The Andy Williams Show

Dear Viewers,

I remember the Andy Williams Show as I sat with my Ma and Dad in the late 60's also; I was in high school.

They had a lot of variety, such as comedy and musically. I don't know how I would be home on a Saturday night, but I was at times, because I remember the show. It was a part of my life and growing up and that is why I remember it and want to remember it.

I miss it as I do the other things at that time. The show was innocent and entertaining. Thank you.

T.D.

"The Andy Williams Show" was the best of the comedy - music - variety shows that were so popular in the 1950s and 1960s. And it was almost the last -- I think the Carol Burnett Show, another excellent program, went a few seasons longer. This type of show was very entertaining, hosted by a singer or comedian, and some of the more popular ones I remember were Perry Como, George Gobel, Garry Moore, Red Skelton, and Dean Martin. It's a shame that genre is gone now.

I liked the Andy Williams Show because it kept the traditional format yet was hip, using with some of the comedy techniques from "Laugh In." Andy Williams always sang a few numbers and acted in comedy skits. One running gag featured a bear who would always try to mooch a cookie form the easy-going Andy, who would always get mad and send the bear packing. Ray Stevens sang either one of crazy comedy songs like "The Streak" or one of his nice songs like "Everything is Beautiful." Charlie Callas, another regular, did his crazy "Captain Weird" routine. Andy always had good guest stars, a few whom I remember are Little Richard, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Bee Gees.

I remember one show right after congress enacted the Cable Television Act which mandated public access stations. The Nelson family were the guests and they put on a great skit about what local access programming might be like in a small town. It was a riot, with no script and performers who kept forgetting their lines and camera operators who kept moving the camera. Far from Hollywood quality - not exactly Ozzie and Harriet. Years later I became active in local access TV in a small town and I hope we did a better job than that. Congress later removed the access requirement.

I kept rooting for the bear, but he never got a cookie!!

When I was a very small boy, there were a few things on television that could always get me to laugh myself sick. The first was on syndicated reruns of the old George Reeves "Superman" series in which our Red-Caped Hero would burst through a wall with his chest thrust so far out that his nipples were practically akimbo. That bent my very young mind so far that I couldn't stop laughing over it. The second funny thing was on the old "Hee-Haw" show, in which animated pigs would scroll across the bottom of a hoedown scene dancing the Can-Can - this was never done at any particular time, and might not even appear on any particular show, but it was always worth the waiting and watching.

The third was on the Andy Williams comedy-variety show which aired in the late '60's early on Saturday evening, if I remember correctly. At some point every show this goofy black bear would saunter coolly on-stage, knock on a door (which would be answered by the affable Andy himself), and try to mooch a few cookies. The normally mild-mannered host would blow a gasket at this point, and scream at the bear that he was "never, never, NEVER getting any cookies" from him! "NEVER!!!!"

At which point our hapless ursine protagonist would fall back on his ample behind in utter defeat.

And of course, the next week, Cookie would go a-mooching all over again, with predictable results.

I was very young in 1969, so that's about all I remember about the show, except for the anticipation I felt before the bear would appear: "C'mon, don't waste my time like this! I don't want to hear any stupid singing - where's the bear?"

Andy Williams, of course, was and is a great singer with a tremendous ability to bring across just about any kind of song. He also did and does project a tremendously likable persona which has, no doubt, contributed greatly to his success in show business. Sadly though, to me he'll always be a straight man to a cookie mooching bear.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing though....