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Category: Television (Page 11 of 23)

Working Out With Cher

NewattCher scholar Dishy recently got me working out again with Cher's exercise tapes. He asked about locating copies of Cher’s old workout videos in the US. Very unfortunately, they're not available on DVD here. You can only get them in VHS and Laserdisc. If you wore out your VHS, you SOL. You can’t convert your tapes to DVD (copyright protections literally stop you from doing this) and the DVDs that are available in Europe won’t play on your US DVD players. (I've tried to use them on my computers and DVD-players).

I believe this is why Americans are so fat: Cher's fitness videos are withheld from us on DVD. It's bad enough our Twinkies are filled with corn syrup. We're doomed!

I have not played out my Cher fitness VHS tapes because I've only watched them once (while eating popcorn and sitting on the couch). I felt a bit weirded out to have Cher be my fitness guru and my celebrity obsession too. But Dishy inspired me to actually give them a try. For years I've been feeling under the weather and downright "stove up." Starting last January I've been working out on a treadmill. I was finally ready to work out with Cher.

I didn't want to invest in a step yet (in case I hated stepping) so I simply used a small step stool. My Cher bands were also MIB (where they'll stay) but I did have some bands from physical therapy a few years ago.

The Body Confidence (1991) video packaging is odd in that Cher's body is all in shadow. Isn't that what we're selling here: Cher's body? The video's Wikipedia page says that Health & Fitness gave the video 5 out of 5 stars and that it sold 1.5 million copies by December 1992 in the US (350,000 in the UK) and has become one of most successful fitness videos of all time. Wikipedia disclaimer, however, says these facts are not substantiated and may be deleted soon.

Before the workouts, Cher gives good pep talks about having a lifelong commitment to exercise (too late), having faith and courage and being willing to work. I really like her emphasis on putting in the work. I also like how she admits she’s not the best at working out and defers to trainers instead of trying to be the Queen Exercise Bee. She says exercise isn’t her profession and she seems happy to be the student. She says it's ok not to be able to make all the reps (that's good) and you start where you’re starting. She says you don’t want to spend rest of your life in a gym but there have been advances in exercising. (There actually been many more advances since the early 1990s—the whole Pilates-yoga fusion craze). She says you should aim to slowly get strong. Here's a clip.

Newatt1Part 1: The 38 minute step class is with Keli Roberts and Cher is over-outfitted in ruffles, a curly full wig up-do and makeup. She looks more like she's going out to party than attempting to work out. The videos are full of all women, no men, but there's a good feeling of female camaraderie.

There's always a Cher song to frame the tapes. For this one it's "Love & Understanding." The rest are covers of mostly 1960s up-tempo hits like "Born to Be Wild," "Get Ready," "All Right Now" and an 80s song thrown in, "Missionary Man." Cher provides many asides and smart-ass comments.

The class provides three workout levels. My step turned out to be too small and I couldn’t step over it. Longtime Cher pals, Dori Sanchez, Paultette and Angie can be seen as fellow exercisers in this segment, Paulette very demurely doing her moves. They don't show Dori Sanchez enough considering she's doing the non-step moves. You get a pulse check. Mine was within range but not spectacularly within range.

You can find grainy clips of this routine online.

CrunchesPart 2 is 10 mins of back and abs movements. They do mostly old-style abs crunches. This is too hard on my neck so I tried Pilates variations. Cher called the course concise and challenging. Most of the camera work was with Keli Roberts and Cher. Cher looked tiny her in a suspenders outfit. View a clip.

Part 3 is 32 minutes of buns and thighs. This was a tough workout of mostly standing work and squats. I used a chair ala Jane Fonda’s old-people's DVD workout, Fit and Strong.

I liked the step routine more than I thought I would and went online to see if I could buy or make my own step. Used ones are still going for $40-50 (too much). If you’re a carpenter, you can make your own; but I’m not and neither is Mr. Cher Scholar. One hilarious website showed you how to to turn four boxes of boxed-wine into a step. You use extra cardboard inside the boxes for support and many wrappingss of duct tape around the boxes. I seriously considered doing this, (thinking the drinking part would be fun), and then realized it would cost me just as much to buy a damn step. So I found one on Amazon for less than $30 that will work fine.

