Lawrence Welk Is Still On: I Don't Get It

[Limp73]

You know this has been an interesting discussion. (and debate) Don't know what to add to this but I will tell you that the Saturday Night Live parodies of Welk by Fred Armisen may have contributed (at least) a little bit of curiosty among younger viewers of the show to ask themselves something along the lines of "what in the hell is this cheezy show still doing on the air???"

Cameos of the parodies by Elton John and Betty White added to the cheezy fun as well.

Yes it was a cheezy show...and it was definately geared to my grandparents but also my own parents when I was a 'young-'un in the '60s, case in point..my mom is still a fan of the show as Welk was also an accomplished polka accordianist (aside from Myron Floren)...and my mom's German-Catholic roots adheres to that.

Much of the 1940s and 50s pre-rock pop was a staple of the show along with the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals of that era that also appealed to the Great Depression and WWII era generation that my parents belonged to.

I as a baby boomer "bandstander" watched it as a preschooler until something happend...the dawning of Motown ("My Guy") and Beatlemania ("She Loves You")...but at least the Welk band addressed that to a certain degree while appealing to my parents' generation at the same time as Mr. Welk promised his viewers that he would not divert from the generation he was appealing to. As such he arranged the 50's and 60s Top 40 tunes in a way that would appeal to that same generation.

I cannot say I watch the PBS reruns from beginning to end..especially after 7 to ten minutes of its cheezyness,but I have to remind myself that the 1950s and early 60s were comparatively more innocent times when ALL television was family-freindly and remained in adherance to the NAB Television Code.

In this era of "in-'yo -face" reality shows that destroyed MTV and VH-1's music content..I really don't mind the reruns now as I am pushing sixty...and by the way... Welk's hit song "Calcutta" also hit the early 60s pop charts and was not just a staple of middle of the road formats.

..and as my own mother is pushing 95..I am thinking of her,her love for polka...and yes..traditional family values. Her life is slowly fading away....and I'm only 35 years behind her.

 

[landtuna]

I was never a fan of the Welk show but I loved watching Floren and his accordion. It still amazes me how people can play that instrument.

When I was a junior in high school (1960) we had a dance segment as part of our PE class and you guessed it - polka. It was embarrassing at first until I found the perfect dance partner then she and I cut the rug so to speak. Most fun I ever had in PE. Everybody else seemed to enjoy it as well. And no better music to accompany the hoisting of a stein.

 

[jh]

I visited my 85+ aged parents this weekend. Every Saturday night, they watch Lawrence Welk followed by the brit-coms on Iowa Public TV. This has been without exception for years and years.

Until this weekend. They watched the History Channel... there was a "Pawn Stars" marathon. At least this time, The Old Man and Chumlee beat out Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren.

 

[EricStein]

Welk, and whoever wrote the scripts, do seem to have been really clueless about some of the songs and their lyrics. One of the songs was Woody Guthrie's "This Land." Woody was the political opposite of Welk and wrote "This Land" as his rebuttal to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."

Later on, the Welk family invested in folk music by purchasing the Vanguard Records label and library, which they still own today.

 

[rnigma1]

They also purchased Sugar Hill Records, the folk/bluegrass label (not to be confused with the rap label of the same name).

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

The very fact that we're here talking about the legacy of Lawrence Welk, and the Lawrence Welk Show says a great deal about the marketing instincts of the man himself.

What if Benny Goodman or Guy Lombardo had a weekly show that ran on network TV and syndication. Would it even have lasted as long?.....and would we still be talking about it now?

As Arsenio Hall would say: "Just sorta makes you go H-m-m-m-m".

 

[bpatrick]

The very fact that we're here talking about the legacy of Lawrence Welk, and the Lawrence Welk Show says a great deal about the marketing instincts of the man himself.

What if Benny Goodman or Guy Lombardo had a weekly show that ran on network TV and syndication. Would it even have lasted as long?.....and would we still be talking about it now?

