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Category: Television (Page 11 of 22)

My Sonny & Cher TV Study

November 21, 2013 / / 0 Comments

HopejacksonsI had a breakthrough last week on my survey of the Sonny & Cher television shows. The project all started when someone wrote in to Cher Scholar to ask about a particular Vamp episode (where the characters whine for Caesar). I've always felt bad that I've never attacked this huge oeuvre of work with any real scholarship. I had just watched all of The Mary Tyler Moore Shows in a row this summer and given up cable for a while so this seemed like a good time to open out the Cher tome of television.

I have to tell you, I've found so much to talk about: memes, subtexts, latter-day ironies. Look for this to be the centerpiece of Cher Zine #4. Not this year, maybe next year. But anyway, I finally found the episode my scholaring student was seeking. It was a Vamp skit from The Sonny & Cher Show (which I'm calling the Yellow show as opposed to the Orange show), episode #9, starring Tony Randall as Caesar and Cher as Cleopatra. She's an unusual Cleo this time, however, doing either her Mary Hartman impression or rather more like a whiny Laverne Defazio. (Is there a non-whiny Laverne Defazio?) It's actually very funny but, sadly, not to be found on the youtubes or in any online stills.

I also recently found outrageous evidence of Cher actually ordering a pizza! I was so shocked I captured it with my smartypants phone. As you may know, Cher and Kathy Griffin claim Cher does not, in fact, know how to order a pizza. I'm surmising she may just not know how to look up the pizza parlor phone number. She should channel her inner Rosa.

(Note: I really loved the King Kong hand skit when I was 7 in 1977).

 

Mr. Cher Scholar has been passing through as I've been going through some of these episodes and he said the other day how self-aware Sonny and Cher were and how he couldn't fathom any acts today willing to be so self-deprecating on a show. He said, could you imagine Lady Gaga being the butt on a joke? I wonder if maybe young pop stars might do it once or twice for fun…but I do think many stars today construct their "images" with hyper-sensitivity and would be afraid to take the piss out of themselves week after week. I don't know how many times I've heard the name Bono taken in vain over the past four months. And not only do I have trouble imagining pop stars doing this, I'm having a hard time imagining comedians doing it. Dave Chappelle comes to mind. But you can't have good variety showings without self awareness (see Carol Burnett).

I'm about 4 or 5 episodes from watching all I have available to watch. But I keep finding more in my garage. So many people have sent me episodes over the years, very degraded VHS copies hidden in tucked-away places. One year, my ex sent me some tapped off of VH1s 7 Days of Seventies; one year I begged my friend to send me some from TV Land; in 1999 I bought some on the underground market; some have been legitimately released on VHS and DVD. It's taken me time to catalogue them and match them up to online and book lists. 

As I said, I have plenty of deep scholarly thoughts about the shows and their effects on culture and culture's effects on them, covering topics like

  • Evolving race relations in the early 1970s
  • The evolving roles for women and how the show operated in reaction to and in ironic support of feminism
  • Sexuality and the femme fatale

I'm really enjoying this project and it's interesting for me to think about how the shows are perceived in hindsight and how they may have been perceived at the time.

   

Cher Press and Dancing with the Stars

November 9, 2013 / / 1 Comment

GauntletsMr. Cher Scholar was very concerned after we returned from Red River Monday afternoon that I might not be able to see the Cher tribute live on Dancing with the Stars so he re-rigged our TV and we were able to get ABC finally. So glad because this was more than a typical Cher performance on a music show (she performed twice), and more than a tribute show (amazing as that was), but Cher was also a guest judge. Unheard of!

And she was delicately political about the whole judging thing, too, other than one 10 second beep where she said God-knows what.

Well, Elizabeth Berkley knows. Follow the stories of her appearance:

I've been a fan so long, it truly is hard to expect a Cher appearance that breaks the mould after 40 years, but this show was truly surprising. First, I had to acclimate myself to all the celebrity dancers. Since Chaz Bono's season, I haven't watched a single episode of this show.

Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack was interesting to watch and his cerebral or anti-cerebral attitude about his experience there. He said he knows how Ozzy get bummed when people muck up his tributes and he just hoped he wouldn't bum Cher. It was touching to see his parents there cheering him on like typical worried parents. Jack did a tango to "The Beat Goes On."

Elizabeth Berkley (infamous from Showgirls) seemed herself a Cher fan, picking "Bang Bang" for her jazz dance as it had special meaning for her and giving Cher a verbal tribute after the judging was completed. She thanked Cher on behalf of women for showing that you can create your own rules and for her resiliency.

Leah Remini also seemed to have a special understanding of Cher and was abrasive and wise-cracking in a way that I felt was sort of its own tribute to Cher. She danced a Viennese Waltz the depicted the meeting of Sonny & Cher to the song "I Got You Babe," a tribute that seemed to genuinely move Cher (although the dance was factually inaccurate in that the meeting was love at first sight only for Cher and not for Sonny).

The guy from the show Pretty Little Liars did a dance to "The Shoop Shoop Song." He seemed to think much of himself and I wasn't sad to see him booted off.

Bill Engvall said Cher, along with Farrah Fawcett, was one of his 1970s fantasy girls. He did a disco number to "Strong Enough" and told Cher what a huge fan he was.Amber from the show Glee did a rumba to "Turn Back Time."There was a dance-off to "Woman's World."

