I hate Lawrence Welk.

[Drunken Irishman]

[Shardik]

1. Since I was a child.

[Turbineguy]

2. That's

wunnerfull.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Lawrence Welk sucks ass.

When I was a kid and my Grandma came to visit, she would HAVE to watch the Lawrence Welk show, and in those days nobody had more than one teevee, so we were stuck with that gawdawful music tootling through the house. :puke:

[Arugula Latte]

19. Hah ... Me too.

Forced Welk viewings ... Wow, my kids have no idea how rough it used to be.

[Jamastiene]

26. That alone beats walking in the snow barefoot, uphill, BOTH WAYS stories.

Before waterboarding, there was Lawrence Welk.

[Auggie]

39. LOL

Before waterboarding...

:rofl:

[FloridaJudy]

20. Oh God, yes!

Bane of virtually every visit to my grandparents. That and Ed Sullivan: of course, if anything good - like Elvis or the Beatles - was on Sullivan, they tsked and changed the station.

"Golden Age" of television my fat fanny!

[Submariner]

24. Preceded or followed by the Bishop Fulton J. Sheen show

Having to watch Welk and Sheen with Nana was pure HELL!

[Frank Cannon]

38. I was another child subjected to forced Welk viewings

In my case, the town I lived in only had one TV station. Saturday nights, we watched "Hee Haw" and the Welk show--a two-hour entertainment extravaganza--or we didn't watch TV at all. When Grandma was over, we had no choice.

[Maccagirl]

4. He was from North Dakota

so explain that strange accent?

[Fenris]

9. Believe it or not, he didn't learn English until he was much older.

[TheMightyFavog]

28. IIRC, his parents didn't allow him to speak English at home.

He didn't start speaking English on a regular basis until he left the Farm at age 21, leading to some of his linguistic idiosyncrasies.

However, many people from Milwaukee and Wisconsin didn't notice many of those idiosyncrasies (i.e. "Come here once and play us a song.")

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. The Zombie show.

My grandma watched it too. I still cannot stand it.

We would try to get American Bandstand on her TV on Saturday morning, and she would walk thru the room and say, "Y'all shouldn't be watchin' that nigra music". :banghead:

We all laughed our butts off behind her back.

[Systematic Chaos]

6. I had to go see him live, in concert fer chrissakes!

I was TEN YEARS OLD! I kid you not. And the details behind why I had to do this are even more pathetic. :(

Edited to add my age at the time.

[mykpart]

7. Yeah, but isn't he dead now?

And we're not! AHA!

[madrchsod]

8. the lennon sisters were hot....yes i had to watch larry with my gramma

[Tabasco_Dave]

27. Lawrence had some fun with the Lennon sisters.

My mom was a jazz singer in the 60's. She was friends with a few musicians who worked on his show and they told her a few stories about lawrence and his casting couch.

[flvegan]

10. And a one, and a two...

[supernova]

11. Grandma's favorite TV boyfriend

:D

Ahh to be a young kid watching TV at Grandma's House on Saturday night again. :-)

[Dangerously Amused]

44. 'Zackly.

:hi:

[elshiva]

12. Yucky.

:puke:

[Wapsie B]

13. Don't you have to like take a hit of acid first to get the full effect?

:smoke:

[Radical Activist]

14. just awful

he's the reason i never liked big band jazz until i heard the real stuff that didn't suck ass.

[AlCzervik]

15. elevator music.

not big band at all.

[Archae]

16. You haven't lived until you heard their version of...

"One Toke Over The Line." :rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

[Iggo]

42. I just sent that video...

....to everyone I know over 45 yrs old.

:rofl:

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. the pastel dress wearing champagne ladies, the one non-white performer, the big hair,

When I happen upon an episode I stare in amazement.

[Whoa_Nelly]

18. Sing Along With Mitch was better

you could follow the bouncing ball and sing...that was kinda entertaining...

Karaoke TV!



No bouncing ball in this one, but the kids in it are adorable and hilarious! :rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=815xsBtDJBs&feature=related

[Iggo]

40. Sing Along With Mitch is the shit.

In an earlier thread about all-purpose christmas song singers, I put forth Steve's dad without hesitation.

[AwakeAtLast]

41. My all-time favorite Sing Along With Mitch song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_vCV2_gf0&feature=related

My sister and I sang that thousands of time at Christmas. Mom and Dad had the whole Christmas album. It was great!

[BrotherBuzz]

21. Lawrence Welk's show would have jumped the shark in the fifties without...

Myron Floren and Jo Anne Castle


Jo Anne played a mean accordion, but was best known for her honky tonk piano playing.

[begin_within]

34. Thank you thank you thank you.

For me Jo Anne Castle always makes the Welk show worth sitting through every time.

