Cher was involved in a lot of Christmas caroling throughout the 1970s and it's taken me a while to get the shows straight. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour Christmas Collection DVD, as it turns out, does not show the pure, original episodes as it turns out.
The 12/20/1972 Show
This is the show with Cher (and Sonny) singing "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" with the "One Tin Soldier" cartoon. This itself is a poignant song to revisit considering the rise of white nationalism and bigotry happening right now.
The 12/19/1973 Show
This was a full-blown Christmas show completely outside of their normal set, most notable for Cher's infamous rendition of "O Holy Night."
- Sonny & Cher sing their upbeat version of "Jingle Bells"
- Cher Sings "A Gift of Song"
- Cher sings "O Holy Night"
- Christmas in Germantown Medley
- The Ending
But there are also other notable moments, like William Conrad reading a long, boring Christmas poem with Sonny & Cher in rapt attention, Sonny & Cher sitting on Santa's lap, and an incredibly odd Indian-Italian mashup with Cher dressed as a plains Indian skipping around with a talking bear looking for snow. The song is tragically ear-wormy but the set design is amazing. I don't remember ever seeing this on the DVD version of the show.
The 12/21/1975 Cher Show
Wow! The Cher show last night was lovely and amazing and so very timely.
Mr. Cher Scholar groaned when he heard The Hudson Brother and The Lennon Sisters were the guests. Never a value add there. But we both thoroughly enjoyed every scene Redd Foxx was in, including two really, really amazing pieces: Redd Foxx reading Christmas Wishes for Bigots, (God, I wish this was on YouTube–I will try to transpose it for us), and Redd Foxx as Elmer the Elf showing us all Santa's VIP gifts for the big celebrities of 1975. It was very funny.
Cher sings "White Christmas/We Need A Little Christmas" and the musical numbers make great effort to be multi-cultural, including:
- "Some Children See Him" which Cher sings beautifully, all while surrounded with a plethora of poinsettias.
- The full-cast big band medley at the end is very festive, lovely and international.
Cher also dons a Santa wig and beard for Chastity and Chastity also does some real tap dancing. Oh, and we see Laverne's bedroom.
Great, great show.
The 12/5/1976 Show
I haven't seen this show in a while but it's the only Christmas show after Sonny & Cher reunite.
– Opening duet: Sonny & Cher sing their uptempo "Jingle Bells"
– All-cast medley with Chastity, Elijah, Bernadette Peters and Captain Kangaroo
Merry Christmas, y'all!
I agree about Sonny’s Pizza episodes. They feel too unfinished, not ready for prime time. But the Sadie skits always feel pretty well written. The King Kong skits were only in The Sonny & Cher Shows from 1976-77. I love, love, love those. For some reason they haven’t aired any of that set yet.
I enjoyed the Cher Show Christmas too. I didn’t care for the big band Christmas even though it was put together well. I don’t have an aversion to big bad music, but the Christmas angle didn’t do it for me. I agree that Redd Foxx was an asset to the show. I don’t ever remember seeing this as a kid. The very odd and not good Indian/Italian snow story was most ear wormy. Chaz’s tap dancing was very impressive. I’d love to see his reaction to this bit of nostalgia. What I find most interesting is that when I was a kid, I loved Sonny’s Pizza, but I have yet to see one I’ve liked. I still find the Sadie Thompson skits funny. I also loved the King Kong skits, but we’ve not seen those yet.
Tyler you are such a great fact-checker! I am fixing that as we speak.
Mary, Its the Lennon sisters, The Lemmon sisters was a movie.