I recently purchased a 3-disc DVD set of Sonny & Cher “The Ultimate Collection”. The DVD set includes 9 full episodes of Sonny & Cher and some extras. These are shows that I haven’t seen since I was a little kid. For anyone that hasn’t seen their show, it’s kinda like a mix between Saturday Night Live and The Carol Burnett Show.

One of my favorite parts of the show is the “Vamp” skits with Cher in a red dress and introducing it by singing from atop an old piano. The song has a catchy tune that I like. After going through two or three short skits, they do some really cool early-70’s camera magic by bringing out all of the characters from the skits played by Sonny, Cher, and various guest stars… showing them several times all at once… seemingly interacting with each other to a small degree. During this time, they are all singing together in unison. In the commentary, Cher mentions that it took a lot of time and effort to get this one thing right because you’re doing it several different times from different positions… all in front of green screens. Of course, today we could do this with a simple click of the mouse, and the end result would look far better than what they did 40 years ago. You can find some of these Sonny & Cher Vamp skits on Youtube.

A technical observation I made- It seems there’s a time delay in much of the video… especially when they are moving around kinda fast. For instance… if someone moves their head back forth, it seems to take a frame or two for their hair to catch up. Sometimes you see what appears to be “trails” left behind lights. It’s kinda like a really slow refresh rate. I don’t know if this was intended to be this way, or if it was due to cheesy equipment. I might expect to see these artifacts in videos from the 1950’s, but not the 70’s.

Most people today would not think of Cher as being a comedian, but really, that’s how she started out with Sonny years ago. After getting popular in the mid-late 60's on the radio with a handful of tunes, they started their own TV show in the early 70's on CBS. At that time, Cher was just barely 25 years old. Some of the guests in this collection include Harvey Korman, Governor Ronald Reagan, Glen Campbell, Farrah Faucet, Burt Reynolds, Howard Cosell, and Don Knotts.

I think the DVD set is pretty funny. I hope they decide to release more of them as time goes by. If you like old-fashioned slapstick type comedy, you’ll like this. If you’re looking for something to watch on your CTC-38 or early XL-100, this is perfect.

And then they figured out that Cher really need to be the "Straight Man" & Sonny worked better as the Goof. In reality, Sonny was ANYTHING but a "Goof", I think.

We used to watch them every week. I still remember the funky animated opening to the show. It was a really good show and they were funny together. However, after they got divorced and Cher married Gregg Allman, their constant jokes about it seemed a little weird and we quit watching. Remember Cher got her own solo show too for a while.

I STILL Bawl like a Little Girl when I see the video of Cher's eulogy at Sonny's funeral...

yea I remember how it kinda was strange after the spit and then marriage to Greg Allman, it was nice when they seemed to truly care for each other after the spit up it as just kinda sad. Chastity was such a cute little girl (no joke) and in the end she seemed to have to be the peace maker.

Back in the 70's it was in vogue to break up families so people could "find" themselves. I think Sonny was just a little too old fashioned for Cher.

young cher was awesome to look at and hear.sonny was a very smart man.all the time he was willing to look the fool.foolish all the way to the bank.they both had solo shows but they were a team.after the divorce,it wasnt the same.sonny was cool and cher was pretty and a great voice.watch "good times'.critics panned it but it was verry funny and sad at the same time.

I watched a number of episodes when TV Land aired them in the 90s, and the Vamp really stuck out to me as well. I enjoy seeing shows from that era playing around with video effects-Laugh In was a good example.

I can remember my sister and I watching this show back when it was first run!
I have the DVD"s but haven't watched them yet, hmm, maybe I will soon.

Hard to believe she's 3 yrs shy of 70...

Hard to believe she's 3 yrs shy of 70...

Yeah, well hard to believe the last time I saw them on TV together, I was 8! :D

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A technical observation I made- It seems there’s a time delay in much of the video… especially when they are moving around kinda fast. For instance… if someone moves their head back forth, it seems to take a frame or two for their hair to catch up. Sometimes you see what appears to be “trails” left behind lights. It’s kinda like a really slow refresh rate. I don’t know if this was intended to be this way, or if it was due to cheesy equipment. I might expect to see these artifacts in videos from the 1950’s, but not the 70’s.


Not intended to be that way. What you're seeing is Plumbicon pickup tube lag and "comet-tailing." The lag is because the target didn't discharge completely in one scan - and the amount of incompleteness depended on the brightness of the particular part of the picture. Plumbicon cameras had tiny incandescent faceplate lamps built in that flooded the whole picture with a low light level; then the blacks were adjusted electrically to bring them back down to true black. This meant that the target didn't have to discharge completely to reach black level, so it reduced the lag; but it never got rid of it completely.

The trails, or "comet-tails" on highlights occurred when a highlight was so bright that it could not be discharged below white level for several scans. You would see this on shiny musical instruments and jewelry. Camera circuits and Plumbicons were developed that could reduce this by sensing an overly bright spot and instantaneously turning the beam current up to discharge the highlight faster.

Thanks for that explanation! I knew someone here would know what it was all about!

That's what makes this site so awesome! :yes: :thmbsp:

I remember those Sonny and Cher shows. And one of the favorite movies of my family is Moonstruck with Cher. We have the DVD and can repeat just about all the dialogue. It's a feel-good romantic comedy and is really funny.