I just saw the new year's eve 1966 episode. Seems like most people think only retired elders in old folk's homes are supposed to watch it. I have been watching with an open mind and realize it's truly a fantastic show.

I watched it with family when I was a kid, and it was ok, but since I still like
the Big Bands of the 30's 40's,~ and the Big Hair Bands of the 80's ~ Almost
the same sounding names there ~ I still like the Lawrence Welk Show.
Is it great !? Yah, ok it's a great show ! !

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I watched it with family when I was a kid, and it was ok, but since I still like
the Big Bands of the 30's 40's,~ and the Big Hair Bands of the 80's ~ Almost
the same sounding names there ~ I still like the Lawrence Welk Show.
Is it great !? Yah, ok it's a great show ! !

.

I remember the Lawrence Welk show came on, as a summer replacement show in the mid-50's. It might've been a half hour show and no where as flashy.
I remember seeing a summer replacement quiz show, with an unknown MC, named Johnny Carson.
One never knows! :scratch2:

I've always liked the show. I liked big band music even as a kid in the 1970s. Anyone remember the Time-Life Swing Era records? I still have mine. I like music of my parents' generation where you can understand the lyrics. Those early color shows from 1966 and 67 would be great to see on a round tube color TV.

What's funny is my 86-year-old mom has never liked the show. She says it's too cutesy.

It's too bad they can't air the 1950s shows with the original Dodge and Plymouth commercials. You can find some of them on YouTube. They used the singers in the commercials. Dad actually bought a new 1960 Dart, but I don't know if my parents saw the ads on the show because I was only two at the time.

I watch it every week! A couple observations....

1. Ken Delo is one swank cat. There is nobody that ever walked the Earth that was ever so swank. His solo record albums, however, suck....

2. Wife and I had tickets to see the Lennon Sisters this past summer. After so many years of doing the same songs, they now do songs THEY want to sing. It's just not the same :(

3. Bobby Burgess never.....misses....a.....step. Like, ever.

4. Bob Ralston is 1423% better at playing the piano than Jo Ann Castle.

When I was going around on evening service calls in 79-80 with a repairman friend of mine, you could always count on either LW or The Muppet Show being on in the customers house, provided their TV was functioning of course.

There was definitely some talent on that show but as a 20 year old it wasn't cool to admit it back then.
The Muppets otoh have always been cool. :thmbsp:

When I met my wife she was boarding with an older aunt. EVERY time I visited she had on Lawrence Welk, and it came to be a running joke. (As a side note, she had a 90s Zenith console with a bad pincushion issue. I'd have loved to have fixed that for her, but she never seemed to care.)

Every so often we'll watch a bit of it. One of those perfect shows for viewing on a color roundie!

....which I did yesterday, in fact!

It was a Christmas special, and I'm Christmassed out, so I shut it off after 10 minutes ;)

I just saw the new year's eve 1966 episode. Seems like most people think only retired elders in old folk's homes are supposed to watch it. I have been watching with an open mind and realize it's truly a fantastic show.
When I went to the nursing home to see my step-father, the only program that was on was "Wheel of Fortune". Seems like every resident had it on.
I'd go visit, two weekday evenings and Saturday afternoon.

Who shows it and when?

PBS stations; I just pulled up the website for New Jersey and I see it on WLIW at 5pm on Saturdays (not sure if you get them where you live). Here I think it still runs on MD public TV at 7pm on Saturdays.

My Father's Mother adored Welk... we would all be there for Sunday diner and when Welk came on, you didn't dare make a sound or suffer the wrath of Gramma. My Gram is long gone and she never saw a Welk show in that spectacular color... looks fantastic on my CCII!!!

Jim

I used too watch him on Saturday night along with Hee Haw which followed.
Thank goodness for Youtube that some of his show can be seen again.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lawrence+welk

I enjoy the show for all the same reasons mentioned by everybody here and i especially enjoy hearing the people from the show share history and personal stories. I was surprised to find some things on the internet that revealed more than i would have imagined. It's easy to think of Lawrence and the cast having a very privelaged and isolated lifestyle far removed from the difficult side of life most of us experience. Lawrence was rumored to be a cold hearted businessman and one hilarious story supports his isolation from the culture the rest of the cast was clearly aware of. I will save that for last and you will surely enjoy it :music: jo ann castle is lightning in a bottle. She tells of never being close to lawrence and when she went to his office to tell him she was leaving the show his back was turned and when he faced her his eyes were teared. The story could seem more like the show than reality but i admire jo ann for being an awesome mother and person. During the show she suffered a tragedy i probably shouldn't mention which is proven by legal documents online. Well, she made a tragic mistake which led to yesrs of sufferring for her and her children but the wonderful part of the story is that she came to realize her huge mistake and publicly admitted it. Sadly, that doesn't happen often enough for victims. She is truly an amazing person and role model. In '69 the lennon sisters had a most horrifying, terrible tragedy take place that is likely part of the reason they left the show aside from wanting to explore more in show biz. I hope i can see them in branson soon. I love their performance of "georgy girl" from '66. The three camera shots alternating tickle me and remind me of the great men here that captured all that spectacular entertainment and care for the equipment that made it possible then and now.
So, most here know brewer & shipley's "one toke over the line" and what it is about as the cast of lawrence welk clearly did as well. Obviously lawrence didn't as he knew his audience very well and would never present anything with any sort of possible questionable intent or message. He liked to bring current pop and country tunes to his audience with the "welk touch". In '71 he had gayle and dale perform "one toke over the line". After their very cute performance lawrence thanked them for that "modern spiritual". You must watch the youtube video clip labeled: "one toke over the line lawrence welk WTF! 1971" to see the intro and after the song, lawrence commenting. The accordian player who introduces them literally get's choked up and you never see that in such a perfectly executed show. One can imagine everybody being afraid to tell lawrence what you know he would care about. That reveals something kinda funny about the whole production that nobody from the show talks about to this very day :banana:

Never really got into it/him, TOTALLY mystified by his-To ME-Hokey accent. I DO remember his was one of the 1st non-network shows in COLOR, & they seemed to have high production values. My Dad bought an album of his-"Wonderful, Wonderful !", I guess in early '63. For some reason, I played it the weekend of the JFK tragedy-Likely 'cause that was all that was on the TV- & it to this day, takes me back. I remember his albums were a LOT better than the TV show. Like him, loathe him, indifferent to him, Mr Welk is STILL a powerful touchstone for us "Late" Baby Boomers.

I don't know about the other PBS stations around the country but I know the PBS station in my area WNIT Channel 34 air Lawrence Welk on Saturdays at 7PM and they DO air the early episodes with the Dodge emblem on the stage backdrop and you can tell they're early black and white episodes by the way the brass instruments react with the camera and the lighting where it looks like a momentary bright flash of light and what not, my grandma who was born in 1937 watches the Lawrence Welk Show reruns on PBS whenever she gets a chance to.