It featured dancing, singing and plenty of band music in all forms: big band, jive, jazz, country, polka, Latin, pop, gospel and, of course, champagne music.
#THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW TV#
He always looked to the bright side."Įncores of the weekly TV show, garnered from more than 1,000 episodes taped between 19, are now hosted by Welk Stars Mary Lou Metzger and Bobby Burgess and are broadcast on more than 270 public television stations.The Lawrence Welk Show was one of the longest running variety shows on television, running for 27 years and still airing today on PBS. He came up performing in small venues and worked hard," she said. Ralna English, longtime singer on the Welk show, recalls talking with Welk about their tough times and his upbeat attitude." He had a career long before he came on TV. I think that's why the show is still on the air and still so popular with the fans." He hired fabulous musicians and wonderful singers and dancers. "He had wonderful gut feelings for certain things and he knew what viewers wanted to hear and he made sure they played and sang that kind of music each week. "My father was very successful with his ideas and vision," his son Larry Welk said. "And once they make a pledge to public television, they fulfill it and they've been fiercely loyal to 'The Lawrence Welk Show' for a record 25 years." But on the other hand, they're more likely to donate money to support their interests, he said. They're not likely to change even their toothpaste. "Commercial stations weren't interested in the older demographic because that group is set in their purchasing preferences. Welk's mature audience, Allen said, was suited for non-commercial public television.
#THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW SERIES#
"Bob" Allen, then the executive director of the statewide PBS affiliate OETA-The Oklahoma Network, formed a partnership with Welk Syndication and began offering the weekly series to public television stations. In 1987, after PBS funded and aired a very successful fund-raising special, Lawrence Welk: Television's Music Man, Robert L. It stayed on the air in weekly national syndication until1982, often reappearing each December with new Christmas specials until 1985. When ABC dropped the series in 1971 after running successfully for 16 years, Welk persevered by forming his own production company and began syndicating it directly to commercial stations individually. In 1955, the ABC network picked it up for national broadcast. The Lawrence Welk Show was first broadcast in 1951 on KTLA in Los Angeles. Since 1987, more than 2.5 million fans of the longest-running, weekly-syndicated music/variety series have been tuning in each week to their PBS station to watch Lawrence Welk and their favorite "Musical Family" members sing and dance. The program includes Alice Lon singing "Love Me Or Leave Me", while Larry Hooper delights with his signature song "Oh Happy Day", Rocky Rockwell charms us with "I Love Girls", and since it wouldn't be a Welk show without a polka, "The Clarinet Polka" fits the bill perfectly. The Lawrence Welk Show "Say It With Music" airs Saturday, September 3 at 7 p.m. That evening you'll have have the opportunity to see the 1955 premiere episode of The Lawrence Welk Show. This trip down memory lane features the first ever national television broadacst of The Lawrence Welk Show.Ī major television milestone will be reached Saturday, September 3rd when The Lawrence Welk Show celebrates the beginning of 25 years of Champagne Music on public television.
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