Season: 1 (The Sonny & Cher Show)
Episode: 10
Guest(s): George Gobel and Sherman Hemsley
CBS Air Date: April 11, 1976
Also aired: TV Land
The Beat Goes On: The revisit the spinning globe opening with previews of the show as a soap opera and the question “what happens if Chastity touches the wand?”
Opening Song: “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (Video)
Cover of Jackie DeShannon (1969)
Cher wears a flowing, light-green dress and Sonny wears a matching suit. Sonny does a twirl at the end and smiles at Cher. Don’t miss the jiggle TV there toward the end.
Opening Banter: Sonny gently manspains to us what a blooper is (ok, maybe 1976 audiences really didn’t know what that was and he has a point when he says sometimes trying very simple things becomes suddenly difficult and isn’t that a parable for life right there) and they play their Raymond Burr blooper video from announcing his guest spot earlier in the season on episode 2 . Since I did some screenshots then, I’ve only captured Cher’s lighthearted exasperation at something Sonny does (which seemed a fun project to do today).
Skit: The skit is about wine-making monks and George Gobel and Sonny are monks stomping grapes. They drink some of the wine they make and end up drunk. Ted Zeigler, Gailard Sartain and Billy Van are also in the skit. The announcer comes in to tell them they were actually making cheese.
Cher Solo: “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” (Video)
Cher original (1972)
Cher is shown superimposed through crystal balls and bejeweled trees. She lip syncs the song in a pretty pink slip dress over pants. She wears a curly wig that foreshadows her 1980s look.
Always a Woman Behind Every Man:
or my title, “The Three Fairy Drag Queens,” has Ted Zeigler, Billy Van and Gailard Sartain playing the men in big hoop dresses and makeup. My notes say I can’t tell if these women are interesting or if the intro is condescending.
– Mrs. Sir Isaac Newton: Cher plays the Mrs. Newton and Isaac is played as a drunk by George Gobel. He says he’s not drunk, just over-served. His wife wants him to get a job. She says at one point about something he says, “Who gives a fig!” They talk about extreme gravity. I’ve starred this skit for some reason.
– Mrs. John Dillinger: Cher visits Dillinger (Sonny) as he’s trying to rob a bank.
Old Mexican Musical: This is the story called El Fredo (a play on alfredo?) and The Bull and the Bell. The town has a silent bell. George Gobel does his jokes. They put a Mickey Mouse hat on him and he becomes a bullfighter. Billy Van does a hat dance. There’s a Ricardo Montalban joke. I’ve starred this one too. I can’t remember any of this.
Skit: Cher plays a TV executive. Three pitchmen are pitching ideas to her. She wears glasses that hide her eyes (and I know realize what’s wrong when Cher wears glasses). Sonny is a window-washer who drops in to pitch his idea (because “in Hollywood everybody is pitching” is the joke). Sonny claims he was a stuntman for President Gerald Ford (so we’re back to the clumsy Ford jokes). Window-washer Sonny pitches Sonny & Cher to Executive Cher as “a dynamite act. These two can do everything. They sing and then they insult each other.” He talks about Sonny’s shortness and Cher’s big nose and crooked teeth. In the end, Executive Cher says Sonny & Cher don’t sound right for their network because “we don’t do science fiction.” Cute.
Concert: “Dancing in the Street” (Video)
Cover of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1964)
Sonny & Cher also sang this song on episode 16 of their Comedy Hour. Sonny is in a brown suit. Cher wears a matching strap-dress with a billowy, sparkly, gold wrap. They’re almost camouflaged into their set. The wrap seems to be the show’s solution to hiding Cher’s pregnancy because nobody could handle that in 1976, especially as Cher was pregnant with not-Sonny’s-baby but another-man’s baby and that man being Gregg Allman. It’s kind of a miracle these episodes even aired. Her wig is very similar to the Raymond Burr blooper wig. Lots of hand hanging. Sonny does another twirl. Well, he has to do something to pull focus.
Sonnytone News:
– Sonny has invented a new Olympic sport called Urban Renewal. Very good. I’ve starred this.
– George Gobel interviews Presidential Candidate Chastity Bono with The Bonz (Sonny, Chastity’s pick for Vice President. Chastity says, “Seventy million people are unrepresented in congress,” meaning kids and Chastity promises to raise allowances. “When I’m president, there will be no schools!” (Oy, that’s actually a talking point in the very scary now). There’s a Happy Days joke and one of those jokes about peanuts and Jimmy Carter that was inexplicably popular at the time (I remember hearing it on the playground, too, along with derogatory lyrics about Carter sung to the Oscar Meyer bologna jingle…we were ABQ democrats who moved into a vastly republican STL).
The amazing thing about this skit is that The Simpsons had an episode (or maybe two) set in the future in where Chastity Bono was imagined as running for or possibly a future President of the United States prior to Lisa Simpson. Clearly there is something about Chastity that multiple writers have felt was presidential and leader-ly, even as a child! Chas probably came out of these variety shows with the best, most respectable reputation. I’ve starred this.
– Thirties star of silver screen found: Snow White (played by Sherman Helmsley) has been found working at a diner in Butte, Montana. (We’ve had painfully little of Sherman Helmsley in this episode, by the way.) Apparently some of the dwarves might now be in jail and drug use is indicated. Cher plays her Barbara Nauseous character. For this unflattering portrayal they keep doing on Barbara Walters, it’s actually surprising Cher was eventually interviewed in Walter’s pre-Oscars shows…and twice, in 1987 (where she says “there would be no Cher without Sonny”) and 1988 (where she talks about her dyslexia and this is the interview immediately preceding her Oscar win…and what a TV night that was for Cher fans!).
-Silent movie star makes a comeback: Sonny plays Douglas Darebanks, the once dashing star trying to come back after 50. He now has a potbelly and a ski injury (and any reference to Sonny and skiing is not pleasant, by the way). They show a black and white swordfight. He tells stars to save their money.
IGUB: Sonny, Cher and Chastity say goodnight. No song.
Thanks to Jay for the run-down on this episode. Many online guides have this show airing on April 4, 1976, but Jay has checked the original TV Guide and the episode aired April 11, 1976.
Highlights: I’ve starred the Sir Issac Newton skit and the Mexican musical number and the short about urban renewal as an Olympic sport. Chastity imagined as President of the United States is awesome and not the first pop-culture imagining of that. Drawbacks: a dearth of Sherman Helmsley.
