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Category: Television (Page 21 of 22)

Cher TV Alert

October 24, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Ellen_27 Oooh. I got my first fan club missive! How exciting!

Apparently Cher will appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Monday, November 3rd to show support for Barack Obama.

Aiight!

My secret fan-club communiqué states:

"For information on when the show airs in your local market, visit http://ellen.warnerbros.com/about/whenitson.php for details."  

And then they thank me for being a valued First-Year member. And send their closing regards, Official Cher Fan Club.

Grin!

Other reports this week state Cher has been throwing her support around out there on the radio waves.

"I called radio stations in swing states like Indiana, Iowa and Florida to tell people to go out and vote," Cher said at last night's grand opening of Luau restaurant in Beverly Hills. 

Did Cher get the same MoveOn.org phone-your-friendly-swing-states email I did? I didn't do it. I so suck.

"I wanted to call the states he needs the votes in most. It was interesting because the stations wanted to talk about music, and I wanted to talk about politics!"

Cher modestly opined that she wasn't sure if she had any power to sway the electorate, but no matter…

"I have no idea if I was able to influence listeners, but I got the message that I was supposed to get across—to vote," she says. "I really think that Obama has a chance to be the president of his time. This is a very dangerous, very sad time for America, and I really think—I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t think it—I really think that he’s the right person for the right time."

And what if Obama loses to Sen. John McCain?  "If you can't say something good about someone, you really shouldn't say anything at all," says Cher. "So what I can say is, if McCain is elected, the idea is so frightening to me, I really can't even bear to think about it."

Maybe this will help in the effort, a hilarious video of what might happen if I, (or you for that matter) forget to vote. Please watch:

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=PPsGhGiemYFqBFU3x3kp4jQwOTAxMjA-&referred_by=10596800-960hg5x

Yours in Cher fandom,
Cher Scholar

Maureen McCormick Meets Cher

October 23, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Cherchas Maureen McCormick’s book about life as a Brady Bunch kid, among other subjects is now available. Cher Scholar Robrt sent me the excerpt where McCormick writes about meeting Cher.

The setup: the group The Brady Kids had their first musical appearance at a music industry show at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Sonny and Cher were there and met the Brady’s backstage.

I was enamored of Sonny and Cher. I couldn’t take my eyes off Cher. It was the first time I had been around a woman who thoroughly mesmerized people, who commanded your attention with her looks. We were introduced to her backstage. She was with her daughter, Chastity, a tiny blond cherub with her mother’s expressions. Eve (Plumb) held Chastity’s hand and sweetly asked, “Can you say ‘elephant’?”

Before she could respond, Cher cracked, “She can say a hell of a lot more than elephant, that’s for sure.”

First of all, in my fantasy version of this episode Cher says “She can f*#king say a lot more than elephant, that's for sure.” I don’t know why but that’s more believable to me for some reason.

Secondly, this brief exchange is interesting on many levels. For one, it shows how caustic and coarse Cher could be even among teen celebrities and her own kid. I’m not judging that; but I can attest to being jarred by it the first time I read Cher's language peppered with the f-bomb all through that People Magazine article of 1979. I was nine years old and sick with the flu at the time and my parents brought me home a milkshake and this Cher gift (Cher gifts becoming somewhat of a rare occurrence after it started to occur to them that I wasn’t outgrowing this Cher fetish). And this was right when my illusions of Cher being the classiest, vulgar-free princess were first shattered. I f*#king got over it but it took a while.

Secondly, it also shows how even the most lusted after teen blonde icon of the early 70s, Marsha Marsha Brady, #1 on every boys ToDo list and #1 on every gals ToLookLike list, was actually enamored of Cher who she saw as fully commanding with her looks; and meanwhile Cher is coveting the look of blonde princesses such as her mom, sister and Marsha-Brady-types. It’s insane, absolutely the stuff Dr. Seuss Sneetches fables are made of and evidence that our collective insecurities cause us to chase our own tales like idiots.

