At least for one hour on Wednesday night, Rosie O'Donnell successfully managed to remind everyone what a real variety show is all about complete with "singing, dancing and comedy."

The family-friendly one-hour special, "Rosie Live," which aired on NBC on Nov. 26, was packed with celebrity appearances, singing and dancing routines, all mixed with comedy sketches, and "no politics," as Rosie said herself before the show, except for  a shoutout to President Barack Obama.

''It's 'Carol Burnett' meets 'Ed Sullivan,' 'Sonny and Cher,' 'Donny and Marie,' all rolled into one,'' O'Donnell said in a conference call with reporters last week.

The show kicked off with one of O'Donnell's childhood dreams coming true. Broadway legend Liza Minnelli popped up from a trap door and joined O'Donnell onstage performing a duet of "City Lights," which Minnelli has not sung in about 30 years.   

Rosie, who has been trying to launch her own live, prime-time variety show since 2002, then met some of her guests, including Conan O'Brien who had a pie splashed across his face from Alec Baldwin, Harry Connick Jr. and Clay Aiken, who appeared in his "Spamalot" costume. The telecast, which O'Donnell co-produced, was broadcast live from the packed Little Shubert Theatre, accompanied by a 20-piece live orchestra.

Before her time ran up, O'Donnell also welcomed Jane Krakowski, who pretty much reminded the audiences of her "Ally McBeal" role as a naughty secretary Elaine Vassal, by performing a striptease number, recording artists Ne-Yo and Alanis Morissette, plus comedian Kathy Griffin.

The variety format which has been basically forgotten after the 1970s, is in O'Donnell's opinion an antidote to reality competition series in prime time, which she considers ''The Gong Show'' of the variety genre.

"To me there's nothing fun about gonging someone who is actually really trying,'' she said. ''There's nothing fun about the audition segments of 'American Idol' to see people brought to tears and humiliated.''

Wednesday night's special wasn't just a bit of pre-Thanksgiving entertainment, it was also a test to see how Rosie does in the ratings with a real possibility of NBC picking up six more episodes of the show for the upcoming year. According to Rosie, the time is also right for the variety genre to make a comeback.

"Variety shows were a big hit in the '70s when the economy was in the crapper, and gas was scarce and people's beliefs in the political system was shaken," she explained. "It's the right time."

The move would also mark O'Donnell's next step in her career, following her year-long stint on ABC's "The View." Speaking of the gab-fest, O'Donnell recently approached the rekindled feud with Barbara Walters, in which Walters said she resented O’Donnell’s recent statement that there was no camaraderie backstage at "The View" and suggested that O’Donnell mentioned it for publicity. According to O’Donnell, her comments about the show just slipped out.

O'Donnell also said she admires Walters and apologized sort of for "hurting" her. She called her a mother figure and said she doesn’t regret talking about it because "it’s part of my life experience."

"I did the best I could for 9 months [on The View] and when it was time to go I left," she added.