TV Review : Judds Take a Final Bow in Pay-Per-View Event

For more than a year, Judds fans have been asking, to paraphrase Dan Hicks’ old musical question, “How can we miss you if you won’t go away?” It was October, 1990, when Naomi Judd, the senior partner of the mother-daughter country duo, announced that she was retiring due to a battle with a potentially fatal case of chronic hepatitis.

Not to sound unsympathetic, but it grew a bit wearisome as she--like that pesky battery-powered bunny--just kept going and going and going, milking the send-off with a seemingly endless farewell tour.

Talk about your l-o-o-o-n-g goodby.

The retirement finally became official Wednesday with a special farewell concert in Murfreesboro, Tenn., sent out nationally as a pay-per-view TV event. And what did fans get for their devoted patience? A concert. A darn good concert, but just a concert.

Anticlimactic? Sure. But also quite dignified, considering the build-up. There was no parade of guest performers or star testimonials (that was kept to the half-hour warm-up show that preceded the concert on TV), and not even many tears--and those were mostly from daughter Wynonna.

In fact, Naomi was remarkably stoic throughout, relying on New Age-ish phraseology to express her sentiments (“Every ending is a brand-new beginning”) and taking the role of proud stage-mother, cheerleading for Wynonna’s now-commenced solo career. Daughter Judd, though more overtly affected by emotion, kept her professional composure too, and repeatedly let loose the bluesy growl that will be her trademark as she carries on.

But except for an impromptu two-song “back porch”-style session, the show was too pat and professional to live up to the “event” billing and to be great television. Still, it was a tasteful exit for Naomi, and that counts for a lot.