Cher wore two memorable performing outfits, descending for her entrance to sing "Believe" in a demure miniskirt (it's shocking that now a 67 year-old Cher in a miniskirt caused such controversy recently in the UK) and an awesome feathered wig and fringe outfit for "I Hope You Find It." Her judging outfit was appropriately understated (and didn't detract from the other stars).

Believedress
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There were many dance tributes to Cher covering her long career and pieces of her music played to transition in and out of commercials, including "Welcome to Burlesque,""Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves," "I Found Someone," "Song for the Lonely," and "Walking in Memphis,"

Cher received standing ovations and the show, the audience, and the contestants seemed over-the-moon about her appearance there. Many of the contestants mentioned being "freaked out" that she would be there.

She was asked how she picks dancers for her shows and she says she sees so many talented dancers, it comes down to an "it" factor.

It was nice seeing Cher as a judge, although she was very hesitant to stick out as a judge. Now that's she "been-there-done-that," maybe she'll do more of it. People love her whether she's being stern or motherly. Or stern and motherly.

This week I tried to catch up on my Cher appearances after our weekend trip to Red River. Cher talked on the E! interview about how profound mentoring on The Voice was. 

Introducing her Attitude Award, Graham Norton talked about Cher's friends who showed up to see her accept it (Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley) and how the word legend is overused unless describing Cher. Cher later said legend was gay-code for fun. Cher also said that gay men either "love you or they don't even notice you're on the planet." I would agree with this assessment. Cher also said "gay men love women who are having a breakdown constantly. Judy Garland has nothing on me."

GnCher's appearance on BBC's Graham Norton was also fun. Her drink of choice was Dr. Pepper and she talked about the rumor last year that she had died due to Twitter hash-tag confusion over Margaret Thatcher's death (#NOWTHATCHERSDEAD). She also talked about how lonely the road is. She gave Michelle Pfeiffer a big hug and she complemented fellow-guest Jennifer Saunders over what a fan of French & Saunders, hoping they'd get back together sometime. Sound familiar? Saunders gave that same uncertain look out to the audience that Sonny or Cher probably doled out whenever anyone said the same to them.

Some interesting asides, Cher talked about how bad reviews of Come Back to the Five and Dime ruined the once popular Broadwasy show and she described a very funny dinner she had once with Robert De Niro and how he scared her drag-queen fans.

A UK website called Chart Shaker had this to say about Cher's recent showing in the UK charts:

"Should [Closer to the Truth] maintain its place in the Top 40 until midnight on Saturday, it will earn Cher her first UK Top 40 hit in twelve years but, more importantly, it will make her one of – if not THE ONLY female artist to have scored a solo Top 40 hit in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 00s and the 10s. Six decades. A feat matched by David Bowie (who added to his tally earlier this year) and Sir Cliff Richard who started a decade earlier but has yet to add another Top 40 single to his tally this decade.

Cherilyn Sarkisian. 100 million solo albums sold. Another 40 million records shifted as one half of the massively successful television and musical partnership Sonny & Cher. The woman behind the biggest selling single by a female solo artist in the UK (Believe). That dance number, co-written by Xenomania founder Brian Higgins, has shifted over 1.7m copies in the UK alone. She has won Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes and an Oscar. And she has just released her 26th studio album Closer To The Truth."

Star Pulse recently posted excerpts of Cher recent Facebook Q&A, which I haven't read yet (see below), where she talked about missing Sonny but imagining him (or joked to imagine him) in hell. She also effused about Jack Nicholson and a recent hand-painted bull he gave her in tribute of the fact they were both Tauruses.

More News:

   

Recap of Cher’s Mentoring on The Voice

October 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments

ChervoiceCher was on the most recent four episodes of The Voice as a mentor. She may come back on later in the season to do a duet with Blake. It looks like they were teasing around that idea in some of the interviews. Stay tuned.

In any case, I am disappointed at the lack of coverage Blake Shelton's contestants received in the last four episodes, which made for a dearth of Cher appearances as well.

The first episode showed some saucy Cher interactions. The second episode showed less stern but fewer clips, the third show same, and by the fourth show, we didn't even get to see one full Cher segment! In fact, for all four coaches, (Blake, Christina, Cee Lo and Adam), they all showed segments at about 2-to-1 everyone else compared to Blake, meaning for every one session they showed of Blake and Cher, they showed two from everybody else. And they never caught up! Not only is this a disservice to his contestants and their air-time (we never get to know them in recaps), but we barely got to see any Cher compared to Ryan Tedder, Miguel, and Ed Sheeran (and much of their advice was boring, sorry to say). In the fourth episode, we just received one lousy recap. I missed it believing it was a teaser for the next segment. I had to catch it again on Hulu. WTF!

Mr. Cher Scholar and I were left to wonder if Blake's contestants made bad performances, if there wasn't enough Cher advice to mine into enough clips (I doubt that because we saw out-takes of more good stuff), or if Blake is getting short-shift because he's already won three times.

In any case, here is a recap of the Cher advice (paraphrased) that appeared on the show:

Episode #7

  • Don't just sit on your ass and push a button (that was a freebie to Blake)
  • To hit a high note that seems beyond you, think high.
  • Sometimes you have to learn harmony like it is the melody. Cher admits she's not got at this either.

