NBC’s development deal with Dolly Parton, announced last January, may have been worth it just for the opportunity to have the charismatic country crooner appear at the network’s 2015 upfront on Monday.

Accompanied on piano by none other than NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, Parton brought the house down with renditions of “I Will Always Love You” and “Coat of Many Colors,” the inspiration for the first TV movie to be green-lit under the deal.

The short performance was like the living embodiment of an upcoming NBC season that leans heavily on live spectacle, including the new Neil Patrick Harris variety vehicle Best Time Ever, live-produced episodes of the multi-cam comedy Undateable, and The Wiz Live!, a special one-off production of the Broadway hit The Wiz, replete with tornado, flying monkeys and the original Broadway Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, as Auntie Em, Greenblatt announced.

Much has been made of NBC’s dearth of comedies in the coming season—at least compared to years past—but this year’s lively, fast-moving upfront felt like an event from a network that wants to show advertisers it still knows how to kid around. In addition to the Parton/Greenblatt duet, the event saw Jimmy Fallon ribbing the network’s chairman by saying, “We’re all going to miss you buddy. You had a good run,” and Greenblatt introducing the Rob Lowe apocalyptic comedy You, Me and the End of the World as, “or what I sometimes refer to as the upfront.”

Meanwhile, Parton referred to her family growing up as “horny hillbillies” and Harris hyped his “fun, high-energy grab bag” of a show by pranking Mediavest President Melissa Shapiro.

Still, the increasing importance of high-profile dramas in NBC’s schedule was evident. The event kicked off with the show that has been awarded the network’s “most coveted slot” amongst all new programming, Greenblatt said, Greg Berlanti’s eerie FBI thriller Blindspot, which will air Mondays at 10 pm ET/PT this fall, following The Voice. And, after a 2014-2015 season that failed to “do right” by Blacklist with a strong surrounding block, Greenblatt promised the coming season will do better, book-ending the James Spader hit with a familiar franchise “reborn” in Heroes Reborn at 8:00pm ET/PT Thursdays and with the star power of Wesley Snipes’ The Player at 10:00 pm ET/PT on Thursdays.

NBC also took the upfront as a chance to tout an increasingly diverse programming slate that includes not one, not two but three strong Latina female leads: Jennifer Lopez (Shades Of Blue), America Ferrara (Superstore) and Eva Longoria (Telenovela). Additionally, The Wiz Live! is a retelling of the classic Wizard of Oz with an all-African-American cast.

Though NBC made no mention of its news programming (perhaps to avoid reminding advertisers of the recent Brian William kerfluffle) at the upfront, sports were well-represented. In a nod to the coming Olympics, Michael Phelps took the stage near the end to announce his return to the games in 2015. Following Parton’s show-stopping appearance, it was a well-coordinated one-two punch of beloved personalities that perfectly set up Greenblatt’s closing remarks.

“NBC has a huge volume of great new shows,” he told the crowd, and will always remain “relevant and meaningful” regardless of technology, viewer trends or anything else. That’s because of the network’s “ability to give viewers extraordinary moments to share and remember.”

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