BodycBody Confidence (1992) is the second tape and according to Wikipedia, Health & Fitness gave it four stars. It has a better cover and plays scenes from the last video. They called video one award-winning but I couldn’t find anything online about which award it might have won.

You can get very affordable Gaim-brand workout bands in three strengths at Target. The video also advertised that you once could order extra bands from an 800 number at $9.98 (allow 4-6 weeks) from Tarzana, California. Send check or money order. Ah…those quaint days before PayPal.

Cher provides another pep talk about not believing in "no pain no gain." She says this tape will help sculpt muscles and burn fat. And don’t be too critical, you'll pick up the dance moves. She says she's never taken a dance class and is "just naturally good at my body." View a clip.

CherholeHot Dance is 38 minutes led by Dori Sanchez (Cher's tour choreographer). Cher is in another over the top outfit (her HoleFit, believe it or not) and another wig up-do. This is like Cher as Dolly Parton making an exercise tape.

The music on this tape is framed by "Turn Back Time" and includes different 1960s music covers including "Pretty Woman," "Dancing in the Street" and "You Got Me" with the 80s addition of "Addicted to Love." I know many fitness fans care a lot about the workout music. I used to but these days I kind of zone out and don't even notice if the music is amateurish. Cher's tapes are better than average for music.

This workout is full of good Cher-tattoo sightings. And one brunette has an over-the-top level of enthusiasm. Myself, I never could “double it up.”

BandsPart 2 is 45 minutes of Mighty Bands. Bands work like weights without the full gym. I found for this class you really need two bands of each strength for the standing routines. Karen Andees leads us through this segment and there are major sound issues and correction dubs. The music is so loud you can't hear the cues. You have to watch.

The cast is full of the old players including Mark Hudson doing music (I can't stop thinking about Chaz's harassment story when I think about him); manager Bill Sammeth, director David Grossman, costumes by Van Buren. The exercising girls were: Karen Andes, Angela Arnaud, Anita Morales, Trish Ramish, and Michelle Rudi (although I could swear her name was spelled Rudy on the second tape), Dori Sanchez, Paulette Bettes listed as stylist, Leonard Engleman for makeup, Renata Leuschner for hair. The song credits were not listed.

At the end of two weeks I determined I really liked these classes. Which is really too bad because I won't be doing them again. Although Cher was actually fun to work out with, I don't want to wear out my VHS tapes. I went online this week to find other step and stretch workout DVDs I can keep doing.

Getting to Know our Teachers

FitnesshollywoodKeli Roberts is from Australia and has worked with Kirstie Alley, Jennifer Grey, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Russel Crow and Faye Dunaway. She's a guru of step classes and has done over 40 videos. Her book Fitness Hollywood was popular and she's now a trainer in Pasadena. For more books and videos: http://keliroberts.com/products/fitness-videos/

Dori Sanchez is Cher’s longtime live show choreographer. She was in the movie Dirty Dancing and works on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance. Her father was a ballroom dance teacher and she’s also worked with Shakira, Peter Gabriel and Jane’s Addiction. She credits Cher with helping her though a brain tumor episode in 2011.

AndesKaren Andees is a previous co-owner of a Gold’s Gym in Marin County and she writes about nutrition, balance, equipment, gym ettiquite, obsession with body and self-esteem. Her book, A Woman of Strength received mixed reviews. She now appears to be into yoga swinging at her San Rafael gym.

 

The exercise guru space is sure crowded but here are some other trainers I’ve come to like:

JoanieJoanie Greggains She is my first fitness guru. I worked out to her vinyl albums in the 1980s (literally the one on the right). She had a popular TV show called Morning Stretch and is still working on a radio show: http://www.joaniegreggains.com/

Denise Austin – I've come to really like her because she has a very friendly spirit and helpful website. She's very encouraging. I purchased her $5 video on walking from the back of a ceral box. Her Fit Forever program sounds suspiciously close to Cher's Forever Fit though. She started as a gymnast from San Pedro, California.