Episode #8

  • If you're gonna riff, know where you're gonna end up.
  • If you do a bad note, do something else to make the audience forget the bad note.

Episode #9

  • Sometimes if you have a powerful voice, you can over-depend on it.
  • You can be too cerebral and aware of yourself and how you're doing.

Episode #10

  • We need to see your eyes to see your emotion.

Cher also had advice for breath issues and using or not using your body or the mic to get at notes. Blake introduced Cher as "y'all's adviser" when they came in for their sessions and they all had flabbergasted faces. Most surprisingly, bearded-country-guy was the biggest Cher fan, apart from Blake himself. I noticed Cher tapping when she hugged the contestants and she called them chickadees. One contestant noted: "When Cher gives you notes, you listen."

MTV breaks down their view of all the mentors.

 

Cher: Strong Enough and 1970s Variety Shows

October 27, 2013 / / 4 Comments

Cher-strong-enough-josiah-howard-paperback-cover-artThe new Cher biography has finally arrived, Cher Strong Enough by Josiah Howard. From what Cher scholars have been telling me, this is an interesting read with a particular focus on the variety shows of the 1970s.

Which is why I'm holding off reading it for a few weeks, as freakin' hard as that is, because I want to finish watching the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour/Sonny & Cher Show shows so I have a good idea of all the minutia I might catch in this scholarly area. Then I can watch The Cher Shows if they are referenced in the book (although I only have a few of those and cut to a half hour at that). 

From two really juicy two backstage photos that appear in the inserts of the new book, I'm sure this is the right strategy (albeit obsessive and crazy). There's a photo of Cher being costumed in a big snake head outfit and one in a Shakespearean outfit. Those are from Vamp sketches in the same episode (#23, aired 10/6/72, guests were Tony Curtis and Barbara McNair). I know this because I just watched that episode two days ago! I was thinking how unattractive that Scheherazade snake outfit was and how beautiful the Lady MacBeth outfit was (one of my favorite costumes from the show). I thought it was ironic to see the worst and best in one Vamp segment.

I'm enjoying the show so much more this round than I did the last (second) time I went through them in the late 1990s. I think this is because I've watched so many foreign and independent films since then and am much more attuned to subtext and a slower variety skit pace (unlike the speedier skit comedy I was enjoying then on Mad TV).

My favorite thing so far has been Cher's impression of Mary Hartman (which I caught yesterday).

Van-elizabethWhen Cher was co-hosting for TCM and doing a night of war movies, she talked at length about Van Johnson who had a brief appearance in The White Cliffs of Dover. Which reminds me: why does Jimmy Cliff reference the white cliffs of dover in "Many Rivers to Cross"?

Anyway, I wonder if Cher remembers that Van Johnson made a cameo appearance on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (episode #26, aired 10/27/72 guests were Rick Springfield and William Conrad, "Headlines in the Papers" segment) where Cher buys Van Johnson in a Hollywood studio auction. I couldn't find a picture of the segment but here is a handsome shot of Van Morrison with Elizabeth Taylor.

 

More Cher-a-palooza 2013

October 19, 2013 / / 0 Comments

ChiefsThe great Cher train rolls on! Cher maintained her top ten status for week two (#8) with her album and then fell to #11 last week. My Billboard-watching friend thinks she can get back into the top ten next week. He says there was a barrage of new albums debuting last week she had to compete with.

Last weekend I went to the Chiefs game in Kansas City with Mr. Cher Scholar. He is a huge Chiefs fan and recently commented on the fact that both of our obsessions begin with "Ch." This is why I love him. Anyway, as he is so supportive of my freakish Cher obsession, I am committed to supporting him with his Chiefs obsession. Although I know nothing of football, I take it the game went very well by all the hollering and the Chiefs, now 6-0, did something I was told was extraordinary by pushing back the Oakland Raiders to a 3 and 48 which (don't laugh too hard if I get this wrong) means that it was their 3rd down and they had 48 yards to go.

Anyway, of note to Cher fans, the Chiefs cheerleaders did a cheer set to a large chunk of Cher's "Woman's World" and it was a pleasure to see fat, drunk men in the row ahead of us doing some girly dance moves.

I also
Bewitchedheard Cher in the supermarket yesterday and I almost couldn't place the song! This was because it was her "Bewitched" duet with Rod Stewart which I have never listened to fully because I am allergic to Rod Stewart.

Cher's special video, Dear Mom, Love Cher, also came out last week. There is 20 minutes of extra footage being Cher's original birthday video for Georgia. Much is clarified in this extra footage, Georgia's experience in Oklahoma bars, her father's struggles with her in Los Angeles. There are many, many more family photos here. I really enjoyed them, especially the Cher and Georgia beach photo marked "Cher was afraid of the ocean."

Cher also talks about her favorite tracks from Georgia's album and listening to their duet I finally hear a younger Cher voice circa late 1970s/early 1980s. Cher is amazed she can't remember cutting the duet in light of the fact that she remembers everything, like falling off the stage. When did this happen?

I also enjoyed Cher talking about country music with her mom. When they hug, Cher does Cher-tapping. Cher also does this when she hugs contestants on The Voice. In Cher Zine 1, I talk extensively about Cher tapping.

