Season: 2 (The Sonny & Cher Show)
Episode: 27
Guest(s): William Conrad, Engelbert Humperdinck, Barbi Benton, Ruth Buzzi
CBS Air Date: January 28 1977
Also aired: TVLand
Opening Song: “Steppin’ Out” (Video)
Cover of Neil Sedaka (1976)
Cher wears a pink-shaded, patched halter-top with long skirt. Sonny wears a maroon suit and a pink shirt. Sonny can actually rock the color pink. Lots of sequin flaring.
Opening Banter: Sonny says Cher’s hands are dry and she turns that into a joke about oil in his hair (Italian joke). Cher is frustrated that Sonny won’t “get on with the show” and she rolls her eyes. Sonny wants to talk about about all the attention he pays to the way Cher looks when they come out each week. She gets a bit defensive about it and there’s a “fine Carinthian leather” reference. (While I was searching for that, I found this hilarious thing.)
Sonny’s whole point is to say the TV cameras make Cher look better on TV than she does in person. (Ouch.) But, he argues, when people meet him on the street they think he looks “so much better in person.” Sonny tells Cher, “you totally and desperately need me up here.” Sonny says that before he came along Cher was just a skinny kid with a big nose.
Cher relentlessly teases Sonny about his speech (and he references “your people” and does a stereotypical Indian dance). Cher then uses an alternative pronunciation of the word “hostile” and Sonny laughs and says, “if people only knew you were the stupid one.” [There it is.] A few people in the audience clap and Sonny says, “Thank you, sons of Italy.” Cher retorts, “Thank you, sons of b…” and Sonny stops her.
Sonny says after their divorce a few years ago, “I felt like a new man…and so did Cher.” Sonny tries to mend fences by trying to rub noses with Cher. He jokes, “you always liked it when I rubbed your nose” and this seems to be a private joke between them. Cher really laughs here.
Jay notes that Cher chose this segment in her 1998 CBS tribute to Sonny after his death, Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers” which is interesting considering Sonny’s comment about how dumb he thinks she is, but she doesn’t seem to take it as personally.
Skit: Cher is Barbara Nauseous again, her Barbara Walters character. She reports on how women are taking over men’s roles. We then cut to a scene where Ruth and Cher play cat burglars (because women have never been burglars ever before I guess), It’s Cher’s first time burgling and she keeps frustrating the more experienced Ruth Buzzi. Sonny and Barbi Benton play a couple asleep in bed (lucky Sonny!). William Conrad arrives as another burglar. All of them discuss women as cat burglars. William Conrad, Ruth Buzzi and Cher then leave. Sonny and Barbi Benton put on their masks to finish robbing the house before the real owners come home. (Sonny shirtless alert).
Guest Spot: Engelbert Humperdinck sings “After the Lovin”
(I love this song. I could feel guilty about this pleasure. But I do not.)
Heartbreak of Psoriasis: We’re back with the Egyptian soap opera mashing-up medical names with 1970s-era popular advertising slogans.
Concert: “Nights on Broadway” (Video)
Cover of the Bee Gees (1975)
Sonny & Cher and Engelbert Humperdinck and Barbi Benton all sing the song. Cher wears a dark green sparkly top, black pants and a triangular afro wig. Sonny wears a black suit with a white, ruffled shirt. “Engelbert sticks out in more ways than one” my notes say. I really like this song too. But not this clunky rendition. And the edits with the star-cuts are annoying. There’s also something off-putting about this assemblage of singers. Sonny looks like he’s trying to out-sexy Humperdinck. Happily, we cut away to the horn players a few times, including a shot of Harold Battiste.
Humperdinck’s medallion is so big, I’m reminded of the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in Indiana Jones.
Cher Solo: “Didn’t We” (Video)
Cover of Richard Harris (1968)
Remember Cher did this on one of the final Comedy Hour episodes, #65. The setting is more post-apocalyptic this version. Cher wears a big black fur-trimmed cape with a hood and sparkly crowned feature (?). Another good rendition. This one less emotional. Also, this time singing the Jimmy Webb song she’s on the other side of working with him as producer on her Stars album.
When she opens her mouth for “that long, hard climb”…damn but some sound comes out! One of her best torch numbers each time.
Battle of the Sexes: Sonny is vacuuming when Cher comes home early to let Sonny know her parents, William Conrad and Ruth Buzzi, are coming to visit. Ruth Buzzi is the owner of a trucking company. When they arrive, househusband William Conrad criticizes Sonny’s housecleaning and cooking. They pressure Cher and Sonny for grandchildren and are upset they don’t have any yet. Her parents call Sonny frigid and they leave angry. Sonny & Cher talk about having kids but Cher says they’ll need to add a room (in the apartment?). Sonny clarifies, “for the baby?” and Cher says no, for her parents because they’ll want to come over all the time. That makes Sonny think that maybe a poodle would be better instead. He could knit some poodle booties.
IGUB (Video, 9:17)
They start to sing “I Got You Babe” and Cher is worried about Sonny’s hands. She says she doesn’t trust him. Sonny then muffs up the words and Cher chides him, “You wrote the song!” and “I remember the words!” but she forgets them in 1987 on the David Letterman reunion show when that performance gets derailed. Karma? Cher pulls out his handkerchief again. They walk off after Sonny says something like, “she gets silly when she gets tired.”
Thanks to Jay for the official run-down on this episode.
Highlights: Not a literal highlight but this is the episode where Sonny says, “if people only knew, you were the stupid one.” Another great solo of “Didn’t We.”
