series began. Producer Richard Lewine was put in charge and Garth Dietrick assumed the director’s chair. The first thing Lewine did was to replace Shepherd with Jack Linkletter. (When the original pilot aired in June 1963, Shepherd's scenes had been removed and Linkletter was spliced in.) As Shepherd had done, Linkletter would discreetly provide information about the performer(s) and/or the song(s) they would sing as each act took the stage. Linkletter described his role as "an interpreter. The people at home hear what I have to say, but not the ones at the performance. (The feeling is) that the Hootenanny would be going on whether we were there or not." On February 26, 1963, their first two Hootenanny programs were taped at George Washington University in the District of Columbia. Series production Between February 26 and April 30, 12 Hootenanny shows were taped at six colleges. The production team would arrive at a campus on Monday to begin rehearsal and camera blocking. Taping of both half-hour programs would take place on Tuesday (later, when Hootenanny expanded to an hour, one program each would be taped on Tuesday and Wednesday). Students were permitted to attend the rehearsals, many of them volunteering to be runners for the various acts and production staff. The first Hootenanny to air had been taped at the University of Michigan in March, and starred The Limeliters, Bob Gibson, Bud & Travis and Bonnie Dobson. (Easily the best known folk group among those who appeared, The Limeliters would headline in seven of the first 13 episodes, literally appearing at least every other week.) Critical reaction Overall, critical reaction was favorable, although Variety'''s reviewer felt it "lacked the spark and spirit that is found in 'live' college and concert dates" and predicted the series would do little to increase the popularity of folk music – a prediction that would soon prove erroneous. Most critics agreed with the New York Times’ Jack Gould, who labeled Hootenanny "the hit of the spring." The Nielsen ratings justified ABC's faith in the concept. The first program garnered a 26% share of the viewing audience; this increased to 32% for the second show. By the end of April, ABC announced that Hootenanny would return in the fall as a one-hour show, provided the ratings held up. They did - Hootenanny soon becoming the network's second-most popular show, after Ben Casey, with a peak audience