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"I remember the very first time I went out
and bought a long dress. Sonny kept saying, "You've got to change!"
So I went to a store on Sunset Boulevard. It was a terrible store
and I don't know why I went there except it was the only place I could
remember that had long dresses in the window." - Cher in 1972 When she was four years old, my friend Kirsten threw a brick through her family's television screen. She was watching The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and she wanted to let Cher out to come play with her! That was one of the obstacles facing the producers of the new Cher show in 1975 - here was a woman involved in an ugly public divorce (still a stigma in the Seventies), about to head a variety show (scheduled for 7:30 Sunday nights beginning February 16 on CBS) that would have a big appeal to kids. There was even a brisk selling Cher doll available at toy stores slated to be advertised on the 'Cher' show.
Cher on the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour There were other problems. Since the Sonny Comedy Review (which was canceled six weeks before 'Cher' debuted) owned the rights to all of the regular 'Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' features and characters, only Cher's LaVern character, the leopard leotard diva of the laundromat, could be carried over from the previous series. Executive
producer George Schlatter ('Laugh-in', The Judy Garland Show)
and his writers had to come up with all new bits - different from the
previous show, but not too much so.
The
vamp
routines from 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' were replaced by a Trashy
Ladies
number, the opening to the show would start with Cher alone in the dark,
a spotlight on her face and a single piano playing in the distance.
Instead of a large
cast of supporting players, there would be only one - rotund, (and unknown)
comedian Gailard Sartain. The first few shows even ended with Cher talking
to the audience from her bed (alone) on a Saturday night, trying to
show the audience that the star led a dull life in spite of what the
tabloids said.
"This
will be a personality show, not a format show", Schlatter commented
at the time, "We want to capture and spotlight Cher herself, as she
really is. My God, do you realize all the things this lady has done
for the first time? Four monologues. Four solo sketches - the 'Saturday
night' bits. Her first duets with someone other than Sonny - Elton John,
Bette Midler. No curtain. No walls. No Sonny. Just the lady. A little
perfect jewel in a Tiffany setting."
The
show got off to a tenuous start. "All kinds of things were going through
my mind during that opening," Cher told TV Guide after taping
the first episode. "For some reason it flashed in my mind the first
night I saw Diana Ross all alone on stage, and now it was me instead
of Diana.
"I
thought of Sonny not being here, no Sonny to turn to and say under my
breath, 'How'm I doing'?' Then it was just me and the piano, and I was
so nervous I don't know how my voice got out. Then the full track came
up and suddenly I felt good, real good."
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