And not only could Chastity say the world elephant, she had probably already ridden one in that parade by then.    

Celebrity Family Feud

August 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Familydvd08A friend showed me a few episodes of her new DVD of All-Star Family Feud. It must have been circa the late 70s because host Richard Dawson made a joke about the Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, Jerry Brown debates.

This particular episode pitted the cast of The Love Boat against the cast of Eight Is Enough (I never liked Eight is Enough  by the way - was it a comedy, a drama?). The Love Boatcast seemed a bit wild. Cruise director Julie threw a few angry eyes at Doc for his lame answers. Issac looked very flirty. On the other side, it seemed almost like a real dysfunctional family of 8 is Enuffers. To the directive “Name a body part where you would dab perfume” Dick Van P. answered inexplicably “the tip of your tongue.”

One question was “Name an Italian singer.” 100 people surveyed, top 8 answers on the board:

Enrico Caruso – 19 (who?)
Frank Sinatra – 18
Mario Lanza – 16
Dean Martin – 13
Sergio Franci  – 7 (who?)
Sonny Bono –4
Tony Bennett – 3
Perry Como – 1

No one guessed Sonny Bono, including Dick Van Patton, who at some point was golfing friend of Sonny. Maybe that was later, in Sonny’s Palm Springs era.
   

The “I Found Someone” Video

June 19, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Crackedpic

Click here for a very funny blow-by-blow on the “I Found Someone” video and a link below so you can verify the essay’s claims –  among which are:

  1. Cher walks out of the mirror room into a bedroom, which like the mirror room, appears to be decorated by Pottery Barn.
  2. Neither of them appear to be wearing a shirt, so rubbing foreheads basically equals full-frontal on-camera penetration.
  3. Most of the single’s kick comes from Cher selling the hell out of it.
  4. We hit the chorus and cut to Cher in performance, leading her band in front of a sparse crowd. She’s wearing a totally indecent outfit: a black mesh bodysuit over a black bra and panties, covered by a black leather jacket that she keeps trying to shrug off.
    (That is actually an incorrect yet very hilarious description of the hole-fit – CS)
  5. I don’t think there’s another 42-year-old woman on the planet who could have pulled this look off.
  6. Back to the Pottery Barn bedroom…Cher pulls chainmail pantyhose up her leg, fluffs her hair, and fastens the chainmail pantyhose to (yes!) a chainmail garter.
  7. In the Pottery Barn bedroom, Cher throws some clothes into a suitcase, and then hurls a framed photo of her and Boytoy against the floor. If you watch in slow motion, you can see that the glass is broken before it hits the tiles.
    (I actually captured a screen grab of this above -  CS)

    Watch for yourself.

      
       

Cher on 20/20

June 19, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Jimmydean2 At the end of last year Jimmy Dean sent me some taped TV appearances on DVD. I talked about Black Rose and Monte Carlo earlier, but I was finally was able to watch the 20/20 interview from Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean when it was originally a play on Broadway.

This instantly brought back memories for me. This was back in 1981 before Entertainment Tonight and its insane spawns that all seem like the same show now. Back then you couldn’t get a Cher sighting outside of shows like 20/20. I remember taping this interview (the first Cher interview I ever taped in any format) on my old, top-loading tape recorder. I was 11 or 12 years old and playing back my little audio-cassette, I about memorized every word of this interview. Seeing the visuals again after all this time feels truly bizarre yet thrilling. This interview had some amazing early-80s photos of Cher. I wish I could find a copy of it on the youtubes.

