View Full Version : Why didn't you tell me about the Lawrence Welk


Tankeryanker
02-01-2024, 10:23 PM
cross over?

This would make a great house cleaning song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ryhFy0o-RA

stevea
02-02-2024, 07:20 AM
True. The vacuum would drown it out lol!

biffbronson
02-16-2024, 01:29 PM
Some here despise the champagne music of Welk
Such forum discussions can get a bit hairy
But it's not a big deal among those of your ilk
Just keep it secret from 83-year-old son Larry!

Tankeryanker
02-17-2024, 11:07 PM
Such a toe tapping jingle.

I can see Alice dusting the Brady house, flinging her dusting rags to and fro to the beat. Maybe a little hip shake now and again.

An a wanna and a two a.

Tankeryanker
02-18-2024, 09:15 PM
Some here despise the champagne music of Welk
Such forum discussions can get a bit hairy
But it's not a big deal among those of your ilk
Just keep it secret from 83-year-old son Larry!

Found it!
https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=312758&page=3

Too funny. Learn something new every day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

Man, I missed out by not watching Lawrence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltinPU5cPiM

biffbronson
02-20-2024, 07:00 AM
Actually the Welk show discussion did not belong in the CBS thread, because his series ran on ABC followed by first-run syndication. It was never a CBS series. But that didn't stop Yong Fang from showing his disdain.

I have a soft spot for big bands. I never had the opportunity to learn to play an instrument, so I'm impressed by what they do.

I had always presumed Welk had emigrated from Europe, judging by his speech, quite surprised years later to learn he was U.S. born.

Ernie imitates Welk at one point to start a Douglas Family song performance, "ah one and a two and a..."

Tankeryanker
02-20-2024, 11:48 AM
^^^
So, what was the purpose of the LW show? Was it a show case of LW's work or covers of other artists work?

Where they put the LW musicians reminds me of the set of the Newlywed show. When I watch a clip of the show, I think of Mormons on steroids with all the clean shiny people.

Goodbye White America, it was nice knowing you.

biffbronson
02-21-2024, 11:22 AM
I'm well-aware that many dislike the Welk show, including a distant cousin of mine who was born in the late 1940s and was able to see it first-run over its incredibly long tenure -- or more accurately hate it as not being "hip."

Primarily they played oldies and did covers of then-current music, usually the show had a theme per episode like The music of Cole Porter.

I don't think I'm expected to defend past segregation etc. any more than I'd ask you to defend such aspects of shows like Father Knows Best. I don't believe in cancel culture however -- for example, Dr. Seuss' McElligot's Pool going out of print because of a few fish wearing parkas, something most never even noticed or found objection to.

I don't go out of my way to watch Welk's show or record it or collect it in any fashion. But I dislike the idea of totally dismissing something from the past on the basis that some or even many aspects of it are no longer found to be acceptable to a modern audience. If you want to debate the airing of shows from the segregation era, an African-American member would do a better job of discussing the matter. I've recently had an online run-in with an Alabama football fan whose ancestors likely were slaveholders while mine were on a small farm in Europe. He's made fun of my school's successes or lack thereof, while mine admitted black students DECADES before his ever did. I get sick of the hypocrisy.

My dad grew up primarily in the 1930s and two of his favorite groups were the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. Nat King Cole had his own TV show in the '50s that he enjoyed. His high school had one of the largest % of black students in all of northern Indiana. I guess though his liking of Welk's show paints him as a past racist. I like to look for the good in things, I'm not trying to purport everything was right and proper -- but if the past is buried, no one can learn from it.

Duster76
02-22-2024, 12:29 AM
I'm well-aware that many dislike the Welk show, including a distant cousin of mine who was born in the late 1940s and was able to see it first-run over its incredibly long tenure -- or more accurately hate it as not being "hip."

Primarily they played oldies and did covers of then-current music, usually the show had a theme per episode like The music of Cole Porter.

I don't think I'm expected to defend past segregation etc. any more than I'd ask you to defend such aspects of shows like Father Knows Best. I don't believe in cancel culture however -- for example, Dr. Seuss' McElligot's Pool going out of print because of a few fish wearing parkas, something most never even noticed or found objection to.

I don't go out of my way to watch Welk's show or record it or collect it in any fashion. But I dislike the idea of totally dismissing something from the past on the basis that some or even many aspects of it are no longer found to be acceptable to a modern audience. If you want to debate the airing of shows from the segregation era, an African-American member would do a better job of discussing the matter. I've recently had an online run-in with an Alabama football fan whose ancestors likely were slaveholders while mine were on a small farm in Europe. He's made fun of my school's successes or lack thereof, while mine admitted black students DECADES before his ever did. I get sick of the hypocrisy.

My dad grew up primarily in the 1930s and two of his favorite groups were the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. Nat King Cole had his own TV show in the '50s that he enjoyed. His high school had one of the largest % of black students in all of northern Indiana. I guess though his liking of Welk's show paints him as a past racist. I like to look for the good in things, I'm not trying to purport everything was right and proper -- but if the past is buried, no one can learn from it.

I agree with your defense of The Lawrence Welk Show, he was an outstanding showman who put on a quality entertainment program. It was creative, with first rate talent, great production values (staging, theme shows, costuming etc). Obviously I understand someone not being a fan most younger people weren't going to get that show, I certainly didn't at the time, but what I don't understand is how anyone can objectively look at that program and not recognize the craftmanship and originality that went into it.

Tankeryanker
02-22-2024, 03:15 PM
@biffbronson
I think you might have taken "Goodbye White America"wrong. I really wanted to know about LW.

stevea
03-27-2024, 11:50 AM
Speaking of Lawrence Welk, here is his appearance on What's My Line? from May 1967. At around 18:00 --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrhWDLCSec

vitoscotti
03-29-2024, 11:09 PM
As a kid I'd watch The LW Show for the attractive female singers.

His speaking style was hilarious. Wunnerful, wunnerful...and a 1, and a 2.

There's a Flintstones episode that does a takeoff of LW that's very funny and literally mocks him.

biffbronson
04-01-2024, 11:38 AM
Reportedly, when the series that eventually became M3S was being formulated, the Lennon Sisters were under consideration to play the daughters -- no sons. But they chose to remain on the series from which they became celebrities in the fifties: The Lawrence Welk Show, where they continued to sing until 1967 or so.