Ana Cabán is an LA Pilates guru who studied with Romana Kryzonowska. She has had studios in LA's Silver Lake area and in Miami. She was a dancer who injured her back and recovered with Pilates: http://anacaban.com/

Christa Rypins is a former ice skater who developed chronic pain and came up with a program of somatic movement yoga called "Yummy Yoga" which is a fusion of yoga, Pilates, and meditation. This tape isn't fancy but it's the only thing that relieves my carpel tunnel and chronic neck pain. She runs the Intelligent Body Movement Studio in Murphys, California: http://www.intelligentbody.net/meet_christa.html

Tamilee Webb Yes I have a buns of steel video. Buns

Lara Hudson does those 10 Minute Solution videos. Often her Yoga is too fast for me but her Pilates video is popular. Fans say she gives clear and concise cues. She's a former acrobat and developed something called The Mercury Method which is again another fusion of yoga, Pilates and traditional training. She explains the difference between Pilates (non-nonsense muscle conditioning) and yoga (mental and spiritual well being with breath and poses): http://themercurymethod.com/lara-hudson/

Elisbeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito (husband and wife) work at Exhale spa in New York City and have trained Heidi Klum and Cameron Diaz. They provide yet another fusion of yoga, Pilates and the Lotte Berk method which focuses all Pilates and yoga on a stable core. Their video has lot of core work and some mind-body balance. They care about alignment and working one position for a long time instead of “mindless reps.” It's very challenging and I like how these two trainers trade off: http://acacialifestyle.com/exhale-core-fusion/c/360/

MayaMaya Fiennes is Macedonian and a classical pianist who teaches Kundalini yoga classes. These are full of mantras and dextox yoga. I usually do this one twice a year: http://www.mayaspace.com/

I also found out today of all days that Namaste Yoga is starting their third season on FitTV channel (which I don't get anymore). I love this slower Ayurveda yoga (seems like there are a million types of yoga) with a big meditative quality shot beautifully and narrated by Kate Porter. The first two seasons are available on DVD:  http://www.katepotteryoga.ca/namastetv.html

 

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The European covers of Cher's fitness programs (but the DVDs don't play in the US)

    

What We Can Learn From The Maya Rudolph Show

Maya2A few Monday's ago, NBC aired The Maya Rudolph Show. I'm always interested in new attempts at prime-time variety shows. These days networks are so anxious about variety shows, they will only allow these one-off specials in order to test the waters. If ratings do well, they promise a series. So far, none have made it. 

Remember 2004's The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour? Then there was Rosie Live, The Osbournes Reloaded, recent specials by both Carrie Underwood and Lady Gaga.

Cher’s first show in her solo series was ostensibly a "special" too but it seemed understood by all that her show would make the schedule. In fact, Cher aired as regular programming starting the very next week.

I love variety shows and feel we've been enjoying many good ones over the years on late-night television (SNL, Mad TV and SCTV). Our last successful prime-time skit show was In Living Color.

So I watched The Maya Rudolph Show hoping for a breakthrough. Maya's is a very talented comedian and I thought maybe she might share Cher's vaudvillian abilities.

Unfortunately, all I ended up with was a list of reasons why Cher TV shows of the 1970s were so much better.

1. You need a self-deprecating and friendly host. Sonny filled this role on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Cher filled it herself on her solo show. Maya's opening was too much Gen-X irony with a number called “My Show” where Maya sang about my-show-this and my-show-that. Aside from the now-clichéd status of such meta-ironic narcissism, it's just not very host-ly. You need to be more welcoming. You don’t have to go overboard, but some kind of gesture is required vis-à-vis tone. In a variety show, it really isn't all about you. And courteousness here isn't a virtue. It makes the show work.

Maya12. You need some extra-special bling. Maya's show reminded me of Cher's as she threw off one set of clothes for another in her opening number (a number that went on way too long). In fact, Maya changed outfits many times but, sad to say, they clothes did not meet variety show bling-bling standards and they didn't flatter her figure. The show needed a Bob Mackie, more fashion risk-taking, more outrageousness. The show Viva Variety understood more of what variety needs in the way of flair, even if it was just a spoof. (Finally, pieces of this show are starting to appear Vvon the YouseTubes.)