Some highlights

  • Cher says she hopes the critics don’t make Hamburger Helper out of her. Hamburger Helper, remember that?
  • She made 4k a week. The producer of the show noted that other stars on Broadway were making 50-60k a week then, so we are made to understand Cher was getting a very low salary-of-love.
  • Cher also confirmed that it took her 6 weeks to earn what she was earning in 11 minutes doing her show in Vegas. She said then (and she said recently about her new Vegas show) that the money doesn’t matter; but someone must have cared enough about the money to have figured that out.
  • Her teeth look amazingly crooked from the angle they filmed the interview, more so than on any TV appearance I can recall. I always say I miss Cher’s old, crooked teeth -  but have you ever seen a modern star with such crooked teeth? When I was seven I remember my parents saying “Why are you a Cher fan? She has crooked teeth!” I couldn’t figure out what someone’s teeth had to do with anything – but who even remembers Cher had crooked teeth these days? She had awesome teeth. It had everything to do with the way she moved her mouth so lusciously.
  • Cher is seen gleefully dancing at Studio 54 and they put up a picture of her with Ron Duguay. I knowRon-duguay-poster she was supposed to have dated this hockey star at the time but I never knew if I should believe it or not. But now that she confirms she once dated Tom Cruise, I guess anything is possible.
  • 20/20 reminded me that People Magazine (the issue which ran during her Broadway run, the one with that fold-out cover with her kids) called her “The First Lady of Flash.” This is probably the best, most succinct and inclusive accolade to date – and it’s an old one.
  • Cher actually squeals in this interview.
  • She says she’ll be nervous before she goes out for her debut performance as Sissy and says she’ll probably have to go to the bathroom and be sweaty and cold.

 

What Shall We Talk About?

May 8, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Okay…so the big day arrived this week and reviews are literally pouring in on Cher’s Caesar Place show. I don’t want to read them until I see the show next week. I don’t even want to look too hard at the photos. I don’t want to discuss the new stuff until I see it. Which is extremely,  extremely hard!

In fact, for any of the other tours (there have only been three I’ve been able to see live in my lifetime – Heart of Stone, Believe, and Never Can Say Goodbye), I’ve never been able to resist. And I’m getting very, very excited about seeing the show and reading over everybody’s thoughts. I just hope I don’t get hit by a bus before I can see it! (I always think that right before new Cher product drops).

In fact, I don’t feel like talking about anything else but this thing I can’t talk about!!

But I did post my France pics and here are the Cher-centric ones:

 

Seine John on the Seine like that Sonny & Cher album back cover pic.

 

 

 

 

Cherentry2_2Cherceiling1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t these chateaux entryways look like Cher’s house??

 

Chercem Chercem2_2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can totally see why Cher wants to be buried at Pere LaChaise cemetery in Paris. It’s very goth. I can see her with a tomb not unlike the one above, but hopefully with some subtle half-breed design in the stained glass…hey, for the fans.

 

Cher_sign

 

 

 

 

 

Cher river, Cher valley, Cher county seat…lots of Cherness in the Loire Valley.

I can also take this time to answer a few Cher questions from the blog.

Jimmy wrote:

“AND, Mary, why haven’t you digressed about the fact that these unlikely 3 would do something together so out-of-line for their personalities???? love and kisses-jimmy”

Jimmy is right. I could easily do an essay about the old 70s-variety format and how we just don’t get miraculous celebrity combinations singing medleys apropos of nothing like we did back in the day. It’s heartbreaking because I’d watch any show that could convince Bono to sing a Madonna medley with Barney and Tiger Woods. Who wouldn’t watch that?? It’s TV Gold.

Michael asked:

“Okay, so combining “she’s overdue a juicy boxed-set” and “It’s my dream job really”…How about you tell us what you would put in the ultimate Cher box? Anything you ever wanted on CD, DVD, books, whatever. I’m totally curious what you’d put.

There’s so much I could do as curator of a Chersonian Institute. Really, I don’t know where to start. Her video collection needs a serious overhaul.  More and more we’re finding amazing gems of foreign video clips for old Cher hits on the you-tubes.

I haven’t wrapped my head around what a good box-set of CDs would be. I know the mix I normally make my friends has too many non-hits on it to ever make bank. Other than the obvious of doing notes for the four-CD Warner Bros 1975-1977 re-release collection we’re so overdue, I don’t know what other regurgitation of her greatest hits I would feel morally okay with dumping into the pile of too-many-already.

I would love to do a coffee-table book of photographs and essays compiled by various writers on Cher’s career and her cultural relevance. That would be the dreamiest.

