Turn

As Steve points out, his fears very much came true, Elvis dying on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. The Colonel, he says, loved Vegas — in fact, in the end had gambled away his personal fortune — and Elvis in his last years spent much of his time booked there. “I don’t think Elvis died of drugs,” he offers. “I think he died of boredom. After the special, I didn’t communicate a lot with him, because I was persona non grata insofar as the Colonel was concerned. I tried, but couldn’t get through to him and then I moved on. I mean, that just wasn’t my life. When I heard that he had passed away, I saw pictures of him as this bloated figure, but I just knew that he was trapped and he didn’t have the strength to get out of it. He ended up being a saloon singer in Las Vegas, which is the last thing he wanted to do. But, you know, every great story has some kind of great tragedy in it, and this is a great tragedy to me.”

Understanding the Legacy

Following production of the 1968 special, Steve came away with a much better understanding of why so many people had connected with Elvis over the years. “He was just the kind of person that draws you in,” he notes. “Even if nobody knew who he was, he would get your attention when he walked into a room. And when he performed, all the charisma that he had was there and you could tell why he was a living legend. Even now, after his death, you realize there are only a few iconic people in our entertainment history that would be in that category. Maybe a Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. But I became a huge fan of his, both artistically and as a person. I’ve said this a million times, but with all the shows I’ve done in my almost-60 year career now, I’ll always be known as the guy who produced and directed the Elvis special. And I’m okay with that.

“I would say without the ’68 special, we wouldn’t be talking about Elvis Presley,” he continues. “We’d remember him pre-68 for his movies and his early Ed Sullivan appearances and so forth. But I think he would just be a memory, period. There certainly wouldn’t be that much interest in touring his home in Graceland, and there wouldn’t be all these huge corporations that are behind him. Previous to that special, the public never got to see the real Elvis. Suddenly they did, and that changed everything.”