3. The host must exhibit a combination of conversational naturalness while simultaneously "owning it." For the most part, Maya's performance seemed too self-conscious. Hosts need to take charge and connect with the audience. They need the kind of common-ness that connects with middle-America but also the specialness that makes them a star.

3. The audience was too big and thus overpowering the stage with their cheers. It felt too SNL. In fact the skits seemed entirely SNL. The Garmin sketch was funny but I was reminded too much at all times of SNL, a show with a definitive tone. It is possible to come from SNL and break from its tone. The show Portlandia proves this is possible. But I am beginning to wonder if you sign on with SNL, are you indentured in servitude to Lorne Michaels for perpetuity?

4. The original music was mostly song jokes (again of SNL/Adam Sandler ilk). There were too stagey. They would have been helped by some dancing or animation or something. Joke songs make good records but bad TV.

5. Variety shows were awesome then and now because they brought together unlikely combinations of celebrities to see what would happen. Maya's show was populated primarily with guests who were too much like her. Where's the variety there? In Strong Enough, Josiah Howard talked about how challenging this was for the writers of Cher's show. They had to write skits that would work for diverse artists. It does sound hard. But that's why the payoff is so good.

It was charming when Maya oozed happiness at the end of her show, saying "Oh my God, this was fun!" But it wasn't as much fun for the audience. As a variety show host, you have to think beyond the my-show-ness. Secondly, good variety takes money. I wonder if any networks are willing to put bank behind that kind of risk anymore…for anything besides singing competitions. 

If a network could combine that kind of The Voice-song-excitement (real feel-goodness) with edgy Portlandia-like skits and truly a variety of music and performers, they would have a winning show.

Watch The Maya Rudolph Show on Hulu

  

Wu-Tang, Sheena Easton and Freeman & Murray

WutangThe big news last week was that Cher is to be featured on the new Wu-Tang Clan album. Quite a few people sent me this news, even my Billboard-watching friend Christopher. This was a pretty big deal. Cher was credited in early press releases as Bonnie Jo Mason, a nod to her first pseudonym.

If you listen to the video, you can hear one of Cher's clips. Frustratingly, the album may never be released. One copy will be sold to the highest bidder and then the album may tour as part of museum exhibit. Is this a publicity stunt? Stay tuned.

Read about it here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/cher-wu-tang-collaborate-for-two-songs-on-secret-album-20140507

SheenaToday my iPod shuffle served up this 80s-perfect and under-appreciated Sheena Easton tune "You Could Have Been With Me." Watch the video to remember what a great song this was.

I've always felt the intro was "I Got You Babe." What do you think?

 

 

 

FreemanlangstonThe book Strong Enough tipped me off to the existence of the Freeman and Murray (Freeman King/Murray Langston) comedy album, "featured on The Sonny & Cher Show. I scored a copy from overseas. It came yesterday and I was afraid I'd have to go out and re-buy a turntable to listen to it.

Fortunately today I found clips on the yousetubes:

 

The back cover contains quotes from many of the people who either worked for Sonny & Cher (David Brenner as their concert opening act) or who were guest stars or big stars of from that time: Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner, Redd Foxx, Mark Spitz, Tennessee Ernie Ford, David Brenner, Ted Zeigler, Harvey Korman, Jean Stapelton, and Don Adams.

I haven't listened to much from the links above, but from what I've seen on the cover and have heard so far, I like their casual yet full-throttle foray into racial comedy and stereotype-busting. Very progressive-sounding (then and now).

The liner notes are odd, using the convention of being personally written but there is no author identified. They describe King as an athletic drop-out from Plahatchie, Mississippi, and Langston as being from Montreal.

   

Cher in New TCM Documentary

Oscars80sCher scholar Dishy notified me a few weeks ago that Turner Classic Movies was airing a documentary called And the Oscar Goes To in which Cher is interviewed and occasionally appears.

There are brief clips of her talking about her Academy Award night experiences. They show clips of Sonny & Cher arriving at the 1974 Oscars and Cher's presenting of Best Original Dramatic Score where she fumbles over Marvin Hamlisch's name. Cher was wearing the floral dress below when she presented with Henry Mancini (watch her present).

To left is her appearance there when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Silkwood.