[Frank Cannon]

37. Another Castle fan here

She was simply an amazing player, and I always loved how she looked at the camera while playing and smiled and winked and shook her head like, "I just can't help that I'm so good!"

[begin_within]

43. She's still around... she shows up on those Welk reunion shows. I think she should have her own show

[Dangerously Amused]

47. You cannot watch Jo Ann castle without grinning at her silliness!

I love the way she flirts with the camera, and just watch her little happy feet get to dancing when the tempo picks up, lol!


Shiek of Araby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUMA_aKmak

Happy Days are Here Again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfpVCpZBHbw&feature=related

A Tisket A Tasket (with Jo Ann dressed up as a giant yellow bunny):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e34FXyQ3b8&feature=PlayList&p=CED54BF6DE12C613&playnext=1&index=8


I wish everyone could have that much fun at their job.

[njdemocrat106]

22. Now, what has that wunnerful man ever done to you to elicit such hostility?

But seriously, I'll sometimes watch Welk if I'm around and he's on. The show's an unintentional trip to Bizzaro-Land.

[texanwitch]

23. I don't hate the show just never cared for it.

My Grandparents watched the show and they enjoyed it.

I can remember being a kid with my Grandparents and Aunt on the farm.

My Grandparents and Aunt have died a long time.

I wish I could have one night back on the farm with them listening to Lawrence Welk.

The singers on the show were really bad and just trashed the songs they sang.

The show wasn't made our generation, I thought and still think it was awful.

My Grandparents used to get up and dance with the songs on the show, I will never forget that.

I am glad my Grandparents had a show that they liked that much.

[Jamastiene]

25. I loooved going to my grandmother's house on weekends as a kid, but

I always made sure I let it be known that I wanted out of there before 7:00 pm when Lawrence Welk came on, because she was hard of hearing and she wasn't going to miss Lawrence Welk, OR HEE HAW, NO MATTER WHAT. Neither was the REST of the neighborhood. :yoiks:

[panhead1961]

29. You had to sit through to watch Disney

Hers's Bobby and Susie with another creppy dance routine

[TheMightyFavog]

30. I will admit this..

I have a pair of Lawrence Welk Musical Spoons, in the box that I bought at an antique store back in High School for reasons I can't remember anymore. Hell, Alcohol might have been involved at the time. I still have them, even thopugh they are probably worth bugger all, I might take them to the Roadshow if they ever come up to my neck of the woods just for shits and giggles.

My impression is that this artifact was probably the kind of thing that Grandparents bought their grandkids for Christmas/Haunkah/Birthdays that elicited responses of "Gee... thank you Grandma..."

[Vinca]

46. Your spoons are worth about as much as my Myron Floren signed book.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lawrence-Welk-Vintage-Percussion-Instrument-Spoons-NIB_W0QQitemZ380090721881QQihZ025QQcategoryZ119014QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

31. Quite. The old upper class senior citizen equivalent to "A.B." was a walking cemetary...

Ditto for "Soul Train", "Solid Gold", and all the other music shows from days gone by.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. When Grandma was visiting, and she was getting ready to watch LW,

my brother and I would corner Mom in the kitchen and whine, "Mooommm! Do we hafta watch Lawrence Welk again? Grandma always watches that dumb show and it's so booooring and how come we can't watch a good TV show?" And we would always be told to mind our manners and not complain about Lawrence Welk because your Grandma likes that show and she gets to watch her show because she is your grandmother. And we'd shuffle off, whining...

Grandma lived to be 98. I think she outlived the Lawrence Welk Show.

[begin_within]

33. except Jo Anne Castle is the bomb!

WHAT a piano player she is and what a fun personality too. Hire her for a party and people will talk about that party forever.

[MineralMan]

35. Heck, I'm still watching it...

Every Saturday at 6pm Central, on the local PBS station. My wife and I usually go over and I make dinner for her mom, and there it is on the TV. My MIL doesn't quite understand why I'm chuckling so much during the show, but it's because I've seen almost every one back in the days when I was a kid and it was on in my parent's house.

The one token black guy, tap-dancing away. That one always makes me shudder a little. The Lennon Sisters...I had a huge crush on Peggy when I was about 14. Bobby and Sissy....ugh. Whatever that awful Irish tenor who always sang some melancholy song about his mother...my goodness.

Then, the shows from the late 60s and early 70s, with the sherbet-colored suits on the guys in the band. Uff da!

Anyhow, I don't mind so much. My MIL likes the show, and I'm not harmed by it. I just chuckle over my dinner.

[Frank Cannon]

36. Hey, Welk's "Calcutta" was a great song, period

No matter what genre of music you're into or how "cool" you are, I challenge you to listen to this and not smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZ1cP1bxx0

[Lars39]

48. hehe...one of the comments:

"This is the kind of entertainment that our Lord and Saviour approves of." :)

[yonisareyin]

45. Why? What'd he ever do to you?

:(