The 12 Aug 1974 HR announced that producer Saul Chaplin began work on That’s Entertainment, Too! at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (M-G-M). Chaplin and M-G-M senior vice president/worldwide head of production Daniel Melnick promised that the film would contain several musical sequences never before seen by the public. An article in the 1 May 1975 LAT stated that the documentary would include the music of songwriter Irving Berlin, unlike its predecessor, That’s Entertainment! (1974, see entry), for which Berlin refused to license his songs. Following the success of the earlier film, Berlin gladly changed his mind. A release was planned for Christmas 1975 or summer 1976.
       A news item in the 7 Jul 1975 HR announced the completion of filming at M-G-M in Culver City, CA, before the production relocated to Paris over the 4 Jul 1975 weekend. The 28 Jul 1975 Newsweek reported actor Gene Kelly’s visit to Paris, France, to film sequences for That’s Entertainment, Too! Locations included Montmartre, L’Etoile, and the Trocadero.
       According to the 2 Jan 1976 HR, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 47 in Los Angeles, CA, came to an agreement with M-G-M to pay royalties to musicians, or the heirs of musicians, who performed the music used in That’s Entertainment! and its upcoming sequel. The union estimated royalty payments of $150,000, which would encompass theatrical and television performances, and soundtrack recording sales.
       The 4 Feb 1976 HR announced the film’s official release title as That’s Entertainment, Part 2. Two weeks later, the 18 Feb 1976 Var reported that The Mike Douglas Show, (1961 – 1982, Group W Productions) a syndicated television talk show, focused six episodes on the upcoming release, airing 16 Feb 1976 to 23 Feb 1976, with stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly as co-hosts. The final two episodes were videotaped at M-G-M Studios, with appearances by producers Chaplin and Melnick, as well as stars from past M-G-M productions.
       According to the 5 May 1976 DV, That’s Entertainment, Part 2 premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, 10 May 1976, as a gala benefit for the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In attendance were stars Astaire and Kelly, along with actors Cary Grant, Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, Karthryn Grayson, Donald O’Connor, Bobby Van, Johnny Weissmuller, Leslie Caron, and Georges Guetary, producers Chaplin and Melnick, and studio executives Frank E. Rosenfelt and Kirk Kerkorian. The entourage also attended the film’s opening of the 1976 Cannes Film Festival in France 13 May 1976, before returning to Los Angeles for a 19 May 1976 screening event at the Cinerama Dome. As reported in the 24 May 1976 Box, the screening benefitted the Opera Guild of Southern California. The film opened in Los Angeles the following day, 20 May 1976, but had previously been released 16 May 1976 in New York City.
       The 7 Jun 1976 DV announced M-G-M’s intention to remove two musical numbers from the film before its 18 Jun 1976 general release, along with an overture that precedes opening credits. The numbers included “Lonesome Polecat” from the film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954, see entry), and “Concerto In F” from An American in Paris (1951, see entry). The sequences were removed because they were believed to “slow down the pace of the film.” A letter appeared in the 28 Nov 1976 LAT decrying the removal of these sequences, and the elimination of seven other musical numbers from a later edition.
       Actress Esther Williams filed a $1 million lawsuit against M-G-M for “breach of contract and invasion of privacy,” as reported in the 21 Sep 1976 HR. She claimed that M-G-M used footage of her in both That’s Entertainment! documentaries without her permission, which violated a 1951 agreement between the two parties. Although a 1954 revision of the agreement “gives M-G-M exclusive rights to all proceeds” from exhibition of Williams’s films, the actress countered that this did not allow the defendant to place those sequences “in an entirely different picture without consulting her or sharing the profits of its release.” The outcome of the lawsuit has not been determined.
       Reviews were generally positive. The 2 Aug 1976 Box announced the film’s receipt of its Jun 1976 Blue Ribbon Award, and the 16 May 1976 LAT called it “a superrich dessert.” However, Pauline Kael, in the 11 Oct 1976 New Yorker, described the film as "the Gene Kelly Memorial Service, conducted by Gene Kelly."
      End credit include the following written statements: “The special style and content of the musical sequences were created by these enormously gifted individuals: Jeff Alexander, Robert Alton, Busby Berkeley, Irving Berlin, Ralph Blane, Nicholas Brodszky, Nacio Herb Brown, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, Jack Cole, Betty Comden, Bobby Connolly, Jack Cummings, Gene De Paul, B. G. De Sylva, Adolph Deutsch, Helen Deutsch, Howard Dietz, Stanley Donen, Jack Donohue, Carmen Dragon, Vernon Duke, Jimmy Durante, Roger Edens, Gus Edwards, Percy Faith, Ted Fetter, Arthur Freed, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, E. Ray Goetz, Dave Gould, Adolph Green, Johnny Green, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Lorenz Hart, Lennie Hayton, Bert Kalmar, Bronislau Kaper, Jerome Kern, Michael Kidd, John Latouche, Sammy Lee, Franz Lehar, Robert Z. Leonard, Alan Jay Lerner, Mervyn LeRoy, Edgar Leslie, Frederick Loewe, Rouben Mamoulian, Hugh Martin, Johnny Mercer, George W. Meyer, Vincente Minnelli, Alfred Newman, Hermes Pan, Joe Pasternak, Cole Porter, Andre Previn, Leo Robin, Richard Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, Harry Ruby, Conrad Salinger, Arthur Schwartz, George Sidney, Sol C. Siegel, Georgie Stoll, Axel Stordahl, Herbert Stothart, Johann Strauss, Jule Styne, Norman Taurog, Kay Thompson, Richard Thorpe, James Van Heusen, Charles Walters, Harry Warren, George Wells;” “The non-musical sequences represent outstanding contributions by: Robert Arthur, S. N. Behrman, Pandro S. Berman, Frank Borzage, Charles Brackett, Lou Breslow, Harold S. Bucquet, Hugo Butler, John W. Considine, Jr., Jack Conway, George Cukor, Jacques Deval, Julien Duvivier, Howard Estabrook, James A. Fitzpatrick, Victor Fleming, Sidney Franklin, Jules Furthman, Tay Garnett, Frances Goodrich, Leon Gordon, Ruth Gordon, Martin A. Gosch, Edmund Goulding, Albert Hackett, Samuel Hoffenstein, Robert Hopkins, Sidney Howard, Bernard H. Hyman, Garson Kanin, George S. Kaufman, Arthur Kober, Charles Lederer, W. P. Lipscomb, Anita Loos, Ernst Lubitsch, John Lee Mahin, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Samuel Marx, James K. McGuiness, John Meehan, Ivor Novello, George Oppenheimer, Nat Perrin, Robert Pirosh, Gottfried Reinhardt, Walter Reisch, Allen Rivkin, Morrie Ryskind, Victor Saville, Dore Schary, George Seaton, David O. Selznick, Sidney Sheldon, S. Sylvan Simon, Donald Ogden Stewart, Hunt Stromberg, W. S. Van Dyke, Salka Viertel, Lawrence Weingarten, Fred M. Wilcox, Billy Wilder, P. J. Wolfson, Sam Wood, Sam Zimbalist.”