 

FlowrdressThe documentary is more about this history of the academy awards show itself and of the academy's politics and it was interesting and straight-forward, but one thing was missing: I didn't see that famous David Niven and the streaker clip. That seems to me a major Oscar's moment and spoke to something going on at the time culturally. That clip also occurred the same year Cher gave to Marvin Hamlisch.

Watch a video of the moment and why it was important. If I'm not mistaken, as David Niven delivers his ad lib you can hear Cher's crane laugh in the background.

  

Cher in the 1970s

CherengsteadCher’s life an career through the mid-1970s is what the book Strong Enough is about. It goes into the struggles the Sonny & Cher had from 1973 to 1975, including the fact that Cher grew up and Sonny’s fatal flaw was not recognizing the changes. Josiah Howard interviews witnesses to speak on how Sonny was behaving with everyone and the strain on the whole staff. He talks about their cancelled shows, what the tabloids were saying, the bloat (in many senses, including the title’s) of their last record album Mama Was A Rock and Roll Singer…

I appreciated how the book slowed down to really detail:

 - Cher’s appearances on award shows
– Cher’s Emmy and Grammy nominations and wins
– Details on their divorce (Cher used Lucy’s divorce lawyer) and how they behaved with each other at concerts
– How CBS and MCA responded to the drama
– How the lawsuits settled out
– Cher’s outings to concerts and parties
– Which major magazines she appeared on the cover of while she was a “newsstand staple.” We also learn how the tabloid The Star built itself on Cher stories around this time.

Cher's love life after leaving Sonny has been covered extensively through the years but this book goes into Sonny’s relationships with “models and dancers” and his long term affair with “secretary” Connie Foreman, how it was Sonny on his dates with Connie that actually blew open the story about his split with Cher. (See tabloid photos of Sonny & Connie)

The book also goes into more detail than I’ve ever seen about Sonny’s solo show and the press surrounding it. How they unfortunately tried to spin him as Chaplinesque. We also learn about Cher’s real reaction to the show. This biography is also the first one to deal with Sonny’s Mimi Machu scandal. And the first Cher biography to track more fully the struggles she had with her father at this time, although I felt there was a lot more to tell here. Did he work for Sonny & Cher (I heard he did), did he really try to make money off of his connection to Cher?

The book combs through all the starting players of Cher’s solo show, called simply Cher and not The Cher Show: George Schlatter, Art Fisher (and his affair with Sally Struthers), the head writer and the writing staff, set designer Robert Kelly (remember the Cher logo and the tongue set stage?), musical director Jimmy Dale, choreographers Tony Charmoli and Dee Dee Wood (I just saw that she did that unforgettable choreography for Mary Poppins), Ben Nye II doing makeup, her PR photographer John Engstead, producer Lee Miller, her unusual dressing room, the rock and roll guests she wanted on the show and who was unavailable, her sponsors. The book details the excitement at CBS during the first few shows with other stars and dancers dropping in.

We learn again more about the beauty regimen: about her skin problems at the time (due to pancake makeup, Kleig lights, stress and bad eating), her Christina Smith eye lashes, lighting tricks used to hide acne, her hair darkenings (from warm Armenian brown to black), her Minnie Smith manicures, Jim Ortel hair and Renata Leuschner (Rena) wigs.

The book also confirms CeeCee Bloom’s character from Beaches was based on staff-writer Iris Rainer’s experiences working with Cher.

We learn about all the skits (in fine detail), what skits never aired, which were “banked,” and how the show fared in the ratings and with the press as the weeks progressed. I found it ironic that CBS typically cut songs for original airings (famously for Raquel Welch, Bette Midler, The Spinners) and when the show finally re-aired on VH-1, the majority of the skits were cut out.

One thing I could never get used to was Cher’s move from the cut-up bitch on her show with Sonny to the hip-talking, ingratiating  nice girl on her solo show. "Far out man." "That’s cool!” This slangy, wanting-to-be-liked was ironically unlikable. Everyone seemed to prefer the stoic tough broad.

From the start, the show seemed to have dysfunctions built in: staff fighting, the star’s missed rehearsals and troubled private life encroaching on the schedule, inconsistent material, the show always suffered a lack of a strong point of view. Either because of this or encouraging the sense of something missing, often tapings occurred without a live audience.

