{"id":20702,"date":"2020-09-21T12:50:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T19:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&#038;p=20702"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:23:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:23:04","slug":"mr-soul","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. SOUL!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1968, America\u2019s first Black variety show, \u201cSOUL!,\u201d helmed by producer and host Ellis Haizlip, premiered on public television. The pioneering series ran for five years, cementing itself as not only a vehicle to celebrate African American artistry, community, and culture but also as a platform for political expression and a powerful force in the fight for social justice. <\/span><b><i>Mr. SOUL!<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> portrays in exquisite detail a revolutionary time in American culture and entertainment through vibrant archival footage and interviews with numerous Black luminaries who appeared on \u201cSOUL!,\u201d or were impacted by it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While chronicling the journey of \u201cSOUL!,\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. SOUL! <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recounts the life and contributions of the late Haizlip, who was steeped in the New York City arts community prior to creating the show. Ellis quickly stepped into the role of host of his creation, where his earnest demeanor, low-key interviewing style, and his passion for the Black artistic community and their works\u2014including books, the spoken word, music, film, and dance\u2014culminated in a show that depicted the Black experience in a bold and unapologetic way. Haizlip\u2019s creation shifted the media focus from what was then uniformly images of inner-city poverty and violence, to instead shine a light on the vibrant contemporary Black Arts Movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With award-winning performer Blair Underwood providing the voice of Ellis Haizlip, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. SOUL!<\/span><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">features not only archival performances from music legends such as Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind &amp; Fire, Diahann Carroll, B.B. King, and Patti LaBelle, but also spoken word performances from The Last Poets and Sonia Sanchez, dance performances by Carmen de Lavallade, and interviews with James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Muhammad Ali and Maya Angelou, among many others. Artists such as Harry Belafonte, Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson, and activist and former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver share their recollections about the show and its tremendous impact on them and their careers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1968, America\u2019s first Black variety show, \u201cSOUL!,\u201d helmed by producer and host Ellis Haizlip, premiered on public television. The pioneering series ran for five years, cementing itself as not only a vehicle to celebrate African American artistry, community, and culture but also as a platform for political expression and a powerful force in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":21506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1216,1247,1239,1264],"class_list":["post-20702","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-arts-and-culture","topic-cinema","topic-identity","topic-race-ethnicity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MR.SOUL! | Films | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mr. SOUL! explores the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, Ellis Haizlip&#039;s SOUL!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mr. SOUL! | Films | America&#039;s First Black Variety Show | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mr. SOUL! explores the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, Ellis Haizlip&#039;s SOUL!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Independent Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T22:23:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MRSOUL_PubStills_02-scaled-e1612558618504.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mr. SOUL! | Films | America&#039;s First Black Variety Show | PBS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Mr. SOUL! explores the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, Ellis Haizlip&#039;s SOUL!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/\",\"name\":\"MR.SOUL! | Films | Independent Lens | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MRSOUL_PubStills_02-scaled-e1612558618504.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-21T19:50:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-14T22:23:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"Mr. SOUL! explores the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, Ellis Haizlip's SOUL!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/mr-soul\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MRSOUL_PubStills_02-scaled-e1612558618504.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/MRSOUL_PubStills_02-scaled-e1612558618504.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"5 people with various shades of skin tone sit together on the set of Soul! 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