NEW TIME LIFE Release: I Got You Babe: The Best Of The Sonny & Cher (Includes some Cher Shows too!) (1 Viewer)

[Brian Himes]

I just checked my episode list and the episode of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour that is missing the Supremes solo song is from 1/23/74. I found the performance on You Tube so I can put that episode back together in a more complete version.

I'll have to check out my Cher Behind The Music for those clips. I don't recall seeing them but it has been a very long time since I watched that show.

 

[Mark Y]

I agree, even though there's not much new here that collectors don't already have, it makes sense to support the release in the hopes that it leads to future releases.

With regards to the 2/1/76 episode, there were clips of the opening monologue on the VH1 Behind the Music which aired in 1998/99 somewhere around there, that's likely why you might remember seeing it more recently than 1976.

You are probably correct, as I was a regular viewer of Behind The Music and True Hollywood Story.

I hope "Remembering You" makes the cut but as there is no mention of "complete episodes" and that segment evidently was cut before, all bets are off. In any case, I will give it some time and try to get a deal like I did for the red Carol Burnett "best of" collection.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[MartinP.]

There were also 3 Christmas episodes released. Two episodes from The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (12/20/72 and 12/19/73) and one episode from The Sonny & Cher Show (12/5/76).

These Christmas episodes, however, were edited, whereas the 9 episode collection was not:

The Sonny & Cher Christmas Collection:

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
12/20/72 (35:30)
12/19/73 (37:10)

The Sonny & Cher Show
12/5/76 (45:35)

I must add that we do not know if the episodes in this Time Life set are complete or not.

 

[MartinP.]

I agree. Other than a couple of shows, all of the listed Sonny & Cher Comedy Hours (along with many more) ran complete and uncut in TVLand's early days, so I'll be holding on to my copies. I'm not sure what the story is with the show TL lists as 1/10/72 with Carroll O'Connor, since the guest on the show broadcast on that date was Kate Smith.

What source do you have for the Kate Smith guesting? (Your TV Land recording?)

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour that had Carroll O'Connor singing 'Remembering You' is indeed the 1/10/72 episode. I have it but the 'Remembering You' portion is missing for some reason. I did manage to get that off You Tube and put it back together properly.

The IMDB episode listing for the 1/10/72 episode has info from the 12/27/71 episode listed, which is obviously incorrect.

The TV.com listing for 1/10/72 shows the guest stars listed as Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton and Jimmy Durante and this rundown:
1. Sonny and Cher open the show with "Good Day Sunshine" and banter about how Sonny sets Cher up for the big laughs.
2. "Information Please" -- The Presidential assistant to Marketing, Research and Economic Stability (Carroll) attempts to explain President Nixon's wage and price freeze.
3. Cher sings "What a Difference a Day Makes"
4. Sonny, dressed in a costume of feathers, announces that he's been studying birds and plans to be the first man to fly.
5. "The Vamps" -- Napoleon (Carroll) returns home to an unfaithful Josephine (Cher) after his war with the Russians, and Delilah (Cher) learns that the secret of Samson's (Carroll's) strength lies in his hair.
6. Cher sings "Mountain Greenery" and "Big Yellow Taxi", while showing an animated satire on pollution by cartoonist John Wilson.
7. Carroll proves to a skeptical Sonny that his singing voice can shatter wood.
8. Carroll sings his own lyrics to "Remembering You", the closing theme song heard at the end of each "All In the Family" show.
9. Sonny and Cher perform a medley of "Stagger Lee" and "Rip It Up"
10. "The Cultural Spot" -- In an opera based on TV commercials, Princess Celery (Cher) reveals that she wishes to wed Oscar of Vienna (Sonny) even though he is just a mere commoner and not of noble blood.
11. Sonny and Cher, joined by Carroll, close the show with "Remembering You."

So, Kate Smith (from John Karras' source) and Jimmy Durante (from the TV.com source) are not in that synopsis at all.

 

[Brian Himes]

The list I have shows the Kate Smith episode as airing 1/17/72. According to my list the Carroll O'Connor episode aired 1/10/72. I have both episodes. I haven't watched them in a long time but I can check them out to see what the breakdown of sketches and songs were. The Carroll O'Conner song 'Remembering You' is just him with piano accompaniment.

 

[JayP.]

