As a kid, I loved ventriloquists and puppeteers so naturally, I loved Shari Lewis and her friends Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse and a few others. From 1960 (when I was eight) until 1963 (when I was eleven), I never missed The Shari Lewis Show, which was on NBC every Saturday morning. It was one of those kids' shows that was so clever and so expertly done that it attracted a significant number of adult viewers and one Peabody Award. At the time, I thought a Peabody Award was something you got for going back in time and correcting a problem in history.
You cannot, alas, see much of The Shari Lewis Show these days. It's one of those shows that was not well-preserved. Not long before Ms. Lewis left us in 1998, I had the pleasure of working with her on a TV pilot which, alas again, never reached fruition. When I asked her about the 1960-1963 series, she said with great regret and a bit of anger that all the copies of it were lost or destroyed. I believe a few have since been located and restored …but only a few and I think they're in the U.C.L.A. Film Archives and maybe nowhere else.
What we have for you here is a commercial for the series. The video and audio aren't good but the writing is great and the vocal dexterity of Shari is amazing. You may have to remind yourself that all three voices are coming from the same larynx and I'll bet she didn't take more than one or two takes to get this right…