Although her femme fatal characters were mostly gone, the show did profess power to the gals with memes such as “Girls are smarter,” women behind the men, and “Trashy Ladys” skits.

The book talks about how variety Shows were starting to decline around this time as detective shows were on the rise.

RockfordThis is why I find it interesting each time I hear a Cher reference on The Rockford Files (a show which I watch obsessively when I can):

I’ve seen two Cher references so far since I’ve been re-watching them on ME TV: one episode was about the cut-throat LA real estate business. A real estate agent tells Rockford that he just sold a house to “Cher and Gregg.” Interesting that viewers would know what that meant. Would they today? The other episode was about tabloid journalism and Rockford was hiding out at a tabloid on a private investigation on a burglary. Rockford bemoans the potential lack of privacy in hospital records and warns about the dangers of coming across “Cher’s last physical.” The tabloid office eventually burns down.

Oscars73Sonny & Cher presenting Best Original Song at the 1973 Ocsars; watch them present pretending to be couple-y.

  

 

Grammys74The 1974 Grammys appearance, Cher’s first public appearance without Sonny.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Strong Enough Biography: The Pre-Breakup 1970s

Sonny and CherIn the new biography, Josiah Howard covers how Sonny & Cher went from “50,000 screaming kids to 25 unimpressed adults" singing in nightclubs, living as "professional guest stars on talk shows."

This is the first book that delves into detail about how the skits and segments of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour came into being and from where all the players came from. The book also explains more of the creation of Cher's Laverne character. One of my favorite stories was how they had to bribe 250 people from the farmers market next to CBS Studios with food to attend the first taping. Howard also summarizes the initial reviews of the show and the types of fan mail the show received. Hair guru Gary Chowen said the show was about 3 things: Cher’s put downs, fashion, and hair. Chowen even elaborates on the odd ways the hair constructions were put together.

Seeing as I had just seen the Sandy Duncan episode (and noticed something vaguely discomforting about it), I was amazed to read that Cher and Sandy Duncan had then fought over Duncan's come-on to Sonny and that Truman Capote had made a pass at Sonny as well (Philip Seymour Hoffman RIP). It was also fun to read about visitors to the set, like Sammy Davis Jr., over from taping All in the Family, the POW, Ronald Reagan, and more about S&C's mysterious 21-room mansion on the old-Hollywood Owlwood compound. 

The book also lists Cher's occasional award nominations, from the Grammy for best pop performance by a duo for the Sonny & Cher Live album by duo to the best pop vocal performance nomination for "Gypsies Tramps & Thieves," and Howard elaborates on the vocal changes Cher was going through, losing her “teenage angst whine” and taking on a “new sultry, low-register, contralto accentuated by a dancing vibrato.” Howard also details more about the Bittersweet White Light album including the discrepancies on the back cover credits and he interviews the songwriters to some of Cher's biggest hits of the early 1970s, hearing their later-day opinions of her versions. He also captures some interesting old reviews, including the fact that Rolling Stone Rolling Stone thought her voice (with its country sound) was attractive and that Creem loved "Dark Lady."

   

Cher Over the Holiday Break

Elton-chershowBefore Christmas, my husband and I watched the SCTV Christmas Episodes on DVD. I’ve been interested in this video ever since I spent the last year watching old variety shows and trying to get an intellectual handle on the genre. My only experience of SCTV as a variety-show parody is from the performances of the hilarious Juul Haalmeyer Dancers, a very camp and hilarious send up of variety show dance troupes. Watch a five-minute documentary on them: http://vimeo.com/82136213).

RickmoranisIn one SCTV episode there is a very funny parody of a piano-duel between Liberace and Elton John that originally aired on Dec 18, 1981. Elton John, played by Rick Moranis, is dressed in what strikes me as a spoof of the outfit and he wore on the Cher show premiere and special from 1975. (See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgH286eOni4).

