Season: 4 (The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour)
Episode: 65
Guest(s): Joe Namath, The Righteous Brothers
CBS air date: Date: February 20, 1974
Also aired: TV Land, GetTV
Cher files for divorce the day this episode airs.
Subway Intro: Ted Zeigler brings a telegram to The Righteous Brothers from The Lennon Sisters. They hum the contents. Joe Namath is avoiding women who are chasing him everywhere. He tries out the Groucho-glasses and makes a tall Sonny Bono joke. Everyone cringes.
Opening Song: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (Video)
Cover of the Shirelles (1960)
The answer is no. If you disregard the last greatest-hits episode (#67), this is the penultimate episode and we’re winding down fast. Sonny wears a brown suit. Cher wears a brown and gold halter top with copper pants with big gold earrings. They really belt this one out and still look like they’re having fun.
Breakout 1: Joe Namath plays Shakespeare (with a lisping joke for all the ladyeths and nameths…get it?) in a park speaking love sonnets to a very tall woman. There’s a Stratford City Limits sign and a basketball joke. The woman playing the lady is not Cher.
Breakout 2: Cher is a redheaded movie star in a white fur. Joe Namath plays a mystery voice and he tells her they’ve run out of gas. Cher doesn’t believe it; “Other guys might run outa gas but not you.” Turns out Namath is Abdul. Arabs won’t run out of gas. Get it?
Banter: Sonny seems out of it, calls Cher “palie” and “you with the hair” and announces his new act, The Bono Family Singers singing Italian folk songs. He talks about family feeling and how they all look like him. Cher says “in that case the women should shave.” There’s a a few fat mother jokes.
Guest Spot: The Rigteous Brothers reunite to sing “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” “My Babe” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” (Video)
Sonny & Cher introduce them to note they once sang backup for The Righteous Brothers and how they are reuniting for the first time after their breakup.
Skit: “Police Report” spoof on cops shows. There’s a police brutality joke. My notes are bad for this.
– A good cop/bad cop sketch.
– Cher as a cop with curly hair.
– Joe Namath as Sherlock Holmes and Cher as a bejeweled heiress. Sonny as a gentleman. Their clothes have been robbed. Joe can’t stop laughing. I’ve starred this sketch.
Fortune Teller: (Video)
Sonny and Joe Namath play themselves talking about how the Fortune Teller will gyp them (I just realized that word is a gypsy slur) because they are famous. The slot is on the left. Cher predicts Joe Namath will have a good football year. There’s an elevator shoes joke. This is the last Fortune Teller skit ever. Sad face.
Solo: “Didn’t We” (Video)
Cover of Richard Harris (1968)
This Jimmy Webb-penned song was allegedly the last solo spot tapped for the show and Cher apparently chose the song as a farewell to Sonny. Family was there to witness the taping and I believe it was Cher’s mother who said there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. This is Cher’s version of Dolly’s “I Will Always Love You” to Porter Waggoner. Interestingly, Sonny’s farewell opus to Cher was much less generous. Cher wears a gold dress, a fur and a head wrap. This solo spot always gets me verklempt when Cher sings about them almost making “that long hard climb.” And when she sings “You told me we almost made it…this time” we are reminded of Cher telling Sonny in Good Times, “You said we wouldn’t have to do it!” during the big fight scene (that water heater really upstages them). Cher depended on Sonny a lot during their time together. And this line is a bittersweet farewell to that. Super-starred this. It’s one of the best moments of the entire show.
At the Launderette: (Video)
I’ve starred this one too. Olivia is washing men’s underwear. Joe Namath is there and Laverne flirts with him very badly. There’s a bad knee joke. They never actually do laundry in this skit; just lots of clothes folding. When Namath leaves, Laverne jokes, “He’ll get over me.”
Lady Luck:
– Cher is an old lady in a lineup. She calls Sonny short and homely. Sonny is a police captain.
– Sonny is slurping soup at a diner and Cher is a waitress and she tells Sonny, “Don’t call me baby!” Sonny laughs, calls her doll face and slaps her butt. There’s a candid camera joke.
– Hillbilly House. Joe Namath plays an old hillbilly. Cher plays a grifter in pigtails and a cute, green polka-dot dress.
Mr. and Mrs.: Cher is working in an office and has a new hot secretary, Mr. Jones played by Joe Namath. He calls her Mrs. Farnsworth. He insists he’s not dumb. He comes from Kelly Boys temp service and complains about women bosses who want him to sit on their lap. Sonny comes by in a flowery shirt and asks for cash. He’s checking up on what happened to the former secretary, Mr. Prim. Namath calls Cher rooster-pecked. Sonny starts laughing. Cher debates whether she should take Sonny to McDonalds or a nice French restaurant.
Concert: “Brother Louie” (Video)
Cover of Hot Chocolate (1973)
Sonny wears a short, purple Bolero jacket. Cher wears a silver halter with a head wrap that has a butterfly on it. This is pretty bad.
IGUB: Chastity is in brown. Cher misses her part.
Announcer says also appearing: Sandy Rivera. TV Land is missing the guest spot of The Righteous Brothers. Get TV is missing the Police Report skit.
Highlights: It’s divorce-filing day. Cher singing “Didn’t We.”
