Season: 2 (The Sonny & Cher Show)
Episode: 28
Guest(s): Don Knotts, Farrah Fawcett Majors, Glen Campbell
CBS Air Date: February 4, 1977
Also aired: TVLand, GetTV, The Sonny & Cher Ultimate Collection DVD
Opening Song: “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” (Video)
Cover of Leo Sayer (1976)
Cher wears a gold and sparkly gown. Sonny wears a brown suit with a matching gold shirt and plenty of bling (is that a new medallion?) He doesn’t seem very into this song. I don’t feel live Sonny would ever feel like dancin’ the night away. (Although we have seen evidence of him dancing for fun.) They’re off sync in this one and it’s not as fun as it could’ve been.
Opening Banter: Sonny asks Cher how she enjoyed her 3-day singlehood. Cher claims she was actually single for two years (effectively while separated from Sonny). She says she thought singlehood was very fun. Sonny is referring to the fact that Cher filed for divorce from Gregg Allman (the first time) just days after they were married, which was also just days after her divorce from Sonny was finalized. And I can never remember the number combinations, but allegedly it was three days after Sonny and nine days later to the divorce filing. Everyone made much ado about Cher’s constant marital switchbacks around that time, but that time was 1975 (ancient history already). By this time, Allman and Cher are still married and would be for about another year. So even though they were married three years, the reputation for the marriage would forever be nine days. We were reminded of this when, as I recall, it happened similarly to Sean Penn and Madonna a decade later and everyone brought up Cher again and her “9-day marriage” to Gregg Allman.
“Is he back there?” Sonny asks. They talk about Cher’s new Egyptian house and how the tourists are already driving by because the star maps are up-to-date. Cher remarks that the first time she felt like a star was when strangers came to see where she lived. Sonny says he keeps a low profile, in comparison. Cher makes a short joke. Sonny then claims he wants his privacy but Cher says if he could he’d put up a neon sign on his lawn saying, “Sonny Bono lives here.” She calls his “devoted fans” “vigilantes.” There’s a Raquel Welch joke, a La Brea Tar Pits joke and a Seven Dwarves joke.
Channel 86 Cutsie News: The newscasters are Gary Glib (Sonny), Doreen Doll (Cher), Freddie Fraho (Don Knotts) and Nancy Nonsense (Farrah Fawcett). Cher is wearing a curly wig. The women are catty with each other. This is an international edition:
+ A French children’s TV show, “Ring-a-Ding Dong Schools Outs.” Cher plays the show’s sexy French hostess and Don Knotts plays Mr. French Jeans. I love it whenever Cher and Don Knotts get together. I think they have funny chemistry and this is one of my favorite sketches from these show. Cher speaking with a French accent always makes me laugh (“the childrens”). Lots of risqué double entendres, like one about the curtains matching the drapes and another one about Cher being like the electric company except she gives a bigger charge.
+ Sonny plays Carlo Muldeany with a fake nose in a commercial for Italian Express Travelers Checks, a spoof of Karl Malden doing American Express Traveler’s Checks commercials. There’s an exchange rate joke.
+ Scotland: birthplace of golf. Glen Campbell explains the new game of golf to Sonny. Jay likes this segment with their bad accents and a few good lines. They sing the Mickey Mouse Club song for some reason.
Cher Solo: “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (Video)
Cover of María Grever (Spanish, 1934)
Cher wears a very pretty red dress with a big satin sash at the waist and big sleeves. She wears a shoulder-length Breck-hair-era wig. She plays with it at one point to show off her dark nails.
Cher also sang this song on the Comedy Hour #9. I found that version online so I’ve gone back to #9 to complete the review and screen captures. Cher’s facial expressions are figuratively and literally tongue-in-cheek in this much more knowing version, which proves what a difference six years makes. Similar double exposures. It’s interesting to go back and compare the two segments.
Like I said in the earlier episode, this is one of the songs I most associate with Cher’s solo, torch moments. I think at one point in this one she sings, “sklies ablove.” Cher singing the word ‘bliss’ is just that. Plus we get some groovy mic twirling. Overall howver I prefer the unpolished earlier version. This version has too much saxophone at the beginning and end.