 

On Vacation

March 25, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Babies1 Well kids and kidlets, France is upon me. I’m very excited and I’m getting a bit nervous. But mostly excited…for three reasons. First of all, I’ve never taken a long vacation for myself, even one week away that wasn’t obligated to some dysfunctional family event of some kind. It’s been 40 years of weekend trips here or there just for moi. Secondly, I’ve never left the US…period. Not from not wanting to, mind you. I’ve been wanting to since college. But either I had no money, no vacation time (due to traveling home for Christmas or 4th of July for aforementioned dysfunctional family events), or no courage to go it alone. Thirdly, going to France is a lifelong dream come true, way back to when my brother came home from a week in Le Mans after his high school French three-week trip, bringing back cheese, a porcelain mime doll and news of a hit from Soft Cell. Turns out they were a year ahead of us with “Tainted Love.” How cultured they were! I was in 6th grade and decided it was my destiny to learn French. But lo and behond, French class was pure hell…for six years. But then I met the former French-majoring, Proust-studying bf and he didn’t seem nearly as uptight as all my former French teachers were. My dream was soon re-awakened.

Babies3_2 The bf and I got our euros recently at the Del Amo mall. We have a suitcase full of maps and guidebooks and all our little tubes of toothpaste, fold-up toothbrushes and little bottles of lotions and shampoo. I’ve been cramming French phrases like Mon ami est une moyen-pantalon! and Quel dommage! I’ve started a carnet de voyage, a French-style journal of our trip.

And I promise to look for Cher references while I’m away but you shant be hearing from me. You’re on your own for two weeks. Here’s a list of Cher videos to keep you company.

      

 

Have a great two weeks!

   

More Bootleg Reviews

March 13, 2008 / / 2 Comments

I want to take a moment to finish up reviewing bootlegs Cher peeps have sent me. Regarding the 60s set I got for purchasing two posters off eBay, I have three clips left. I also just received a new and fabulous DVD from Jimmy (aka gypsy90028) that I’ll start discussing, as well.

Back to the Late 60s…Alfiedress_2

The Smothers Brothers
Most of us have seen Cher singing “Alfie” on this show. I never ceased to be amazed by Cher in that short baby-doll dress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lDSf0A9RTk

The Jerry Lewis Show
Now this show had some cool effects with background projections and whatnot and Cher arrives with BIG mascara. Things have clearly gotten out of hand in that regard. S&C sing “What Now My Love” and you can see Cher is definitely more confident these days. Lots of finger snapping goin down. And doesn’t Cher have skinny legs though?Kids2

Are they lip synching again? Cher gets ready to sing “You’d Better Sit Down Kids” introducing it proudly as a song “my husband wrote for himself.” I was reminded watching this clip how unusual the song is being about broken homes and change and all, that painful moment when a parent has to explain divorce to their kids. Have you ever heard anything like it…before or since?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlubAgs7uM

Glen Campbell
We’ve already seen the super-fine duet of Cher singing “All I Really Want to Do” with Glen on his variety show. If not, get his latest DVD. It’s fabulous.

On that episode, Cher also sings “The First Time” in a set looking like a bedroom after a cheap one night stand. Cher’s eyelashes have improved. And she’s growing out her bangs….they look like little orphans, uncut and running away.  She gives Glen a big smile and he asks if Sonny produced that song. She again proudly says that he wrote that song and doesn’t someone in there say “and he can cook too.”

Then things really gets crazy with Neil Diamond. He’s just become successful (and it now occurs to you 40 years later how rarely you see him on TV). Cher is in an Indian top and they all three do a medley of Diamond hits up to that time, which include “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" (full with emotive ‘Oh Yeahs’), “Kentucky Woman,” “Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show” and “Sweet Caroline” which we only recently found out is about Caroline Kennedy. Come on, Neil! That ruins it! I thought it was another song about booze all this time!