The Perth Now interview was good. Cher talks about listening to old albums and songs, twitter haters, her love of Pink's "Dear Mr. President," her support of still using auto-tune, and her appreciation of Cher impersonator Charlie Hides.

In the iTunes fan interview  Cher talks about why she sequenced the album the way she did. She doesn't like albums where the slow and fast songs are intermixed. And although I do prefer that, I appreciate Cher's intentions for the sequencing. She talks more about her plane crash but not when it was.

I tracked down the Gianni Morandi video on Cher's forum and it wasn't that great. However, the German appearances were:

I love, love, love that Cher prop on the Wetten Dass performance, the whole set was gorgeous. Listening to a translated interview was too hard and early on I dismissed the old guy sitting next to her as some grumpy German. This turned out to be Harrison Ford.

MolinaMy friend Julie sent me this interesting Q&A from Mail Online. Cher talks about something very mean Sonny said to her when they split. Sonny was so complicated, it's frustrating to either like him or dislike him. She talks about getting lost in the woods as a child, her love of Alfred Molina (I'm so there), her longtime fear of being poor and ending up in a sad LA apartment, and her feelings about Downton Abbey.

If you haven't seen this video, go there right now: Australia’s Sunday Night interview with Rahni Sadler. It's a great, long interview in the vein of Barbara Walters.

I finally read the Readdit interview. It was mostly annoying navigating her answers around all the inane chatter. She talks more about saving someone from a mugger with Meryl Streep, her feelings about Madonna, about Sonny as a ghost, about loving her Richard Avedon and Normal Seeff photos and her Estudio Machado and Cicala Morassut photos (see beow), why Elvis was an inspiration, about motherhood and what isn't "all about me" in Chaz's transformation, among many other fly-by topics.

Lastly, Cher was on two segments of The Voice last week. I was on the road Monday and missed that episode. But you can always catch them on Hulu, along with this extra clip. You can also see Cher's mentoring interview here.

Cherblake

First of all, Cher looked great. I thought she was edited a bit school-marmishly cross, especially in the teasers.

Rolling Stone accused her of chewing out contestants and scolding them:

"Cher is not messing around when it comes to being an advisor to Blake Shelton's team on The Voice. After meeting bluesy Monika Leigh and single dad Ray Boudreaux, the iconic singer dug into them during rehearsal for the second night of the battle rounds.

When Ray's voice cracked on a high note and he said he "hoped" he could hit it on the day of the big performance, Cher sternly replied: "You shouldn't have to worry about, on that day can you do it? You should be able to know that you can do it."

And the tough love didn't stop there. When Monika sang the pairing's battle song, "Some Kind of Wonderful" by Grand Funk Railroad, differently than rehearsed, Cher called her out on it: "If you're gonna riff, make sure you know where you're gonna end up." When Monika asked for an example, Cher snapped, "Well you sing it different every time. I don't mean to play it safe, but you've got this one chance – be secure before you go there."

Cherstare2I think this editing led to the brouhaha about a tiff between Cher and Blake as seen in the supermarket rags this week. Cher is intimidating. She gives you that crazy Cher stare. I wonder if she picked this up from the crazy Sonny stare. And I admit to never wanting to be on the scolding end of it. I got scared when she used that stare in the tennis scene from Witches of Eastwick! Watch the full scene.

But Cher and Blake have professed their mutual love to each other in various interviews. And Blake gives it back plenty. My favorite was when he asked her to list her favorite Adam Levine songs. I want to talk more about her advice later on, after more episodes air. She gives good tough-love and contestants really seem to take her words to heart.

Would I ever sing in front of Cher? Hell to the no.

More Cher news I have yet to consume:

from Cher News:

from Cher World:

Enjoy chickadees!

New Estudio Machado photos:

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New Cicala Morassut:

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More TV Appearances (VCR Alerts)

October 8, 2013 / / 2 Comments


Cher-blondeThe Voice

Stay tuned for Cher appearances next week. If you been watching the show, you've seen the previews which have provided some saucy Cher moments. You can see her deliver such tips and barbs to Blake Shelton as "I've been busy working…I haven't been sitting on my ass pushing a button!" and telling a contestant if you do a bad note, do something big to make them forget you did a bad note. And if you are trying to sing a high note, think high. I can't wait for more of this.

 

 

Kelly & Michael
Kelly1

Kathie Lee and Regis have now morphed into Kelly and ex-Giants player Michael Strahan. I actually like this combination. You can see Cher's appearance in three clips:

This has been a season (forget that, a half a year!) of great Cher interviews, maybe the best Cher interviews ever. But the Live! with Kelly and Michael appearance went beyond the pale. 

First of all Kelly Ripa is a bona fide Cher fan, and a thoughtful Cher fan as well, meaning she tries to deconstruct her fan-ness.
Which is something the literary-trained Cher Scholar was raised to do. I'm sure my college professors expected me to do more service to the high literary arts but…what can I say?. I love this about Kelly Ripa but it seems pretty intense for Cher. 

In the backstage interview, Cher looks almost palpably overwhelmed by the onslaught of Kelly's insistent affections. And what normal, non-narcissistic, person wouldn't be. Cher's response is understandable and all the more amazing that she doesn't "eat it all up." That's some character there.

