Yesterday I put together a blog post I called "Digital Zoloft." I filled it with videos that just made me happy; all different sorts of clips and music, but everything had in common the fact that they were just feel-good videos. I was going to add the video in this post to it, but as I wrote the introduction to it, I decided that it deserved a post all of its own. It was longer than any of the other videos, and in a way, this video meant a lot more to me than all the others.
This is a video from Mallory Lewis, the daughter of one of my childhood heroes, Shari Lewis. I loved watching Lamb Chop's Play-Along every day on PBS, it was one of my favorite shows when I was little, and one I still think of from time to time. There were plenty of other shows I watched around that time, some I have very vague memories of, but Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop were two people who have just stuck with me all these years. I realize that I just referred to a sock as a person, but she practically is! The way Shari performed Lamb Chop was so good, you'd never know she wasn't alive!
Shari died in 1998, and I still remember cutting out and saving her obituary. I was 12. I'd never done something like that before, and I haven't since. Now I couldn't tell you where that newspaper clip is today, but I just wanted you to get an idea of how much she meant to me as a kid.
A few years ago I came across a YouTube channel from Shari's daughter, Mallory Lewis. I hadn't realized that she had even taken up the character, but as I learned from watching the videos, she still makes public appearances with Lamb Chop on a semi-regular basis! A couple weeks ago an interview with Mallory and Lamb Chop was uploaded to the channel and it was so good that I just had to share it.
As I wrote this post I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of old Shari Lewis videos. I hadn't realized how incredibly 90's the show was! I mean, I know it was a 90's show, but everything about the show now just shouts that it's from the 90's. And I don't mean that as a bad thing. That's when I grew up, so at this point it's just drenched with nostalgia for me.
I'm not going to share all the videos I found, but I am going to share the theme song. I had all but forgotten it, but when I watched it the memories just came flooding back, and I could pretty much sing the entire thing along with them. You can see, even in the theme song how very 90's the show was.
It's only fitting to end this post they way Shari ended every episode. With a song. But not just any song. :) Far more iconic than the theme song, the song from this show that everyone remembers, (and many can't stand) was the song that played over the end credits. The Song That Never Ends. Shari's reaction to everything here is what makes the whole thing work. She was just brilliant.
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