Saturday Nights back in the day

Today, television on Saturday nights is a vast wasteland, populated mostly by COPS and repeats of network shows aired earlier in the week.

But back in 1964, on the ABC network, Saturday nights means music with Lawrence Welk and The Hollywood Palace as this gem from You Tube demonstrates!

Saturday Nights back in the day

Let's go dance again.....

The changing of seasons can only mean one thing....

Dancing With The Stars is back on TV! Season starts tonight at eight Toledo time.

Time to get out my dancing shoes, even though I have two left feet.

Let's go dance again.....

The ABC curtain call

This week, it's the last show on the ABC network from 1971 and just before Lawrence and his music makers make the switch to syndication, here are some highlights for the Alphabet Newtork viewers!

The reeds section playing "Say It With Music", under the iconic Geritol sign...

Cissy King and Bobby Burgess dancing to "Moon River".....

Two fellows who were on the Welk show from the start in 1955, the Maestro and Buddy Merrill....

Tanya Falan singing "That's Amore"....

That's all this week, and I like to dedicate this post to the memory of Paul Newman....I must have enjoyed his Newman's Own popcorn several times while watching Lawrence Welk.

The ABC curtain call

Say It With Music....on the last ABC show

This week, a classic repeat we know as "Say It With Music" which really at the time, the last regular Welk show aired on ABC before the move to syndication.

From 1971, here's Myron Floren getting things started with "Say It With Music" with a young Richard Maloof at bass.

Here's Sally Flynn and Sandi Griffiths with "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" which was their song when they first auditioned for the Maestro.

Remember the Power Of Three? Here's another power trio, Clay Hart with Buddy Merrill and Neil Levang, known informally as "The Three Musketeers" with "Gentle On My Mind."

Now here's Ralna English & Guy Hovis singing "True Love."

And here's Tanya Falan singing "That's Amore" at an Italian restaurant...

That's cool......dinner and a show, you can't beat that!

Until next week, same Welk time.....same Welk channel.....depends on where you live as long as you say it with music!

Say It With Music....on the last ABC show

Season Premiere: The ABC Finale

It's time for the 2006-07 season on PBS to begin! This week we kick things off with a grand finale....Lawrence's last show on ABC.

Here's the maestro getting the show started, and reminding everyone that next week you can watch the show on syndication....which would turn out to be a nice little run of eleven years. The band kicks things off with "Say It With Music" which ironically, was the first musical selection played on the very first network show back in 1955.

Sandi & Sally once again proved they were America's Sweethearts when they next came out with their number, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" which had a great beat to it. There was also the "Three Musketeers" of Clay Hart, Buddy Merrill and Neil Levang with their guitars with "Gentle On My Mind" in which Clay sung the vocals. I also forgot there's Richard Maloof on bass, also known as the "fourth" musketeer.

This show was also fun for one other reason, we get to hear Buddy Merrill sing, here he sings "It May Be Silly", who would have thunk that Buddy was also a good singer in addition to being a fine guitarist?

There were plenty of fine numbers in the show, such as "Calcutta", "True Love" by Guy & Ralna and "It's A Most Unusual Day" sung by Gail Farrell and her friends below. It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite numbers on the show, musically and visually.

Tanya was next with "That's Amore" along with Dick Dale singing "Manny Sue" with a little help from Barney Liddell at trombone. And for a great way to conclude the last ever program on PBS, have Bob Lido, Mary Lou Metzger and the Hotsy Totsy Boys go crazy with "Runnin' Wild", and I can betcha that the network drove itself crazy when the lost a good share of their ratings to syndication!

Time now for Mary Lou's interview segment, and it was Dick Dale in the hot seat. He talked about his start in showbiz, growing up in Algona, Iowa....and the interesting people he met during his years of performing. Would you believe that Dick came to the Music Makers from Harold Loeffelmacher and his Six Fat Dutchmen?

That's this week's show in a nutshell....next week it's another instant classic, Salute To Roses, see you all on the flip side!

Season Premiere: The ABC Finale