CherpicWhen Cher walks out to the official interview, she steps to personally shake hands with people in the crowd and
the response is overwhelming. It's like she's attained a Queen status. Forget about some kind of Goddess of Pop. I feel we've left that station months ago. Goddess implies a kind of free-floating greatness which is admired from afar. But that's not what we're seeing here. We're seeing people feeling an intense Elvis-like emotional connection and treating her like…well like royalty. I wonder how unsettling that might be for Cher to be the underdog for so long and to finally break out like this…again and larger than ever.

But speaking as a fan of almost 40 years, (which is nothing: I have Cher friends who've been fans for 50 years), the adulation is long past its overdue date. In any case, the responses from the hosts who interview her and the audiences has all been way beyond
Believe-era responses.

In the interview, Cher talks about a childhood friend named Della and sharing a hair brush
(love those childhood stories!). They play a game called Would You Share (what's with all these Cher games this year?? Not that I hate them or anything). While Mr. Cher Scholar was working late in our office, Michael made a very funny joke about sharing a bathtub and I heard Mr. Cher Scholar bust out laughing in the other room.

In the backstage interview, Cher talks about being mentored by Sonny. She also talks on stage about her experience mentoring singers on The Voice for two days and how unexpectedly attached she became to the contestants, and how surprised she was how much she knew about performing and had such good advice to give. I hope she liked it well enough to keep doing it. From hearing Barry Manilow talk about mentoring on American Idol, it seems so fulfilling and positive.

Billboard

If you haven't heard already, Cher's album hit a debut spot of number three, the highest debut of her solo career. So impressive. My friend sent my this interview link from Billboard. I haven't watched it yet. I haven't even finished the fan chat interview yet either or all the links below!I've had a cold and am talking this crazy-intensive University of Pennsylvania online poetry class that sucks up like 4-5 hours of my evenings. But I will catch up!

I did buy the vinyl copy
of the album this week and the Japanese version is available as well.

I also bought my tickets this week to see Cher in Phoenix. I've never seen an opening night before, but this was the closest city I could reasonable get to, considering I am living in the middle of a desert.

More Cher News

from EuropeCher World:

Cher News:

Pics from Cher's album party:

   

Cher Appearances for Closer to the (VCR Alert)

September 29, 2013 / / 1 Comment

CherlaceOMG…last week was a killer Cher
week and I was soooo freakin busy. I felt like I was on a treadmill running from job to class to The Voice to taking Mr. Cher Scholar to the airport, and all these Cher appearances and juicy album listening parties-for-one.

This month feels like a turning point in a very awful, insane year for me. To review the last five months, in the spring I developed a debilitating three-month allergic reaction to New Mexico, I was out of work for three months in a bad job market, my husband couldn't find a job either and finishing up with his anthropology degree was a massive struggle of scheduling issues. Our hot water heater broke down and we had no heat or hot water for a week, we lost a full tank of expensive propane in a gas leak, a pipe broke and our kitchen flooded, our truck died and no one in Santa Fe could figure out why so we had to buy another car, some animal died behind our office wall, then some other animal died behind our master bathroom wall, then our landlord told us he needed to move into his house and we had a month to move and we ended up moving cities. Then our dog ate rat poison (he's fine now). And that has been my 2013 so far.

On the bright side, this year brought a Cher TV special and a new album. Mr. Cher Scholar finally got his diploma last week and found out the show he is helping out with as Historical Consultant, Quick Draw, got picked up for another season and was the most successful new show on Hulu this year. He spent time back in Los Angeles last week doing historical interviews with the show's star, his friend, John Lehr. Those should air in January.

So fingers crossed. But it is with this frazzled state of mind that I approach this crop of Cher appearances and a new album.

Wow…what a whirlwind of great Cher stuff out last week, too. I love all her appearances this season. She's happy-seeming, she's being asked interesting questions befitting her stature. FINALLY!!!!

VCR Alert: Cher Scholar Dishy notified me today that Cher will be on with Kelly Ripa's show October 1.


TodayThe Today Show Appearances

Cher looked lovely on her first morning concert appearance.

You can see the sound check video taken by a fan. The comments of the female fan aggravated with the super-fan were funny to me.

Read the article about Cher's arrival on a hog motorcycle: http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_24157697/celeb-pix-cher-gets-hog-ride-today-show

Cher singing "Believe." 

Cher singing "Woman's World" and "I Hope You Find It."

During "I Hope You Find It" you could see Cher
getting  frustrated with the song. This seems to happen more often since Cher has been singing with a net (with voice lessons) versus when she used to sing without a net (on the S&C Show).

I left my TV on after the concert and caught Cher with Kathie Lee
Giffard and Hoda Gotb afterward. Cher stood in the wings breaking into the show to talk about lipstick and thongs. Cher said 45-dollar lip-sh*t better kiss your lips. Kathie Lee and Hoda also ran a "favorite Cher song" poll and "Turn Back Time" won, which Kathie Lee joked should be the theme song of AARP. Kathie Lee talked about seeing Cher in Vegas years and years ago (I'm guessing in the early 1980s/late 1970s) and stating that as a performer, Cher "delivers." Hoda and Kathie Lee are giddy about Cher appearing in concert there, exclaiming "and she's still here!!" Watch the official interview.

Cher admits her new single is a Miley Cyrus cover. She talks about feeling compelled to answer interview questions. She's very self-deprecating (saying she had gotten too happy with the sound of her own voice) and talks about her laryngitis from all the press interviews. She talks about a perfect Cher day and wishing she could ride her motorcycle. I loved the big Cher pics hanging in the background.

