Our local PBS station is showing "The Lawrence Welk Show".

[mac56]

Hee hee hee!

Geeze, suddenly I'm eight years old again. Sitting with my grandma, mom, dad, and sisters, eating a big bowl of popcorn. Watching Mr. Welk, Norma Zimmer the Champagne Music Lady, Myron Floren on the accordion, the dance stylings of Bobby and Cissy, and the lovely and talented Lennon Sisters.

[Catshrink]

1. My dad watches it every Saturday night..

he knows all the songs and sings along. He's 87, blind, and pretty frail so this is the highlight of his week. Sometimes I watch it with him.

[trof]

2. So do I. Bless his heart.

And yours.
:-)

[trof]

3. Clarification:

I rarely watch it, but I know the words to most of the songs.
Geezer here.
;-)

[madrchsod]

23. i don`t feel to bad now

at least i know some other "geezer" used to watch it....

[BensMom]

27. Hey hey the shaking piano lady

Was her name Joanne Castle?
She would play and everything would shake.
DICEY

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. I used to watch with my gramma....

I always made fun of it, but understand the appeal now. It was a different time when things were a little more innocent, at least for kids.
Duckie

[mac56]

5. exactly

When the camera shows the couples dancing together, I'm struck by how happy they look.

I used to make fun of it too, but now I think Mr. Welk had a lot of class.

[flygal]

36. Oh I'm so embarrased but I love watching it for those memories

It was the only thing on when we used to get two channels. My grandparents always had it on and I thought the women looked so beautiful. I love feeling nostalgic and that's one show that really does it for me. That and hee haw, but you can only stand so much nostalgia.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

39. I love HEE HAW...

I really want to get the best of package on those infomercials you see early in the morning. God, I loved those. They were hilarious. I just didn't get ALL the jokes until now. :evilgrin: They really pushed the envelope.
Duckie

[brentspeak]

6. Television and music sure has changed since then

I wasn't around then, but when I see old reruns of Lawrence Welk, I feel like I'm watching transmissions received from another planet.

[mac56]

7. you are

A much nicer planet.

;-)

[Catshrink]

8. A squeakie clean

and Christian planet!

[mac56]

10. oh, I dunno

Get that many musicians together. and I bet it wasn't always so squeaky clean.

Just sayin'

[DBoon]

14. I'm sure one or two did a little reefer now and then

nt

[BlueJazz]

22. As a Jazz musician and former CBS studio player....

...You are more right than wrong, Pal. :)

[woo me with science]

30. Saw one last week,

a whole show celebrating the South. The guest star was Anita Bryant, of anti-gay remarks and orange juice fame. It was a lily-white panoply of singers and dancers, headed by Anita, singing nostalgically about "Dixie" and "Mammy" and the old cotton fields.

It did feel like being in a time machine. The funny thing was that it was followed by a more recent, "looking back" interview with one of the Lennon sisters. I thought for sure they would make some comment about the social messages in the show and how things have changed so much since then. They didn't though. She just talked about how nice the band was and how protective they were of the girls.

[flygal]

37. That part of nostalgia makes me cringe

I love old movies and songs, but you're right. It was pretty lilly white. I just watched Young Man with a Horn and it was refreshing to see a black actor portraying a hero. My favorite star is Doris Day and even though she comes across as square she had soul.

[supernova]

9. Yes, LW was my grandma's favorite show too

I watched it with her plenty of times. :-)

[acmavm]

11. Yeah, I had to watch it too when I was at my grandparents (both sides).

I have memories as well. Geez, how I hated that show. I was made to sit and watch it at on grandparent's house. I think they thought it was good deprogramming from rock and roll.

[Melsky]

12. I've read his book (got it in a thrift store)

My America, Your America was the title. It's about his ideas for making this land of ours great. It has been a long time since I read it, but from what I recall he would not exactly have been a DUer! He liked Reagan a lot.

[supernova]

13. He fired his first champagne lady

for wearing too revealing dresses, IIRC. Yes, he was a heavy right winger. But he made my grandma happy, so I have to give him props for that.

[Archae]

15. Ah yes, Saturday night...

Watching the whitest performers on TV, even the token black guy was white! :-)

[mac56]

16. Arthur Duncan

Actually a pretty cool guy.

[MichiganVote]

17. Like watching an 'Evening of the Singing Dead'

[texanwitch]

18. Well said.

I think the show is so lame, and songs they destroy.

I remember my Grandparents watching that show, I didn't like it then and I don't like now.

[mac56]

19. I wonder what we'll all be watching when we get old

Hope it makes me feel as happy as LW made my grandparents.

[texanwitch]

20. I liked watching Gunsmoke back then but not LW.

The only thing interesting was the big hair on the women, it was so stiff it never moved even when they were dancing.

[woo me with science]

32. old "American Idol" episodes? nt

[madrchsod]

21. i grew up watching that show

when i`d go out to western iowa to visit my mom`s kin, everyone would sit around and watch larry cause they used to go the ballroom dance and to his music in storm lake iowa. i`d get to stay up late if i watched larry and friends....no wonder i`m not all there.

[Swede]

24. That's wunnerfula wunnerful.

He's a distant relative,by the by.

[mac56]

25. cool!

nm

[SeattleGirl]

26. Oh man! I have the same memories as you, mac56!

I used to dance along with a-Bobby an-a Cissy! It was must see TV when I was growing up!

[Left Is Write]

28. Ours airs it every Saturday evening at 7:00.

[trackfan]

29. One word: Anacani

[barb162]

31. I just checked my local listing, and he's on PBS too

in the early evening

[Hissyspit]

33. I saw a clip recently and had forgotten how bizarre it could be.

Some musical skit with weird Bavarian barber shop quartet-like costumes. Very surreal.

[terrya]

34. I remember....Tom Netherton

Christ, that man was just...dazzling. Not his talent...his looks. Just...dazzling.

[Ivan Sputnik]

35. "Wunerful"

That was my grandma's favorite show. I always thought it was (unintentionally) campy, and a bit entertaining in that sense, but she didn't see it that way.

[DancingBear]

38. Have you seen the episode when they sang "One Toke Over The Line"?

It was in 1971, at almost the exact time that Agnew was proclaiming it to be subversive to American youth. For the life of me, I can't remember who sang it, but I recall Welk thought it was a gospel song, and it was on the show.

[Blue_Tires]

40. that's what my grandmother calls 'real music'

my mom has horrid memories of my grandmother making her and her brothers sit and watch it as kids