Season: 2 (The Sonny & Cher Show)
Episode: 21
Guest(s): Andy Griffith, Twiggy
CBS Air Date: December 5 1976
Also aired: TVLand, GetTV
Opening Song: “Our Day Will Come” (Video)
Cover of Ruby & the Romantics (1963)
Cher wears a long velvet dress with purple flowers at the shoulder and a glitter of flowers down the skirt. Sonny wears a blue ruffled shirt under his suit.
Breakout: Laverne theorizes she should be a film star and is looking for work. She says there are no openings “for what I do.” Alvin happens to work at the Post Office in Hollywood. He claims his elbow is on the pulse of show biz. He says he encounters Robert Redford and Burt Reynolds, well mostly just their mail.
Opening Banter: Sonny & Cher shake hands. Cher shows off her dress’ train which she says she loves. It’s the first train she’s ever had she says. Sonny tells her she’s been more vivacious lately. There’s a fat mother joke. He fixes her hair and says he’s working on a sculpture of himself in granite because “after 199 years, who will remember me?” He says artists should leave great works behind, something of themselves behind. He asks Cher if she wants to be remembered for leaving something behind. Cher says she will be remembered for leaving Sonny behind. (Ouch!) Sonny tells her he will give to her this life-sized statue. Cher tells him that’s a dumb and conceited idea. She jokes she could use it as a paperweight or door stop (she joked the same thing about her Oscar for Moonstruck once). Cher says he should make sure to include his little eye wrinkles in the statue. And she kids him about his laugh lines. Sonny complains that Cher talks more now on this show. “You got a hand just for opening your mouth,” he says. Cher retorts that Sonny gets a foot for opening his mouth.
Sonny offers to do a statue of Cher if she’d prefer but he’d need more granite. Cher asks if this is because she’s so tall. Sonny draws out his response and looks to the audience to see if they know why it would take more granite and they all yell “your nose!” Cher sticks out her tongue at them.
Skit: Andy Griffith is Mr. Williams, President-elect Carter’s new aide and it’s the aides first visit to the White House to set up the transition. He’s wearing a peanut pin. Gone are the clumsy Gerald Ford jokes, but the peanut jokes sound like they’re here to stay. Griffith keeps making jokes and then saying, “I’m just kidding. Have a peanut.” There’s a reference to “two power-forces on the brink of war” at they’re talking about The Sonny & Cher Show. The aide is full of euphemisms and jokes like “where’s the peanut silo” and comparisons between the customs of Washington, D.C. and “the South.” Ted Zeigler plays Henry Kissinger and with the Kissinger accent he tells the aide he talks funny. They talk about fuel problems, Billy Carter and “little Amy” (who is eight years old). There’s a Earl Butz joke (I had to look it up) and they reference the famous Carter Playboy Magazine interview. The aide puts up a picture of George Washington with Jimmy Carter teeth and promises this will be a more laid-back administration.
Cher Solo: “More Than You Know” (Video) (Better Audio)
From the musical Great Day (1929)
One of Cher’s favorite torch numbers. The set is designed with red and black geometric shapes and Cher wears a black slip dress with a sheer cape and headwrap. The sequined cape and headdress throw up camera flares in a nice way. They show Cher singing through cut outs of the geometric set shapes. I’ve starred this.
Skit: Twiggy plays the Queen visiting a British colonial island, granting them independence and a farewell speech. The island only has one inhabitant, Ted Zeigler, waving a flag while the Queen talks about the island’s depletion of oil reserves, which is why they’re being dumped. Zeigler is wearing an afro wig (a costume choice which doesn’t age well).
In the Beginning: (I guess this is a recurring skit now) How insurance first started. Ted Zeigler, looking like a hobo, tries to sell Sonny a 100,000-dollar life insurance policy. Sonny worries that with insurance his wife will kill him. “She’ll start poisoning the pasta fagioli!” But Sonny’s been meeting his secretary on the sly and so eventually is made to choose the blackmail option over the insurance policy. Mr. Cher Scholar happened to see this skit in passing when it aired on GetTV a few years ago and my notes say he called it “ham fisted.”
Concert: “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “The Best of My Love” (Video)
Cover of the Jackson 5 (1971) and Eagles (1974)
This segment was cut from GetTV. Sonny wears a maroon jacket and a pink shirt. Cher wears a bobbed wig and a halter with matching Genie pants. Because the networks have become very conservative again, Cher is made to wear fringe over her exposed midriff. I wonder if there was a “censorship fringe” made by the House of Mackie for every single Cher outfit during these years.
Battle of the Sexes: Andy Griffith is playing Cher’s private power-secretary named Petersen and the two of them are planning a business trip in Acapulco. (Oh dear.) Petersen and Sonny argue as they compete for Cher’s attention. Even though he’s visiting the boss’s apartment, Petersen insists “he does the drinks.” Sonny asks for a Henrietta Wallbanger. Work rumors about infidelity are brought up and Sonny ends up crying on the couch. Petersen accuses Cher of thinking he has only the heart and legs of a computer. Cher worries she’ll have to apologize to Sonny or sleep on the couch. She confesses she has a ticket for him to go to Acapulco too. Sonny is excited and tells her he’ll pack his see-through nightshirt, the string bikini. After he leaves the room to pack, Cher has to call the airlines and actually buy him a ticket. Resigned she says, “I’m taking the old anchor.” (Both Jay and I thought this one was funny).
In these notes I also comment on the black and white nature of the set, almost as if it’s spoofing its own spoof (and the alleged black and white nature of women vs. men) with black and white drapes, black and white glasses and black and white art pieces.
Guest Spot: Twiggy sings “Pieces of April”
This was also cut from GetTV. Twiggy sings, dances and emotes.
Mother Goose: Cher wears the beautiful dress singing like Mae West in front of a turning carousel.
+ Andy Griffith plays Sherlock Holmes and Sonny plays Watson. They try to reconstruct a crime singing about cause and effect.
+ Twiggy and Cher play split personalities, Twiggy as the good “girl with the curl” and Cher as the horrid one with horns. She’s a thieving and promiscuous girl. They sing a song. My notes say “cute number” with a star.
IGUB: They thank their guests. Sonny comments on how Twiggy and Cher have “filled out this year.” “I call that Elijah Blue,” Cher says. She comments on Sonny’s laugh lines again but this time calls them wicked. They sing “I Got You Babe.”
Thanks to Jay for the official run-down on this episode. Online guides have this episode airing on November 28, 1976 but Jay has referenced the original TV Guide airdate which says December 5, 1976. GetTV cut Twiggy’s solo number and the concert segment.
Highlights: A good Battle of the Sexes and solo spot.