Access Hollywood

A visit to Cher's house and she talks about the Russian Olympics. Part 1 and 2.

The David Letterman Show


Lettermanbanner

This was an outstanding interview. First the entrance was divine to the song "Let Freedom Ring." Thank god she was belted in! He eyelashes look great and I love the short, wavy black wig. Her almost-70-year-old gams look amazing! David asked her questions about her history as a major 1960s artist. They talked about the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Definitely one of my favorite Letterman appearances. She makes a hoverround joke. She tells the story about forgetting to do the album (which no fan I've yet spoken to believes is plausible) and about how her record label wasn't hounding her for one. But her manager was. They talk about Janis Joplin and tattoos, Jimi Hendrix, dying for your career, the wrecking crew members, Darlene Love and working for Phil Spector, Sonny getting his nose broken, Paul McCartney still kicking ass, Brian Wilson and twerking. She clarifies that she wasn't apologizing about her Miley comments but shouldn't say everything she thinks. She likes the Milley song and video.

She also sings, "I Hope You Find It" live. I've decided Cher has the pretties eyelids in show business.

This might be a good time to visit her first Letterman appearance back in the early 1980s to notice how far this love-affair has traveled through show-biz time. 

New Video

The lyric video for "I Hope You Find It" was also released last week. I love it! Beautiful.

Print Stuff

I finally read the extended interview for the CBS morning show. Wow, they left out so much good stuff for TV! Much of this was about Sonny, understanding why bands wreck hotel rooms, her outfits and Mackie and more elaboration on what clothes mean, ("…clothes don't do anything. Clothes are nothing. Clothes are pretty. They're just to keep you warm, to keep you cool, or to be attractive…"), and why style became important to her during The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. She elaborates on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the early style of Sonny & Cher. She talks about Colleen and Bridget. She also talks about the temperments of Sonny's children. That was interesting. She talks about paparazzi and the paddle-boarding photo from Hawaii a few years back, working with Bernadette Peters' vocal teacher, about being so honest in interviews (and Meryl Streep being worried about that), working with George Miller, why she didn't think Midnight Run would have worked with her and whether or not she's consciously ever tried image making.

Really good interview. 

Hollywood Life has a nice blurb of a story: http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/09/23/cher-today-show-womans-world-new-tour-video/

Macleans

I found an 'old' interview in Macleans from September 8: Cher talks about meeting Eartha Kitt at age 14 and taking mental notes, her famous cover shoot for Time Magazine, media training and the awful Peter Bogdanovich interview. Macleans mistakenly labels that interview being from the Time Magazine of 1975 but it was really the Saturday Evening Post of 1966 (Cher Scholar in action!). She talks about abortion laws, feminism, "The Greatest Thing," loving Pink's song "Dear Mr. President," being ahead of her time with drag queens in her shows, wanting to write her autobiography (hell, yeah), and helping with the upcoming Broadway piece, modern fashion being too subdued, and her alternative comments about fashion and clothes, "Superficial things can be so powerful. They can lift your spirits. I've definitely found a place for them."

USA Magazine

The Cher list of Yahoo posted this amazing thing, 25 Things You Don't Know About Me. I really laughed at this one: "The day I moved out of my home in Holmby Hills, I found a room I never knew existed." I was thrilled to read she had an elephant collection. I have one too that I'm going to sell in a garage sale this spring (along with an eraser collection–I have way too much stuff) and considered for a moment sending Cher the best of my elephants but then, in a reality check moment, I realized she's probably going to be sent a million elephants right about now after admitting that she has a collection of them.

She once crashed in a small plane???? WTF! What the hell happened?? We came that close, Cherfreaks, to the death of Cher??

Balinese!! That's how you spell that.

I love that Deacon Jones taught her the finer points of football. I was working at The Prostate Cancer Foundation when Mike Milken talked Cher into performing for one of his benefits (I wasn't invited, dammit, but I do have a video of it) and my awful boss there hosted a disastrous event with the Fearsome Foursome. I was in charge of wrangling Lumar Lundy, who was a sweetheart although when we first tried to contact him, he kept hanging up on me, thinking I was a zealous football fan…I had no idea who he was. Rosey Grier (who worked with Mike Milken and was very kind to me when I worked there with that lousy boss, and whom I would discuss voting for Fantasia that year on American Idol) had to step in and tell Lamar to take my calls. Anyway, this is just a long digression to say I have a Fearsome Foursome poster signed by all four players and that Deacon Jones hit on my friend Julie at the disastrous event down at Tony Ps in Marina del Rey. I have a picture of all of us there somewhere. That's my memory of Deacon Jones.

My friend Julie as something else in common with Cher. She too cried when she lost a $100 poker chip in Las Vegas.

Twitter Chat

Cher also did a fan chat on Twitter and Reddit has the transcript (I haven't "read it" yet). Thank you to Dishy for sending it to me: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1nc4sk/i_am_cher_ask_me_anything/

ChertourpsoterThe Tour Announced!

Last but not leased, tour dates were released!

Visit Ticketmaster or Cher's tour page.

The closest place for me to see the tour is in Phoenix which will be opening night.

The competition to get Cher concert tickets always makes me nervous. I've never enjoyed the day tickets go on sale.