I received my TimeLife Sonny & Cher collection this past Saturday & I have to say that I was disappointed. The film quality is very good but a lot is omitted. All of Cher's solos are omitted on The S & C Comedy Hour & S & C Show and some of their duets have one of their two songs cut out. Some skits are shortened or omitted. Also, on the DVD of The Sonny & Cher Years where they had various Rock & Roll guests of the 1960's, all songs are omitted during the "duet segment". They just show the opening group singing & then the end. I know you hear about music rights but all of this was shown on the TVLand airings. I grew up watching them with the family & an hour show only had about 4 minutes of commercial time in the 1960's/70's because shows had sponsors back then that would take care of the advertising dollars. I timed the 1st two shows of TimeLife & they were 45 minutes & not the 55/56 minutes of the original programming. I already had all of these shows from the 70 DVD set that you can buy on Amazon, ebay, etc. from when TVLand aired them back in the 1990's. Although good, the 70 DVD set film quality isn't as good as TimeLife but the 70 DVD set contains about 53/54 minutes of programming per episode. I would say that the 70 DVD set is a better buy because it's about the same cost, has a lot more episodes (along with other features like movie "Good Times" & vintage songs), & the musical numbers are included. We now have 87 full episodes of their shows (62 Comedy Hour & 25 of S & C Show) plus several Cher Show episodes. The TimeLife collection has a nice booklet included & I looked it over before playing any DVD. The booklet showed Cher & Sonny's widow, Mary, involved in this project so I was hoping that is would be uncut original programming. It would be nice if this can happen in the future & that episodes that you can't find on DVD, will be made available.

 

[JayP.]

These Christmas episodes, however, were edited, whereas the 9 episode collection was not:

The Sonny & Cher Christmas Collection:

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
12/20/72 (35:30)
12/19/73 (37:10)

The Sonny & Cher Show
12/5/76 (45:35)

I must add that we do not know if the episodes in this Time Life set are complete or not.

Yes, the Christmas episodes were severely edited but the other episodes had some editing too. Several of them don't have the ending where they thank their guests & do a little bantering before singing "I Got you Babe". They just say goodnight & leave the stage. I think some of the funnier moments are at the closing & wish they had included them on all episodes.

 

[JayP.]

I'm looking forward to this release. I hope all of the music numbers are intact. Having 5 episodes of Cher is a nice touch. It would have been nice to have something from The Sonny Comedy Revue represented as well.

I got mine this past Saturday & all of Cher's solos on The S & C Comedy Hour & S & C Show are omitted. Some of their duets are also omitted or one of two songs they sing are cut out.

 

[JayP.]

I'm looking forward to this release. I hope all of the music numbers are intact. Having 5 episodes of Cher is a nice touch. It would have been nice to have something from The Sonny Comedy Revue represented as well.

I got my set this past Saturday & all of Cher's solos on The S & C Comedy Hour & S & C Show are omitted. Also, their duets are omitted or one of two songs they sing are cut.

 

[JayP.]

Okay. I pulled out the set, I was sure that episode was on there, but indeed it's not!

What the heck is going on? I could swear (or affirm) that I saw it, and on DVD in fairly recent times as opposed to first-run or reruns. Also -- again, I'm sure you know your stuff -- but February 1976? That seems early to me for the "reunion" series.

Well, shows you what I know.

Yes, it was Feb 2 1976. There's a YT video of a Dec 1975 press conference by CBS announcing the show. Sonny & Cher are there answering questions from reporters. It was a big media event.

 

[Mark Y]

Yes, it was Feb 2 1976. There's a YT video of a Dec 1975 press conference by CBS announcing the show. Sonny & Cher are there answering questions from reporters. It was a big media event.

What's crazy about this is, I was there and I remember when this was all going on. But I thought the Cher solo show went on longer and the reunion show came later than it did. I also have no memory of "The Sonny Comedy Revue" at all.

 

[Brian Himes]

Well, this is a bummer. Looks like this set is going to be crap. I expected better from Time Life. Looks like the only things on the set worth having are the Cher episodes that I don't already have.

 

[JayP.]

Well, this is a bummer. Looks like this set is going to be crap. i expected better from Time Life. Looks like the only things on the set worth having are the Cher episodes that I don't already have.

I thought Time Life would do a better job too. I don't know if you saw another post I had but the booklet included with the DVDs showed that Cher & Sonny's widow, Mary, was involved in this project. I looked it over before playing any DVD. When I saw that Cher was involved, I figured she would make sure the entire show was available...especially the songs she sang.

 

[Brian Himes]

Yeah, I saw that. Having Cher involved one would think that these would be the best presentations possible. Sadly, it looks like Time Life just didn't want to pony up the bucks to present these correctly. This is obviously just a quick cash grab and screw the quality. This should have been more apparent with the low episode count. Especially with only 3 episodes of The Sonny & Cher show being presented.