As Arsenio Hall would say: "Just sorta makes you go H-m-m-m-m".

Besides his annual New Year's Eve specials, Guy Lombardo did have a summer show in 1956, "Guy Lombardo's Diamond Jubilee," which was a total flop. I've read that, before his death, Glenn Miller was already anticipating television and thinking about a format; having seen the production numbers he and his band did in "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives" I keep thinking that if he had lived and put himself (as Welk did) in the hands of a television pro such as Don Fedderson, a "Glenn Miller Show" might have worked. As it was, some of the members of the Miller band did a show called "Glenn Miller Time" on CBS in the summer of 1961, but it didn't run beyond that.

 

[FredLeonard]

The very fact that we're here talking about the legacy of Lawrence Welk, and the Lawrence Welk Show says a great deal about the marketing instincts of the man himself.

What if Benny Goodman or Guy Lombardo had a weekly show that ran on network TV and syndication. Would it even have lasted as long?.....and would we still be talking about it now?

As Arsenio Hall would say: "Just sorta makes you go H-m-m-m-m".

Other bandleaders did have shows...

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (shared the hour with "The Honeymooners")
Ray Anthony (early companion program to Welk)
Sammy Kaye (followed Welk on ABC for a season)
Kay Kyser (long run on radio; short run on TV)
Vaughn Monroe (bandleader/singer)
Paul Whiteman (Dick Clark was the announcer)
Spike Jones (novelty songs)

Welk did try a hipper show for three seasons, "Top Tunes and New Talent" in addition to the Saturday Night "Dancing Party."

And at least two other long-running shows starred bandleaders:
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (Ozzie Nelson)
I Love Lucy (Desi Arnaz) - based on a book about the marriage of fellow Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat (Desi's old boss).

 

[Tom Wells]

and by the way... Welk's hit song "Calcutta" also hit the early 60s pop charts and was not just a staple of middle of the road formats.

I've had Calcutta in my playlist for a long time.

It was cool in 1961 (? is that right?) and it's still cool.

It's a good example of how an artist can have popular recordings that transcend and defy the stereotype.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

And at least two other long-running shows starred bandleaders:
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (Ozzie Nelson)
I Love Lucy (Desi Arnaz) - based on a book about the marriage of fellow Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat (Desi's old boss).

I'm not certain these two examples should count, since they were sit-coms, with music being only incidental to the shows. Although.....Ozzie Nelson ought to be given credit as "Father of the Music Video".....Those little music segments Ricky did at the end of many episodes were tremendous publicity for his recording career. Sure beats having had to pay ABC for those weekly 3 to 5 minute blocks of time.

Just as a side-note.....I always thought "I Love Lucy" was loosely based on Lucy's previous CBS Radio sit-com "My Favorite Husband", with Richard Denning, Bea Benaderet, and Gale Gordon.

 

[rnigma1]

I Love Lucy (Desi Arnaz) - based on a book about the marriage of fellow Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat (Desi's old boss).

...Just as a side-note.....I always thought "I Love Lucy" was loosely based on Lucy's previous CBS Radio sit-com "My Favorite Husband", with Richard Denning, Bea Benaderet, and Gale Gordon.

Oddly enough, the character Lucy played on "My Favorite Husband" was originally named Liz Cugat. (It would be changed to Liz Cooper... perhaps after a complaint from Xavier?)

And Kay Kyser's "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" would have a TV run, but with Tennessee Ernie Ford as host.

 

[FredLeonard]

Ozzie Nelson is credited as the father of the music video but more accurately it probably was Busby Berkeley. Movie musicals had production numbers going back to the beginning of the sound era. Many of those numbers featured popular bands. Glenn Miller was not thinking of television. What he was doing in films was common practice for musical films. Music videos are just movie musicals minus everything but the songs. And before television, there "soundies" - short, one reel music films with production numbers by popular bands of the day. Big bands also were featured in production numbers in theatrical shorts shown (with cartoons, newsreels, comedies and travelogs) before feature films in theaters. Ozzie Nelson and his band, with his featured singer Harriet Hilliard, had even appeared in some a generation before their son did.

