Sonny and Cher on TV: A Look Back at the Singing Duo's Historic Variety Show and Its Sequels

Photo byGet TV

When it comes to vintage comedy-variety shows headlined by pop-music stars, before Tony Orlando and Dawn, Donny and Marie, and the Captain and Tennille, there was Sonny and Cher.

A Closer Look

Breezy, brazen, and groundbreaking, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour started it all. Premiering on August 1, 1971, as a six-week summer replacement series on CBS, the show starred the married musical duo who rose to fame in the late '60s on the popularity of such hit songs as "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On."

Cher (née Cherilyn Sarkisian) was sylphlike and sardonic; Sonny (Salvatore Bono) was short and silly. She cracked wise; he was the butt of her jokes. She could belt out a tune; he had difficulty carrying one. But it didn't matter. When they got together, it was television magic.

Created and produced by innovative Brit Chris Bearde and Canadian Allan Blye, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour stayed on the air until March 6, 1974, when Sonny and Cher decided to divorce.

When they went their separate ways, it wasn't long before they were back with separate shows: The Sonny Comedy Revue (produced by Beard and Blye in the fall of 1974 on ABC) and Cher (produced by Laugh-In's George Schlatter from May 1975 to January 1976 on CBS).

Each of the new series, like the original, featured A-List guest stars (Glen Campbell, Twiggy, the Staple Singers on his show; Farrah Fawcett, Bette Midler, Elton John on hers). But the audience missed seeing Sonny and Cher together, and neither show lasted.

In the fall of 1976, the now-divorced duo tried to rekindle the creative spark of the original with the new Sonny and Cher Show on CBS. But like their solo ventures, it was short-lived.

The dynamic duo reunited, but the dynamic wasn't the same. They were back on their original network but without Bearde and Blye behind the scenes. The revival was a noble try, slickly produced by Phil Hahn, Frank Peppiatt, and John Aylesworth.

But the spark had fizzled. It was charming to watch a married couple playfully bicker in the original. A divorced couple...not so much.

By the spring of 1977, the Sonny and Cher television saga was over — this time, for good.

But the first time around still resonates half a century later. In 1979, they appeared on The Mike Douglas Show, singing a medley of the songs, "United We Stand" and "Without You." In 1987, they performed their signature single, "I Got You Babe" on Late Night With David Letterman.

Sonny would make periodic TV guest appearances and then venture into the restaurant business and politics. In 1988, he became the mayor of Palm Springs, California, and six years later, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1998, while serving in Congress, Sonny was killed in a skiing accident in South Lake Tahoe, California. He was 62.

Fittingly, the epitaph on his headstone reads: "The Beat Goes On."