Season: 2 (Cher)
Episode: 17
Guest(s): Wayne Rogers, Nancy Walker
CBS Air Date: September 21, 1975
Also aired: Never reaired
Torch Open/Opening Song: “Feeling Good” and “I Feel the Earth Move” (Audio Only) (Video)
Cover from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd (1964)/Nina Simone (1965) and Carole King (1971)
Cher wears a black fur and what looks like a big, oversized butterfly pin. Cher wears a long, beautiful black, cut-out gown with colorful sequins and a butterfly at the chest. There are large white with silver trimmed butterflies all around the circle behind her. Some creative camera positions. She does a big hair flip at the end.
Monologue: Cher talks censorship and the idea of a “Family Hour.”
Skit: Cher and Rogers are two clowns in a wedding ceremony and they can’t stop clowning.
Cher Solo “Puppet Man” and “It’s Your Thing” (Video)
Cover of Neil Sedaka (1969)/The Fifth Dimension (1970) and The Isley Brothers (1969)
This is the only thing available right now to view from the episode. Which is a shame because this song creeps the shit out of me on many, many levels: the clowns okay (which is enough) but the set, the lyrics, the outfits, Cher’s wig…I just can’t. On the bright side, the dancers really get some time to shine here.
Skit: Walker plays a temp hotline employee taking calls for advice.
Cher Solo 2: “Until It’s Time for You To Go” (Audio only) (Video)
Cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie (1965)
Is this a second solo spot? This was also on Cher’s 1966 epoymous album Cher. This later version is a lot more both serene and melancholy at the same time oddly, just much more emotive than her 1960s performances. We open looking through a window into a cozy bedroom with a fireplace. It’s a lovely room with candles and ferns and a brass bed. Cher is ready for bed. Cher is wearing a cream peignoir set and her hair is in a beautiful Asian-styled wrap. She walks over by a window. It’s all very lovely.
“People in the News”: Cher and Rogers are scientists studying people who live underwater.
Skit: Cher, Rogers and Walker “showcase their talents in this sketch about each other.” Who knows what this was.
“The Corsican Sisters”: Cher and Walker play identical twins suffering through each other’s aches and pains.
Finale: A musical saluting the all-American hamburger. Sounds fun.
Close: Cher closes the show.
Highlights: Interesting new take on “Until It’s Time For You To Go” and good set for it, too.