Skit: Sonny shirtless alert. In a doctor’s office, Farrah Fawcett is trying to give a mandatory exam to Sonny so he can start working at Acme Construction. Sonny stars to harass her, (or flirt with her, as you like), because he thinks she’s just a nurse. But when he finds out she’s really the doctor, he freaks out and won’t let her touch him. Great skit. I’ve starred it.
Guest Spot / Duet with Guest: Cher and Glen Campbell sing a medley of his hits (Video)
One of the best, most fun duets from any of these shows, likely due to the longtime friendship between Cher and Glen Campbell going back to the Wrecking Crew days. These set pieces look like they came from the Cher show. Cher wears an off-the-shoulder country dress with a green corset with flowered skirt and big sleeves. Her wig is big and crimped. If you’ll notice, Glen Campbell can’t take his eyes off of her the whole time.
- “Southern Nights” (1977) – Glen Campbell does the full song alone.
- “Country Boy (You’ve Got Your Feet in LA)” (1975) – Cher comes out to sing with Glen Campbell. In a sweet moment, Glen Campbell tells Cher “You look purdy!”
- “Don’t Pull Your Love” (1976) – Glen Campbell and Cher, who puts her hand on his leg while she sings the bulk of this one. Sonny & Cher sang this on the Comedy Hour #23.
- “If It Don’t Work Out” (1976) – Glen Campbell and Cher. This short interlude from the middle of “Don’t Pull Your Love” was cut from the TVLand version but was included in the GetTV version, which is partially captured here at 1:26.)
- “Rhinestone Cowboy” (1975) – Glen Campbell and Cher, who says, “I’m really good at this one” and she’s right. At one point, Glen Campbell claims he’s had “three offers today” and Cher later jokes, “just three?” And he says, “that’s all.” Delightful. Cher also sang this on the Cher show #26.
Beauty and the Beast (Video)
Fay Wray (Cher) and King Kong call the doctor because King Kong has a sore throat, chills, a cough and he’s feeling dizzy. Cher feels his pulse and says his one hand feels clammy. The doctor prescribes 200 aspirins. Cher confuses the big hairy black slippers she bought him for Christmas for his feet. She corrects him that “you feed a cold and starve a fever.” He wants chicken soup and we find out King Kong’s mom was Jewish. Cher says she doesn’t know how to make chicken soup and King Kong tells her his mother told him that would happen if he got mixed up with a shicksa. Cher tells him she needs to get a thermometer from the drug store to take his temperature and he gets upset. She assures him that “they only take your temperature that way when you’re a baby.” This skit was cut from the GetTV version.
Skit (Video)
Cher and Farrah play department store mannequins. Farrah wears a pink gown and Cher wears a violet one and a bobbed wig. They do the slow robot to suggest the stiff way they move around. They complain about aches and pains and sharing feet.
Sonny and Ted Zeigler arrive as store clerks tasked with maintaining the mannequins (and not very respectfully). Farrah and Cher complain about their cold hands. We find out their dresses cost $15,000 a piece. There’s a joke about Farrah’s father being a dime store wooden Indian, a cross-dressing joke (about weird Uncle Louie), and a joke about getting to wear expensive clothes and do nothing like congressman.
They complain that anytime someone is popular on TV, they’re molded to look like them. Farrah’s mannequin says she’s “that a dizzy blonde from Charlie’s Angels” and Cher’s mannequin says she’s been made to look like “that girl who does comedy with that little, goofy partner.” Farrah confuses her with Laverne and Shirley. Cher says, “No, I’m supposed to be Cher.” They tell each other they’re the prettiest ones on their respective shows. Farrah says she doesn’t like being Farrah because “this hair weighs a ton.” Cher makes a nose joke and says last year she was molded into someone with a much bigger chest than Cher, Baretta. Sonny and Ted decide the dresses are on the wrong mannequins but it’s too much trouble to swap the dresses so they just swap the mannequin heads.
This skit seems to me to be a response to critics who kept saying Cher was just a clothes horse. I’ve starred this one too.
IGUB: Just a goodnight and a walk off.
Thanks to Jay for the official run-down on this episode. I haven’t reviewed the Ultimate Collection version but Jay notes that it’s missing a lot of stuff.
Highlights: The French Children’s show with Don Knotts, the duets with Glen Campbell, two good skits about sexism with Farrah Fawcett, another fun King Kong.