Now skip to the early 80s…

Blackrose Black Rose on Midnight Special
I had never seen Black Rose in action. And I loved it. I was amazed by it. This is honestly a side of Cher no-one gets to see. It never appears in biographical footage and it’s a phase of her career mostly ignored. And even though I would accept the critique that Black Rose was no great shakes when you stack them against Hall of Famers, they was fairly a good enough new band that could’ve stood up against other new bands out there.

Because it was Cher’s third or fourth or fifth (according to your timeline) incarnation, she brought all her former incarnations’ baggages, infamy and expectations to the act which was unfortunate. Had Cher started her career entirely with this band, they may have evolved and succeeded and we’d probably see Cher as a respected rock singer today alongside our other stellar rock chicks.

And this is one of the many instances where Cher had to pay her dues (not with drugs or alcohol or poverty, but with no respect); and it also exemplifies ironically in reverse why she should be a hall of famer because she took such risky risks musically in almost every musical genre and survived some huge failures but prevailed to bigger and better successes down the line.

Her rock moves here are fully and faithfully performed in “Never Should’ve Started.” Physically she dances with hard rock enthusiasm no one had seen before and would never see from her again. She rebelliously sings the word ‘bitch’ in the song “Julie” and tries to sing eye to eye with Les Dudek in “You Know It.” However, he’s no Sonny. Like Gregg Allman before him and Richie Sambora after him, no "real rocker dude" seems to have the balls to sing while looking Cher dead in the eye so intently as Sonny did. But she kept trying.

For Cher, loving you must mean singing live with you.

Something bothered me throughout the three songs on Midnight Special: who the hell is that guy on the left, the backup singer. He plays air guitar as if he’s the main act. And yet, with that tight shirt, he seems more like a dancing bodyguard than an actual band mate.

And I know she’s trying to dress down now but is that a hole fit she’s wearing under that sweat shirt?? I think I see a sequin.

In any case, out of love for rock music, Cher wanted to be in a band against her career’s common wisdom. And she had enough conviction to try to sublimate her image and name to try to make it work. However, as we all have come to now know: such a thing is ludicrously impossible. And that’s probably the idea at which most of the ridicule started. Therefore, no one give the act a fair, pure looksee.

See? Even Wikipedia considers it "a Cher album"

MontecontrastThe Monte Carlo Show
This DVD also included the Monte Carlo show in its entirety, something I’d never seen before either. I’d been surviving ravenously from clips online. I was so entranced when I watched it I didn’t even take any notes. Now looking back, I must say honestly it felt a little rough compared to Celebration at Caesars a year or so later. Caesars was so smooth and slick and it had that big awesome shoe. I feel the Monte Carlo show stumbles starting directly with Laverne. We expect the big Cher entrance, not a fake out. The fake out with the drag Cher is much better played after the intermission, as Cher did it during her Heart of Stone tour.

However, I love, love, love the outfits in this show. And the dancing makes me nostalgic for the late 70s and early 80s. That encore crotch shot was scandalous! I played it for my bf when he got home!

What really fascinates me is the stupifying contrast between Black Rose and Vegas Cher in 1980. Consider with these:

Merv Griffin clips of Black Rose
(Merv Griffin? No wonder they had a hard time getting steet cred!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdLRZE5Zh4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4aSGF66Qs

Then Monte Carlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFMc668T8xo
   

Interviews, Videos and Games

February 28, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Glasses This photo is here in honor of the new sun-glasses I bought this week. The rest is miscellaneous knits and gnats:

Tyler on Chergroups posted this interview last week – more preview info on the show plus a sneak peak at the outside of the Cher store! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNbEv-0DX8

Speaking of Tyler, he did a great video tribute to Cher singing "Nature Boy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PkQJRLTJ5M with some rare photos. I’m envious of Cherinbevhills_3 his rare photos.

And there’s a new fun online game: Cher or Drag Cher: http://cityrag.blogs.com /main/2008/02/cher-or-drag-ch.html. I missed one!!!

And here’s a photo of Cher in Beverly Hills recently. I love her bun!
   

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