Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop by Nat Segaloff

Author:Nat Segaloff
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813196282
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

11

Video Days

Reinvention is both a motivation and a collaborative process. For a performer, it takes the cooperation of the media to demonstrate that, as the saying goes, “Everything old is new again.” The average performing artist’s popularity rarely spans more than one generation: the audience outgrows the artist, who fails to attract a new one. For every performer whose longevity makes him or her a legend (Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee), there are many more flashes in the pan. It’s hard to make a comeback if you never were, so you might as well go into real estate (as many former celebrities do).

Even though Shari chafed at being thought of solely as a children’s entertainer, she couldn’t escape it. Thus, she had to face the reality that her primary audience was guaranteed to grow up. And yet she also had an advantage: her puppets were ageless, and together they had “raised” successive generations of kids who, by the 1980s, had ascended to positions of power in the television industry and were eager to put their own children into her hands, just as their parents had done with them. She exuded the same sense of assurance and security that made Fred Rogers and Sesame Street intergenerational favorites. All those former fans were now the grown-ups responsible for financing and booking programs, and Shari benefited from their affection.

“Friends and fans wonder what Shari and Lamb Chop will try next,” enthused Mary A. Fischer in a May 23, 1983, People magazine profile extolling Shari’s popularity “long before the Muppets and Sesame Street.” Fischer lists Shari’s talents as “magician, dramatic actress, juggler, ventriloquist, chorus girl, and Girl Scout troop leader,” as well as professional pianist, violinist, singer, recording artist, and the author of twenty-two children’s books on subjects ranging from origami to fairy tales. “After all,” she quotes Shari as saying, “I am an entertainer.” Observes Mallory, “If Mom was still around she would be a social media influencer with millions of followers. She was the best at changing with the times.” The publicity-rich article raised a key issue that Shari had been struggling with her entire career. Although others thought of her primarily as a ventriloquist and a children’s entertainer, she didn’t. Shari could do practically anything, and she did. But the ventriloquism was so impressive that it blinded people to her other talents.

Saul Turteltaub, her old friend from summer camp who later became one of her chief writers, also wrestled with the quintessence of “Shari.” “She is a comedienne,” he says. “She not only can deliver comedy well, she enjoys comedy. I mean, she’ll read a script and if there’s a good joke in there she’ll laugh and laugh and laugh before she gets to the next line, and she’ll want to do a joke. So it’s got to be funny. And then she looks for the characters of the puppets. Lamb Chop has to be sweet and innocent. The comedy often is somebody just stepping out of character for a second, but the character should be there because she has to keep those characters different.

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