What if I can't get good tickets? What if it sells out? What if I oversleep that day or my Internet goes down?

When I was a kid, I used to go down to the department store to get concert tickets, wait in line at 5 am for tickets to go on sale at 10 am. Those were the days of standing in the cold and worrying about line butt-inskies. We always got good seats that way, though. Now you're fighting with the pushy cyber-masses.

 

Cher Appearances for Closer to the (VCR Alert)

The Voice

September 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

ThevI don't know if Cher will end up working as a mentor/coach on the singing show The Voice, but I've started watching the first few episodes anyway and where have you been all my life, you lovely singing show???

I've been three years drying out from that negative bitch-fest American Idol and The Voice is so much more heart-warming and fun! The talent is so much better, too, and more diverse!

I was listening to commentary last week about why the show is doing so well (and why X Factor was tanking) and the commentators chalked it up to "blind judging still being novel to audiences." But I think it's the warmth and humor of the show, I really do. These are some of the things I loved:

  • Being spared really bad auditions and judges writhing in pain over them,
  • I love those red chairs and how they dramatically swivel around!
  • The variety of people and singing styles,
  • The good feeling I feel when judges love on people who don't make it,
  • The good feeling I feel when judges put the singers in the power-seat by begging for them to come onto their teams,
  • The camaraderie and mock-competition of the star judges,
  • And Cee Lo Green, who I'm a long-time fan of. He makes the closest thing to a perfect record as I've ever heard.

 

Cher Interviews for New Cher Album

September 22, 2013 / / 1 Comment

CbsI have to say, except for that time I threw a hissy-fit when I was about 15 years old and my Dad couldn't hook up my VCR to Cher's Mask-era interview on Phil Donahue fast enough, (after which my Dad refused to try anymore and I missed the interview entirely until I saw it later in my late 20s), this has been a very frustrating Cher press junket season for me. First of all, I gave up cable months ago. I'm still not sure I'm going back to it. Then I broke my TV antennae moving it last month. Then I find out I can't receive CBS in Albuquerque. Is this an issue with the broken antennae, I do not know.

Well, at least I'll be able to watch The Today Show concert tomorrow. Not so fast, Cher freak! I need to take my husband to the airport exactly during air time tomorrow morning. What the!! So I'm totally dependent, like a Cher fan on a deserted island (with wireless, however), to watching these interviews and promotions online.I spent all day today (on and off) stalking the Internet for a clip of this morning's CBS interview.

The This Morning CBS Interview

This clip has sound issues but it covers the interview. This is the interview that caused Cher so much Miley Cirus grief this week. This preview in particular. First Cher is asked about her secret to being provocative. The host surmises it's her sense of humor but I think it's her genuine commitment to being herself, in other words–her authenticity in the act. "I just do what I want," she says. She never made a cynical play for attention. Also, she understands the art of the tease. If you show it all, game over.

As each generation tries to "up the ante" on provocation, the area for the tease shrinks and the game becomes harder to play. "I just do what I want," Cher said. But then they go on to critique Miley Cirus' Video Music Awards performance.

The press (and some of my friends) loved Cher's candor about it. Cher News tracked the story well:

I always enjoy Cher's candor but I can see why she expressed regrett for her statement, being almost led into a bitch fight by CBS. Maybe innocently enough, but it's all so unproductive. It's just one appearance by Miley Cirus and she didn't commit a felony, as Cher said. Except maybe a fashion felony. But those laws are so subjective.

On the bright side, the CBS interview gave Cher plenty of respect, saying she's earned every honor show biz has to offer. They showed the Cher Show skit with Cher, Bette Midler, Elton John and Flip Wilson in an entertainer's old folks home and later Elton telling Cher she'll be going strong in 50 years. Cher again talks about hating the aging process. How can the world stop worshipping youth, if Cher won't stop worshiping youth? CBS agrees that even the word icon doesn't cover Cher anymore. They quote a line stating she's the "Sherman tank of divas." When asked if she wants to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame she says she doesn't need a hall to rock. In truth, Cher has defined fame and has broken many records in service of the industry of rock music. But a clique's a clique. Rock stars are so hypocritically insiders just posing as outsiders.

Cher jokes that she uses witchcraft to stay young. We get to see a young picture of Sonny shirtless. After watching so many episodes of The Sonny & Cher Show, I have developed a taste for seeing Sonny shirtless. Cher talks about how she came to fashion, how women would tune into the TV show to see what she was wearing. She started to care about it then, too, and it got "interwoven" (no pun intended) into her personality. I love how she talks about clothes being neither an aid nor barricade (in the theory of ex-boyfriend Josh Donen) to her true self. "Clothes are nothing" she says. 

I'm also so glad she's telling interviewers to piss off about her love life. That's so right. The last line of the interview is funny…Cher asking about herself, "Isn't she over?"

Note: the online posted Extended Transcript seems to go on much longer than the 13 minute interview. I haven't read it yet but it printed out to 18 pages!!

Cher at Grauman's Chinese Theater to see The Wizard of Oz
Cheroz2

This week, Cher made an appearance in Los Angeles. You can see clips of Cher at Grauman's in the CBS interview. Cher News also has photos.

