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The ventriloquist, puppeteer, musician and actress and entertainer, who died of cancer Sunday at 65, lived almost every day of the last 45 years with Lamb Chop. |
THAT LAMB CHOP, she could drive you crazy. Sweet and fluffy like all such critters but with a subversive charm that would make Mary’s little lamb blush. The Lamb Chop stunt that’s driven me most nuts over the years is when she starts singing a song, in that mocking, nasal tone she adopts when she wants to really annoy you. And she doesn’t stop. The song is called “The Song That Doesn’t End.” And it doesn’t. It just goes on and on, my friend, the same few words, the same manic melody. After a few minutes you feel that there’s a Mister Softee truck playing its irritating siren song inside your head, you’re riding on a carousel that’s going faster and faster and will not stop, and you just want to scream. Imagine how Shari Lewis felt. The ventriloquist, puppeteer, musician and actress and entertainer, who died of uterine cancer Sunday in Los Angeles at 65 (going on 5 or 6), has lived almost every day of the last 45 or so years with Lamb Chop and siblings, the southern-accented Hush Puppy and inveterate kidder Charley Horse. NONSTOP KIDDING More than 40 years of pathetic puns! Ridiculous riddles! Nutty knock-knock jokes! Q: What’s dark brown, sweet and dangerous? A: Shark-infested chocolate pudding. Lewis’ superb comic timing was always at its sharpest with Lamb Chop. Their repartee was sometimes so natural that they seemed like longtime vaudeville partners, rather than simply a performer and what was originally a crude sock puppet. Check out their brisk give-and-take on “Lamb Chop’s Play Along!” (A&M Home Video, 1992), which was also the title of the PBS TV show that brought her back to American TV that year after a long hiatus. Shari and Lamb Chop each have a joke to tell. Shari goes first. “How do you get nuts from a squirrel?” “I don’t know,” says Lamb Chop. “How do you get nuts from a squirrel?” Shari: “You say, ‘stick ‘em up!’ ” Lamb Chop makes no reaction. The joke just isn’t funny to the puppet, though Shari is roaring with laughter. “You’re not supposed to laugh at your own jokes,” Lamb Chop says, in a tone of mild reprimand. Shari shrugs. “I thought it was hilarious. Your turn.” Lamb Chop asks: “What animal can jump higher than a tree?” “I don’t know,” Shari replies. “What animal can jump higher than a tree?” “Any animal,” Lamb Chop answers. “Trees can’t jump.” This time it’s Lamp Chop howling, while Lewis sits stone-faced. “I thought you weren’t supposed to laugh at your own jokes,” Shari says, feeling she’s one-upped Lamb Chop. “You set me a bad example,” Lamb Chop says, adorably batting her eyelashes. At this point, Lewis cracks up, as if she’s been caught off-guard by Lamb Chop’s witty retort. Clearly, she has crossed a line with this character, as if the ventriloquist has been feeding lines to the puppet for so long that even she doesn’t know what’s going to come next out of Lamb Chop’s furry little mouth. SURPRISE AND DELIGHT Shari Lewis always had that sense of surprise and delight. With a bright red pony tail, barely 21 years old, she made her first TV appearance with Lamb Chop on the “Captain Kangaroo Show” in 1957. (She was already a veteran of the young medium, having won an Arthur Godfrey Talent Show in 1952). After that single “Captain Kangaroo” guest spot, Lewis was given her own program. “The Shari Lewis Show” ran weekly on NBC until 1963, when the networks decided it was cheaper to feed kids cartoons on Saturday morning rather than live variety shows. Lewis responded to the cancellation of “The Shari Lewis Show” with the high-spirited resilience that characterized her productive creative life. She performed in Las Vegas, then on celebrity game shows in the ’60s. When that phase went out of fashion, the classically trained musician dusted off her baton and conducted symphony orchestras. She had a weekly Sunday night show on the BBC from 1968 to 1976. She appeared in Australia and Canada, did summer stock theater, and wrote more than 60 children’s books, among which the most notable may be “One-Minute Bedtime Stories” and “One-Minute Bible Stories.” In 1992, baby boomers with young children blinked twice when “Lamb Chop’s Play-Along” made its debut on PBS. One of our best TV friends and confidantes from our own childhood still looked like a kid, and Lamb Chop, Charley Horse and Hush Puppy seemed to have hardly aged at all. Lewis and the show won five consecutive Emmy awards. KEEPING IT SIMPLE “I think there’s a simplicity about Lamb Chop that is an important part of her appeal,” Lewis told the Associated Press in 1996. “But I don’t really know what it is that is the continuing element.” Maybe, of course, it is the jokes, which remain as groaningly funny to pre-and-post kindergartners now as they were when we were kids. “Knock-knock” “Who’s there?” “Alex.” “Alex who?” “Al-ex-plain later.” No need for Shari Lewis to explain her magic. She gave us the infinite joy of the song that doesn’t end. Wayne Robins -- columnist. |
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‘Shari is also survived by her beloved family of characters, Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy.’
— FAMILY NEWS RELEASE |
LEWIS, diagnosed with uterine cancer in June, was undergoing chemotherapy treatments when she developed pneumonia and died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spokeswoman Maggie Begley said. After the treatments started six weeks ago, the Emmy Award-winning ventriloquist cut short production in Vancouver on her latest PBS children’s series, “The Charlie Horse Music Pizza.” She billed the series as an educational “Cheers” for children with a focus on music. The show premiered Jan. 5. Lewis won 12 Emmys, including five for her last PBS series, “Lamb Chop’s Play-Along.” STARTED ON ‘CAPTAIN KANGAROO’ Lewis and Lamb Chop premiered on television’s “The Captain Kangaroo Show” in the mid 1950s, and that single appearance led to her own TV program, “The Shari Lewis Show,” which ran Saturday mornings on NBC. Millions of children in successive generations grew up with Lewis and her brand of playfulness and joy. She also wrote more than 60 children’s books. During a 1986 White House Christmas party hosted by Nancy Reagan, Lewis and her puppets entertained hundreds of youngsters from around the world. Lewis never spoke down to children, instead inviting them into her own creative and fun world. In addition to Emmys, she won a Peabody Award, the John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity, seven Parents’ Choice Awards and the Action for Children’s Television Award. In 1997, Shari Lewis Enterprises Inc. was sold to Golden Books Family Entertainment for an undisclosed price. Lewis, who lived in Beverly Hills, is survived by her husband of 40 years, publisher Jeremy Tarcher, as well as a daughter and a sister. “Shari is also survived by her beloved family of characters, Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy,” the family said in a news release. The funeral will be private and a public memorial service will be announced later, Begley said. |
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