These Christmas episodes, however, were edited, whereas the 9 episode collection was not:

The Sonny & Cher Christmas Collection:

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
12/20/72 (35:30)
12/19/73 (37:10)

The Sonny & Cher Show
12/5/76 (45:35)

You know, the funny thing about these Christmas episodes is that Get TV aired them as well. I believe that they aired just the 12/19/73 episode of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and I taped it. Upon comparing it to the released version, I didn't noticed any significant difference. I believe that I have the TV Land version of the 12/20/72 Christmas episode. The Sonny & Cher Show Christmas episode is pretty much complete. There is only about 5-7 minutes cut. I might have this one from TV Land as well. I'll have to look.

 

[Brian Himes]

I just checked and I have the TV Land version of the Sonny & Cher Show Christmas episode. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour Christmas shows I only have the official DVD versions. Get TV did air one of those a couple of years ago and I am pretty certain it was the one from 12/19/73.

 

[Brian Himes]

I just got my set in the mail today. I've started going through it. I started with the Che episodes since that disc has episodes that I don't have. So far, the first episode is all there but I'm only at the Elton John solo number. This number was cut from the Get TV airing but was on the VH1 airing. Well, back to the TV to watch more.

Well, finished the first episode of Cher. Chopped to shreds. Cher's solo song is gone. The Bette Midler & Cher duet, well 3/4 of it is gone. The run time is 41 minutes and change. The VH1 and Get TV versions are slightly longer. The VH1 version is 42 minutes. The Get TV version is 42 minutes and change. A combined version is 47 minutes and change. So, taking the one piece from the Time Life version that was not shown on either VH1 or Get TV should give a running time closer to 52 minutes and change. The parts on the Time Life version that were not shown on either VH1 or Get TV is Elton's bow at the end of his solo song (on the VH1 version it fades to black just a second or two after the song ends during the applause and is totally missing on the Get TV version) and the Bash-o-matic sketch just before the Bette & Cher number. The Get TV version does have longer audience applause and bows after a couple of the songs (Cher's Solo, and Bette & Cher's duet) that did not air on VH1. The Laverne and Geraldine sketch on the VH1 version starts when Geraldine enters. The Get TV version starts at the very beginning with Cher's friends speech. It's funny but even with the missing Elton John song, the Get TV version is more complete than the VH1 version and the Time Life version.

This is just sad. I'm really not looking forward to watching the rest of this set. What a total bummer.

 

[JayP.]

I agree. Other than a couple of shows, all of the listed Sonny & Cher Comedy Hours (along with many more) ran complete and uncut in TVLand's early days, so I'll be holding on to my copies. I'm not sure what the story is with the show TL lists as 1/10/72 with Carroll O'Connor, since the guest on the show broadcast on that date was Kate Smith.
Also: The claim that the "Cher" shows have been "unseen since they first aired 40 years ago" is specious. In fact, the premiere was aired on VH-1 in 1-hour form, and many others were aired in 30-minute form on VH-1. GET-TV also has aired several "Cher" shows in more recent times.

Time Life is correct. The episode that aired Jan. 10, 72 was Carroll O'Connor with cameos by Jean Stapleton & Jimmy Durante. The next week was with Kate Smith & it aired Jan 17,72.

 

[JohnMor]

I thought Time Life would do a better job too. I don't know if you saw another post I had but the booklet included with the DVDs showed that Cher & Sonny's widow, Mary, was involved in this project. I looked it over before playing any DVD. When I saw that Cher was involved, I figured she would make sure the entire show was available...especially the songs she sang.

Neither Cher nor Mary Bono would have much to do with the music rights. Not any more than Carol Burnett had for her sets, which featured music edits as well. Sometimes it’s just a question of budget and sometimes the rights holders won’t give the okay for any reasonable amount of money.

 

[JayP.]

Neither Cher nor Mary Bono would have much to do with the music rights. Not any more than Carol Burnett had for her sets, which featured music edits as well. Sometimes it’s just a question of budget and sometimes the rights holders won’t give the okay for any reasonable amount of money.

Yes, I know that music rights is a big issue for variety shows & that's why you don't see them on retro TV networks very often. That's why I'm surprised that my TVLand DVDs of Sonny & Cher includes pretty much all (if not all) musical numbers. Also surprised that the songs omitted on TimeLife were sung by Cher & I would think those would be the easier ones to show verses guest appearances..

 

[Mark Y]

Yes, I know that music rights is a big issue for variety shows & that's why you don't see them on retro TV networks very often. That's why I'm surprised that my TVLand DVDs of Sonny & Cher includes pretty much all (if not all) musical numbers. Also surprised that the songs omitted on TimeLife were sung by Cher & I would think those would be the easier ones to show verses guest appearances..

A big part of the music rights issue has to do with publishing rights costs, which is a whole separate thing from royalties due to the performers -- although they have to pay for that too.

So did "Remembering You" make the cut?