Season: 4 (The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour)
Episode: 66
Guest(s): Joel Grey
CBS air date: Date: February 27, 1974
Also aired: TV Land
Subway Intro: Joel Grey, Billy Van, Ted Zeigler, Murray Langston and Freeman King are all on the train. Ted Zeigler asks Joel Grey for his autograph thinking he’s Liza Minnelli from Cabaret.
Opening Song: “Beautiful Sunday” (Video)
Cover of the Daniel Boone (1972)
Sonny & Cher are wearing black and copper. Notice that when the orange bulbs are moved to close behind Sonny & Cher, they shake. This was never fixed.
Breakout 1: Sonny, fighting the Red Baron, and Joel Grey, the Red Baron, have a conversation. Turns out, they’re sharing a plane.
Breakout 2: S&C and Joel Grey are all in furs and are freezing to death. Cher has a breakdown and gets screechy. Turns out they’re in their living room in the middle of an energy crisis. If memory serves, I believe Joel Grey recounted that the filming of this episode was quite chilly too, all things considered. Note his body language at the end of this little skit.
Banter: They shake hands for the last time in this show. Cher teases Sonny for looking like Tony the Tiger. He tries to ad lib and Cher catches him. Sonny makes a headache joke. Sonny says he wants a new bed. He’s “tired of sleeping in the top bunk.” Cher makes a short joke. Sonny wants a waterbed. By this time, America will know the show’s jokes are not reflecting their personal lives. So it must have been weird to watch this when the show first aired.
Vamp:
By now Cher’s dress is a lighter red with a cut-out midriff and a headband and curly wig with swinging beads. The Italian lamp also looks different now.
– Cher plays Scheherazade in a beautiful headdress. Sonny plays the executioner. Sonny shirtless alert.
– Cher plays Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Joel Grey plays the Scarecrow. Murray Langston plays the lion. The scene is years later and Dorothy has big, aging boobs. They talk about Italians versus Munchkins. Someone hits the tree prop.
– Cher plays Sadie Thompson one last time. The drunks sing “Who could ask for anything more” and there’s a Groucho Marx joke. Joel Grey plays a doctor doing research in the area.
Cultural Spot: Later Freeman King recounts how annoying it was to shoot this last scene with Sonny, who kept trying to do practical jokes to slip up King’s intro. This skit is called The Deli and Cher plays a Jewish mother (very well, I’ve starred this). Sonny and Joel Grey play brothers.
Concert: “Mockingbird” (Video)
Cover of Inez and Charlie Foxx (1963), resently covered by James Taylor and Carly Simon (1973)
Sonny wears a sparkly suit and Cher wears a violet halter-top outfit. You can see her ribs. Not a great headdress on Cher. Not a great Concert finale for the show. I don’t even think Sonny knows what he’s singing. Cher’s arm capes are pretty cool though.
Skit: Joel Grey plays a Japanese doctor being interviewed about an exploding robot device.
Solo: “All in Love is Fair” (Video)
Cover of Stevie Wonder (1973)
This is great and I’ve starred it. Cher wears a green halter-top dress and she belts it out all the way to the big-note end. Some modest hanging hand here. The flowers on her head distract a bit although they run all down along her ponytail in a pretty way. There’s an orange bulb in the background.
Bedtime Story: Chastity is back for the last bedtime story of the show. Her bedroom is very girlie. The use a pop-up book to introduce the last big musical number, “Danny and His Big Opportunity.” Joel Grey plays a dancer wanting to sell his soul to the devil (Ted Zeigler who I think quite possibly might have already sold his soul to the devil for…never mind) for Broadway success. Cher plays Bea Elzebub who promises Joel that “millions will mob you and climb your wall” which is pretty eerie considering Cher’s future troubles with paparazzi. Billy Van plays a Broadway promoter. Joel dances. Sonny sings badly. Cher wears an odd red wig.
IGUB: There’s a comment about the energy crisis and a last joke about vitamin E. A very sad ending overall.
At some point the credits starts mentioning the show as “A Yosh Production.”
Highlights: The last episode filmed for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. Their separation and pending divorce are now known to the audience. The Jewish Deli skit, Cher’s version of “All Is Fair In Love.”
