WI: No "Lawrence Welk Show"

Osakadave

Osakadave

For the younguns and non-USAmericans among us, The Lawrence Welk Show was one of (if not the) longest running music/variety TV shows in the US. Running from the mid 1950s until the early 1980s, it featured some skilled, if cheesy and old fashioned, music acts (mostly big band pop) and was hosted by a mild, nice guy from the midwest with a noticable accent. (Welk, while born in the US, grew up speaking German, and only learned English in his early 20s, IIRC.)

He wasn't cutting edge, but his show was a very popular safe spot for adults on US TV for decades. Not kids programing, not teenager music, but very clean, decent, respectable music. And while it wasn't high brow, it was fun.

http://www.avclub.com/article/ithe-lawrence-welk-showi-was-tvs-best-partyuntil-i-89922

So, what if his show never hit it big. Maybe it was never picked up nationally, maybe it never happened at all.
 

David T

If there had been no Lawrence Welk Show, Duke Ellington's great alto sax man, Johnny Hodges, might never have made an album with Welk. Which would have been too bad because it was actually a pretty good album!
 

David T

David T said:
If there had been no Lawrence Welk Show, Duke Ellington's great alto sax man, Johnny Hodges, might never have made an album with Welk. Which would have been too bad because it was actually a pretty good album!
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This by the way is an example of how jazz musicians are generally much less "purist" in taste than their fans are: Louis Armstrong was a big Guy Lombardo fan...
 

overoceans

I don't think the Lawrence Welk show was very influential, in the sense of inspiring a lot of things that came after it. Even watching it as a kid in the 1970s, I had the feeling that it was one of the last remnants of a bygone era, not something that was going to be defining future tastes. And I'm kind of doubting it was all that more cutting-edge in earlier decades.

So, no Lawrence Welk Show probably just means that that genre of musical programming is taken off life-support even earlier than it was OTL.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

overoceans said:
I don't think the Lawrence Welk show was very influential, in the sense of inspiring a lot of things that came after it. Even watching it as a kid in the 1970s, I had the feeling that it was one of the last remnants of a bygone era, not something that was going to be defining future tastes. And I'm kind of doubting it was all that more cutting-edge in earlier decades.

So, no Lawrence Welk Show probably just means that that genre of musical programming is taken off life-support even earlier than it was OTL.
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It's something a grandma in 1974 would put on in the background while she made tea and got ready to sweep the kitchen. I want to have something more for the topic, because cultural AH has my full support, but I have nothing here. I don't know any forgotten minor facts that could have major results as I tend to here. I'm not saying there is no major impact, but if there is, I simply do not know it.
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
Andre Rieu is a modern, much bigger budget and better produced comparison. Sentimental old favorites, pop tunes, Viennese waltzes, and light classics given the big orchestra touch.
 

overoceans

Emperor Norton I said:
It's something a grandma in 1974 would put on in the background while she made tea and got ready to sweep the kitchen. I want to have something more for the topic, because cultural AH has my full support, but I have nothing here. I don't know any forgotten minor facts that could have major results as I tend to here. I'm not saying there is no major impact, but if there is, I simply do not know it.
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I suppose it played some role in keeping alive music that had otherwise died out decades earlier. When you consider things like the lounge revival of the late 1990s, it's probably not unreasonable to assume that some hipster band, somewhere, got the idea to cover an old 1940s standard, that they wouldn't have thought of had it not appeared on the Lawrence Welk Show. But I'd stop well short of giving the show credit for the overall trends.
 

overoceans

If you search around YouTube long enough, you can pretty much find anything.

It's kinda hard to believe that no one on the show actually wondered what that one word meant.

And here's another, more self-aware number. I guess it does say something about the mindset of the show that Welk still felt obligated to assure his audience "...we were just joking".
 

Somedevil

overoceans said:
If you search around YouTube long enough, you can pretty much find anything.

It's kinda hard to believe that no one on the show actually wondered what that one word meant.

And here's another, more self-aware number. I guess it does say something about the mindset of the show that Welk still felt obligated to assure his audience "...we were just joking".
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omg that is interesting version of that song.
 
Osakadave

Osakadave

overoceans said:
I don't think the Lawrence Welk show was very influential, in the sense of inspiring a lot of things that came after it. Even watching it as a kid in the 1970s, I had the feeling that it was one of the last remnants of a bygone era, not something that was going to be defining future tastes. And I'm kind of doubting it was all that more cutting-edge in earlier decades.

So, no Lawrence Welk Show probably just means that that genre of musical programming is taken off life-support even earlier than it was OTL.
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Yeah, it wasn't a big innovator, nor did it have a cultural impact that's easily pinned down. In a way, it was sort of like Mr. Rodgers for adults - a warm, fuzzy safe space, away from all the worrysome teenagers/young adults.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Commenting on the hippie dress, that is an outfit no hippie ever wore which television written by spiteful 40 year olds thought they did: the long fur vest and the wig with bowl cut bangs. No hippie ever dressed like that unless portrayed by Bob Denver so that Jack Webb could call him a communist.
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
Emperor Norton I said:
Commenting on the hippie dress, that is an outfit no hippie ever wore which television written by spiteful 40 year olds thought they did: the long fur vest and the wig with bowl cut bangs. No hippie ever dressed like that unless portrayed by Bob Denver so that Jack Webb could call him a communist.
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Actually, I think it was supposed to be a spoof on this costume that the late Sonny Bono wore for public appearances from time to time. Industrial strength cheesiness - even then....

article-2100769-11BA0839000005DC-77_233x423.jpg
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Driftless said:
Actually, I think it was supposed to be a spoof on this costume that the late Sonny Bono wore for public appearances from time to time. Industrial strength cheesiness - even then....

article-2100769-11BA0839000005DC-77_233x423.jpg
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Republican Senator Bono. 'Nuff said.

(I searched "nuff said nixon futurama" for the video. DO NOT GOOGLE THAT AT WORK. I broke Google's adult content filter somehow, and I have no idea how. Only on AH.com can Lawrence Welk land me in pornography.)
 
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