Yes, My Favorite Husband was adapted from the Cugat book: "Mr and Mrs. Cugat, The Record of a Happy Marriage" by Isabel Scott Rorick. On the radio show, the main characters were first named Cugat and then their names were changed to Cooper. The book was also adapted into a film, "Are Husbands Necessary?." Some public libraries have the book (or can get it on inter-library loan). Amazon has used copies for sale. On the radio, Lucy's (Liz's) husband was played by Richard Denning, later governor of Hawaii on Hawaii Five-O. He was a banker and the couple was more upscale than the Ricardos; they even had a maid. Gale Gordon played his boss and Bea Benaderet played the boss' wife and Liz' cohort in crime. During the summer, Gordon and Benaderet starred in a summer replacement series called "Granby's Green Acres," about this lawyer who wants to buy a farm ...

 

[johnbasalla]

I just got the feature "Baseball, Dennis and The French" about a liberal activist who became a conservative Christian after listening to "The Dennis Prager Show". Near the end, there is a segment about "The Lawrence Welk Show". The narrator mentions how it became the #1 show on PBS stations. The film points out, through clips from the show, how it was steeped in Americana and Americanism. Then there is this telling split screen, showing nicely dressed actor/singers on "The Lawrence Welk Show", doing a sweet little song and dance on one side, while the other side showed a wild outdoor concert ("Woodstock"?) with people running around in a muddy field, gyrating to the music.

 

[therealjm12]

The Lawerence Welk Show was never Americana. It was pure showbiz fantasy. Woodstock was real, however, with real people. So the Woodstock generation is actually Americana.

 

[landtuna]

The Lawerence Welk Show was never Americana. It was pure showbiz fantasy. Woodstock was real, however, with real people. So the Woodstock generation is actually Americana.

Welk's show always reminded me of a barn dance somewhere in the Midwest.

And the Woodstock population was probably 95% 20-somethings so it was a slice of Americana and not representative of the whole.

 

[johnbasalla]

I think the reason for the split screen segment was to give an example of how the Baby Boom generation is the dumbest generation without saying so in so many words. It is something that Dennis Prager has said on his radio show, however. The Civil Rights movement was one of the few things they got right, in his opinion.

 

[joebtsflk1]

The Civil Rights movement being credited to the Baby Boom Generation...that's giving us too much credit I think.

Back to Lawrence Welk: his best shows were in the 50s I think. Still incessant reruns of LW seems a bit much, but it's pledge action, baby!

 

[michael hagerty]

The Civil Rights movement being credited to the Baby Boom Generation...that's giving us too much credit I think.

Given that the Baby Boom began in 1946, the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 and the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, yeah. It didn't happen because of 9-18 year olds. While the oldest Boomers may have been sympathetic and vocal, it was the actions of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. (Born 1929) and Lyndon Johnson (born 1908) .

 

[FredLeonard]

Given that the Baby Boom began in 1946, the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 and the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, yeah. It didn't happen because of 9-18 year olds. While the oldest Boomers may have been sympathetic and vocal, it was the actions of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. (Born 1929) and Lyndon Johnson (born 1908) .

Sorry, no. It was the actions of thousands of people you never heard of. People who marched, sat in, registered voters, got beaten up, jailed, lynched, fire-bombed. The "media darlings" responded to all of them.

The Woodstock Nation was inherently selfish. The protested a war into which they were likely to be drafted but their primary concerns were sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Joe, Michael & Fred: Great points ^^^, so kudos to all three of you. But this thread concerns Welk.

Imagine the editors exiling "Welk" to TIO?! How would we ever live that down? Oh, the humanity!