It took T.J. Lubinsky 25 years to give two of his favorite performers the career-spanning retrospective he believes they deserve.
The Pine resident and owner of TJL Productions has been producing “My Music” specials for PBS since the late 1990s to showcase the oldies singers and groups he grew up idolizing. Lubinsky had always been frustrated that he was never able to put together one centered around Steve and Eydie, the mid-20th century pop duo comprised of married couple Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.
That’s no longer the case now that Lubinsky is finally ready to debut “Steve & Eydie: Memories of My Mom and Dad,” which is airing Saturday at 8 p.m. on WQED as part of its national premiere.
What makes this “My Music” presentation particularly unique is the involvement of Lawrence and Gorme’s son, David Lawrence, an accomplished composer most known for his work on the “High School Musical” franchise. He provided Lubinsky with loads of footage from and firsthand recollections of his parents’ heyday.
“it was like finding gold,” Lubinsky told the Post-Gazette. “It’s them in their prime doing all this stuff, and it came out of nowhere.”
The New Jersey native had been living in Florida before relocating to Pittsburgh in 1997 at the urging of former WQED president and CEO Deb Acklin. Lubinsky spent the next six years spearheading WQED’s fundraising efforts largely through “My Music” programs before launching TJL Productions as an independent entity in 2003.
“My Music” was born out of Lubinsky’s affinity for old-school doo-wop, soul and Motown tunes. He oversaw the series’ first 14 specials at WQED and has so far done the same for more than 76 subsequent “My Music” projects through TJL Productions.
“WQED is so excited to take our viewers on a nostalgic journey with this new program from TJL Productions,” Molly Held, WQED’s current director of on-air fundraising, said via a statement.
Those early specials “made people pay attention” to WQED, Lubinksy said, and they quickly became essential tools for motivating Western Pennsylvanians to financially support Pittsburgh’s PBS affiliate.
His longtime Lawrence fandom was cemented after a teenage Lubinksy heard his 1963 song “More” on the radio while going through a breakup and was moved by how it “expressed everything I was feeling in my heart.” He was less familiar with Gorme’s work but eventually realized “what a powerhouse singer” she was in her own right thanks to hits like 1964’s “Sabor A Mi.”
Gorme died in 2013, and Lubinksy said Lawrence is in poor health. In his estimation, prime Steve and Eydie was a “great double team act” thanks to their combined musical prowess and the playful on-stage banter that only a husband and wife could authentically pull off.
“It was real entertainment that people don’t see anymore,” Lubinksy said.
It took a quarter century of pestering Steve Lawrence’s representation for Lubinsky to finally touch base with his son and pitch him on the concept of “Steve & Eydie.”
“’You love your mom and dad, I love your mom and dad,’” he remembered telling David Lawrence. “’Can you just sit in front of a camera and tell me about all these songs and your memories?’ And he agreed to that.”
It had been quite difficult for Lubinksy to find usable footage of Lawrence and Gorme in action, mostly due to the fact Steve Lawrence still owns the rights to their shows and kept those master tapes locked away in a vault. David’s cooperation gave Lubinsky access to tons of material that he used to supplement clips of them performing on “The Carol Burnett Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” that he had already received permission to use.
“Steve and Eydie were family and I’m so happy to be part of this tribute to my loving friends,” Burnett said in a TJL Productions press release.
Not only will folks tuning into “Steve & Eydie” Saturday night get to check out what Lubinsky described as a story “about a son wanting to keep his parents’ legacy alive,” but anyone donating to WQED online or through the station’s pledge call-in number will receive a complimentary “Steve & Eydie” DVD ($60/$5 monthly sustainer), a five-CD set of their work ($120/$10) or all of the above ($150/$12.50).
Lubinksy felt reassured that there was still an audience for a special like this when he mentioned it to his daughter’s boyfriend and he immediately started breaking out into a few of Gorme’s greatest hits. He’s sure there are plenty of older Pittsburghers who will also get a kick out of taking a stroll down memory lane with “Steve & Eydie.”
“If you went to Heinz Hall, you saw this duo perform,” Lubinsky said. “If you were Bob from Blawnox, you listened to them on the radio with your parents and grandparents. Now, everyone’s going to be back together again when you hear these songs.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: November 28, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: November 28, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