For Christmas, Mr. Cher Scholar and I (plus the dogs) drove to Pennsylvania to see my parents. It was cheaper and more fun than flying. We stopped along the way in Fort Smith (for historical work Mr. Cher Scholar is doing for the show Quick Draw), Memphis and Nashville. Definitely want to go back to Nashville and see a show and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

PodunkWe played the iPod shuffle for three days both ways. That was plenty of time for the song “Podunk” to come up. I have always been confused by this song and what it was trying to do. Mr. Cher Scholar thankfully did some scholarin and cleared up the mystery for me. He said that Cher and Sonny are actually doing impersonations of Mae West and W.C. Fields. Oohhhhh. But you all probably knew that already. So ok, that makes it mildly better.

SadieTruly, I am a fan of Cher’s Mae West impersonations, both her straight-out Mae West and her Sadie Thompson version. In fact, I think her Mae West is an essential component of her oeuvre of characters on those variety shows and, on top of that, emblematic of the larger media character she came to be. I believe in some ways this song "Podunk" is a very raw precursor to those impersonations. I just think she got better and more organic the next decade.

The Byrds version of “All I Really Want to Do” also came up on the iPod shuffle and I was able to think more about why their version failed in competition with Cher’s in 1965. I think there are definitely tonal problems with the Byrds version. Their version is too crisp and neat for one thing, almost bourgeois neatness, if you can accept the Byrds as bourgeois for a moment. Cher’s version is rougher, more Dylanish, hippie-er, scragglier, much more believable as a hippie/feminist creed coming from Cher. Which brings me to my second point: this song needs to be sung by a woman. It sounds like a creepy manipulation coming from a man. “Suuuurre you just wanna be my friend. Uh huh. Friends with benefits.” From a woman it sounds like an emancipated idea/argument. For these two reasons, Cher’s versions comes across as more authentic.

Over the break I also received this message from my friend Julie about a Cher tweet, She said:

I was looking at something else on twitter so decided to take a look at Cher’s page. This is my favorite one.

.@manthon25 U Haven’t LEARNED!! EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE–My Grandma Picked Cotton,My Mom Scrubbed Flrs,My Shoes had Holes–,I SING IN ARENAS

Cher also popped up in one of my dreams. I was driving a car and she was in the passenger seat complaining to me about how many factual errors this blog contains. I was complaining back to her that perfection is impossible and any attempts to be perfect are paralyzing. This excuse brings to mind a quote Mr. Cher Scholar just gave me from Ben Franklin, (“He who is good at making excuses is rarely good at anything else.”). Anyway, I was discussing with one of our LA friends who visited last week that fan/celebrity meetings seem impossibly stressful and who would want to do it because I would expect a similar dressing-down about my blog’s inaccuracies in person (and that would pretty much rob the fun right out of it). Besides, I’ve always said I'm a fan of the stuff, my activities are rebelliously unofficial and unsanctioned and I have never looked to my celebrity-obsession as a role model or idol. Although, ever since that Miley Cyrus fiasco, I have been brushing my tongue.

On eBay, I purchased recently two magazines from Argentina called Holofote (which means "spotlight"), one on Cher and one on Sonny & Cher (Cher's is entitled, “Cher Super Musa”) and honestly they were too expensive for their size and the very little verbiage they contained (which is all in Portuguese). But for some reason I like them because I like to see how Cher comes across in other cultures. There are 18 pages of photos in each booklet but they are not in any chronological order, which bugs the scholar in me. It looks to be a fan production of "PHOTOS MARAVILHOSAS."

MoonstruckdvdCher-related Christmas presents included this odd ornament-packaged version of the movie Moonstruck and this button ("Ask Me About Cher") which looks like legitimate tour or label produced Cher paraphernalia. My friend bought it at Rockaway Records in Silverlake and he said it was perfect for my Cher Scholar “duties.” He closed the note with this post script: “All I see is Reeeeeeeeeed.” 

ButtonAnyway, I hope you had a good winter break. I came home from Pennsylvania with a cold and have spent the last few weeks hosting out-of-town guests. I’m back in the saddle and ready to blog about the latest Cher bio, Strong Enough. However, I have so much to say about it that I’m going to take it in small chucks: childhood, the 1960s, the 1970s, etc. Can’t wait to get started.

   

My Sonny & Cher TV Study

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

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

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.

 

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