Chris Bearde
The Bobby Vinton Show was a Canadian musical variety television series produced for the Canadian Television Network between 1975 and 1978, with a total of 52 episodes broadcast. Featuring Bobby Vinton, a best-selling popular music singer since the early 1960s, the series mixed comedy skits with musical interludes. Appearing on the series as a regular was comedian Billy Van. The series often satirized Vinton's Polish heritage, and its theme song was an "umpah band" rendition of his 1974 song "My Melody of Love". The series was created by Chris Bearde and packaged by Chuck Barris. The series was syndicated to local stations in the United States, although the program's entry in the user-edited Internet Movie Database suggests it may also have been broadcast by CBS during 1975. The series also spawned a 1975 soundtrack album on ABC Records; see The Bobby Vinton Show. Guests appearing on the show included: Ethel Merman, Ted Knight, Barbara Walters, Phyllis Diller, O.J. Simpson, The Spinners, Donna Summer, Petula Clark, Laine Kazan, Foster Brooks, Anne Murray, Jessica Walter, John Byner, Arte Johnson, Loretta Swit, Tanya Tucker, Clifton Davis, Adrienne Barbeau, Charlie Callas, Hank Garcia and Henny Youngman.
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is an American variety show starring American pop-singer Cher and her husband, Sonny Bono. The show ran on CBS in the United States, when it premiered in August 1971. The show was canceled May 1974, due to the couple's divorce, though the duo would reunite in 1976 for the identically-formatted The Sonny & Cher Show, which ran until 1977.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network. It was hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and featured, at various times, Chelsea Brown, Johnny Brown, Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Richard Dawson, Henry Gibson, Teresa Graves, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Larry Hovis, Jeremy Lloyd, Dave Madden, Pigmeat Markham, Gary Owens, Pamela Rodgers, Barbara Sharma, Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley. Laugh-In originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967 and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm. The title of the show was a play on the "love-ins" or "be-ins" of the 1960s hippie culture, terms that were, in turn, derived from "sit-ins", common in protests associated with civil rights and anti-war demonstrations of the time. In 2002, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was ranked #42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
