The Sonny Comedy Revue

The Sonny Comedy Revue
Genre Variety show
Starring Sonny Bono
Teri Garr
Murray "The Unknown Comic" Langston
Billy Van
Peter Cullen
Freeman King
Ted Ziegler
The Lex De Azevedo Orchestra
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13
Production
Running time 1 hour
Release
Original network ABC
Original release September 22, 1974 (1974-09-22) – December 29, 1974 (1974-12-29)

The Sonny Comedy Revue, starring Sonny Bono, was a variety show that aired on ABC in the early 1970s for one season. It was his first solo effort after the end of his marriage to Cher and the resulting cancellation of their variety show The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

Production

Immediately after The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour ended, CBS signed Cher to host her own solo variety show, set to begin airing at 7:30 p.m. Sunday nights in February 1975. Not long after, ABC signed Bono to host his own show that would be part of their fall 1974 lineup airing at 8 p.m. Sunday nights. This would have put the shows in direct competition. However, his show was cancelled six weeks before that could happen.[1]

Initially, The Sonny Comedy Revue was expected to be the more successful of the two, as his show had many of the writers, producers and cast from the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Some of the popular skits were even carried over, including "Sonny’s Pizza Parlor" and "The Convict," (with Teri Garr replacing Cher as the wayward wife). New skits such as "The Newsstand," which centered on jokes on current events and "French Foreign Legion" were added. In addition, there were many segments where female guest stars would make fun of Sonny, just as Cher did on their previous show.[1]

Reception

After premiering on September 22, 1974, the show struggled to find an audience. Critics have said the show was "uneven," and that Cher’s presence was sorely missed.[1] It could not compete with more established TV shows like Kojak and The Wonderful World of Disney on competing networks and was cancelled after 13 episodes.[2] It is unclear when the last episode officially aired: many sources say it was December 29, 1974, while one source lists the date as November 24, 1974.[3] After its demise, the show was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for the 1974-1975 season.[4]

During the run of Cher’s show, she and Sonny got a chance to go "head to head" in the ratings when he guest starred on The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, the program that replaced his in the 8 p.m. Sunday time slot. The Six Million Dollar Man won in the ratings.[1]

Cast

Guest Stars

The show features several guest stars each week:[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ingram, Barry. "The Many Mutations of the Sonny and Cher Shows". tvparty.com. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "Prime Time Schedule for 1974-1975 in the Seventies". inthe70s.com. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Sonny Comedy Revue". The Classic TV Archive Homepage. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  4. ↑ "Television Academy Shows Nominations". m.emmys.com. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Class TV Archive-US Music Variety". ctva.biz. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
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