Recap of interview in Gay & Night

Last week I linked to the interview in the Netherlands magazine Gay & Night. She talks about her record label, about the themes of this album and not intending it to be about women's empowerment, about how painful leaked songs can be and why "The Greatest Thing" came not to be. She says "Dressed to Kill" is "a drag queen dream come true. She talks about hesitations over touring again, about the only outfit she regrets having worn. (Think Take Me Home era roller skating party). She admits she's had "a couple" of loves of her life: "I've had three."

Oh boy, another Cher fan guessing game. I vote for either Robert, Gregg & Sonny or Robert, Gregg & Current Mystery Bf.

She talks about why she dated younger men and about what her tattoos mean to her now, how passe they have become (Miss Kansas at Miss America last week was half-tattooed). She also says she hasn't yet purchased a plot at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris but that she still hopes to eternally rest there.

She talks about Chaz and her gay fans and she talks about her mother's circle of friends and her mother's lack of prejudice. Cher says her first best friend was Jewish. I would LOVE to hear more Cher-as-a-kid stories.

Cher talks about the structure of the possible Broadway show based on her life (which is very interesting and I hope that comes to be).

Recap of Interview in Canoe

Last week, I also linked to the interview in Canoe. She talks about paving the way for Katy Perry, Madonna, Lady Gaga and how rough it was for early Sonny & Cher with their then-unusual outfits. They talk about Cher's ability to hit high notes, the quality of her voice (Cher says she was pretty bad in the beginning), being able to watch her movies or look at photos of herself and how she loves Tony Bennett and Betty White.


ChershadesCher Interview in USA Today

Cher also appeared in USA Today. They called her a "stage warhorse" and "fashion daredevil." They talk about her voice, touring, Tina Turner touring. She "sips Dr. Pepper" during the interview and her cat, Mr. Big, attends. The article jokes about her age and "crossing the Medicare threshold."They talk about her album cover and how she was trying to to be camp, like a Playboy cover. Which just proves how much you can't do camp on purpose. She says people took it so seriously. She talks about being a fan of Bruno Mars and the civic duty of the stars to "give back." She talks about Buddhism and the 1980s being so fun. She says the low point for her being after her divorce from Sonny and all the financial trouble she was in. She says something interesting as she's talking about being in that financial hole in the mid-1970s, "A lot of people were gigantic, and then they were gone."

This is what constantly amazes me watching the Sonny & Cher shows…all those celebrities who were on top, more on top than Cher was, celebrities who Sonny & Cher had to pay deference to as guests on their variety show: Chad Everett, Lorne Greene, Sandy Duncan, Bobby Sherman (just the stars I watched last night alone) and they're all gone. Think of this, Sonny & Cher were equals with Peter Noone and Herman's Hermit's in the 1960s. Less than 10 years later, they had Peter Noone on one of their "Years" specials as a nostalgia act. All the hot 1970s stars then disappeared by the 1980s. The 1980s stars were gone by the 1990s, and so forth. There's a 1950s skit in the first "Years" episode of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour where Cher sings an satirical 1950s-style song called "Superstar" in a space outfit and then goes on a tirade telling everybody how "big" she's gonna get, bigger than all the guests on the episode, Frankie Valli, Dick Clark. The whole skit is eerie.

In USA Today, Cher talks about how much she didn't like her early voice, "My voice was so strange and different." She talks about Pink and writing "Lovers Forever" for Interview with a Vampire with her friend Shirley Eikhard and how her songwriting tends to be dark and personal.

My favorite quote: "Even Cher underestimates the power of Cher."

The Guardian Interview

Last week, Cher also appeared in The Guardian. She talks about where she learned all her British swear words, about Sonny and Mark Taylor being her favorite producers. Really? Sonny? After having to do all those takes?

She talks about how odd Phil Spector was and working on background vocals for a John Lennon album with Phil and Harry Nilsson. Which song(s) was this for???

She talks about song leaks and Hillary Clinton and showing her navel on TV.

The Sunday Morning Herald Interview

Cher was in Australia's Sunday Morning Herald this week as well. She talks about how "women should hang together" and stop "bitch fighting" which is why I think she regretted her Miley comments. The interviewer calls Cher, "two parts rock chick, one part opinionated lady, with side orders of mother and superstar…She's detailed like a prestige car."

She talks about not remembering how many albums she's made and forgetting she recorded certain songs, how for her Sonny was "total hero worship." The magazine claims Cher says their marriage was a happy one. Earlier this year, Cher described it as Russian Roulette. But she says they never discussed politics. She talked about how she struggled to get into movies and how Francis Ford Coppola made her cry (after telling her she should be in movies) and how brave Robert Altman and Mike Nichols were to finally cast her. She talked about making the documentary about her mom and the title of her new album….

…which I hope to get soon. I've been holding off listening to it until I get the physical thing in my hot little hands.

 

Sunday VCR Alert

September 16, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Thismorning90s8 more days to a new Cher record! Whoo hoo!

I realized today that the last Cher record came out when I was living in Pennsylvania. I've lived in three cities since the last Cher album.

Cher scholar Tyler commented on the last post that Cher will be interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning this next Sunday.

Here is a link to Cher on This Morning years ago promoting her Love Hurts album from the early 1990s. The interviewer calls her the Grande Dame of the pop scene back then! She wasn't even 45 years old yet!

She talks about being the modern day girl in Rumpelstiltskin who wants to spin tears into platinum.

 

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