The country music industry recognized the series’ impact and within eighteen months of the show’s debut, Barbara hauled in numerous awards. Between the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, she tallied three trophies as Entertainer of the Year and two as Top Female Vocalist.
Ultimately, the strain of weekly TV spelled an early end to the series. Barbara sometimes worked fourteen to sixteen hours a day, six days a week. Despite NBC’s desire to bring her back for another season, she bowed out, feeling that it would be physically impossible to continue at such a strenuous pace every week. The Mandrells’ final show aired on June 26, 1982.
Once freed from her television obligations, Barbara set to work on her first studio album in two years. Prior to its release, MCA issued “’Til You’re Gone,” a tune written by Tommy Brasfield and Walt Aldridge, two session players from Muscle Shoals who had teamed up to write one of 1981’s biggest country and pop hits – “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” – taken to the top of Billboard’s country chart and to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart by Ronnie Milsap.
