The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show

I remember laying on the floor in the rec room, watching this show with my parents when I was 10 years old. We had just got a new 'color' TV and I fondly remember watching this show during summer vacation.

Rarely can I remember being this happy, all of my family was in stitches watching this show.

Around the same time I can remember watching 'Night Gallery', 'Kolchack, the night stalker', and a show with Gary Collins, 'The sixth Sense ??' .

TV was so less nasty then .....

-Randy

Back in the old days before cable TV, the big three networks would give some of their regular season series shows the summer off. This was a good chance for shows to be presented to the public that might be picked up for the fall, when the new shows would start. Some might get the pick-up, and some wouldn't. Monty Hall had a summer show, as did the mime couple of Sheilds and Yarnell. Mr. Hall's was not picked up, theirs was, but died in the regular 1977-1978 season.

The Ken Berry WOW Show was a summer replacement variety show that featured the usual 1970's brand of variety show staples. Ken's relaxed and good natured delivery made the show easy on the eyes and little music, a little dancing, and comedy skits were tossed in as well. AND Terri Garr, too, no less! Being only eleven, I guess I didn't notice her good looks at the time, and I'd forgotten that she was even a cast member. Maybe if I'd been older.....

Ken even made a joking plea to the audience to save the show, by sending in money to the network to save it, but it passed into warm memory at the end of the summer of 1972.

You might remember Ken Berry, the actor who portrayed the bumbling Captain Parmenter on the mid '60s F-Troop, then Sam Jones on Mayberry RFD, and, in the '80s, alongside Vicky Lawrence on the long-running Mama's Place. What you might not recall about Berry is that he also had a short-lived variety show (remember those?) on ABC. No penalty, though, if you don't recall "The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show." You're probably not alone, especially if you took an extended vacation or were otherwise busy on Saturday nights during the summer of 1972. The show, a summer replacement series (another prehistoric TV term), ran for six weeks before disappearing forever. Or sort of. Let us digress for a moment.

The versatile Berry was a visible presence on network TV in those days, and the 1-hour "Wow" was his chance, albeit brief, to combine his established (from F-Troop days) physical comedy style with his considerable skills as an old-fashioned song-and-dance performer. The result was a Carol Burnett-type show featuring an ensemble cast that would perform numerous laugh-laden skits (though generally more risque' than Burnett's versions), as well as giving Berry a chance to do his song-and-dance thing.

But "Wow's" contribution to the TV landscape went far beyond the six weeks it ran that summer. Rather, it lies in that ensemble cast, and their introduction to a national audience. Steve Martin, Terri Garr, and a young Cheryl Stopplemoor (later Ladd)...not bad for identifying up-and-coming talent. Hard to remember any show, especially one with a 6-week lifespan, helping launch so many memorable careers.

As for "Wow" itself...if only it had Burnett's writers. Though Martin and Garr gave hints of their upcoming stardom, and Berry was a competent host, the skits still tended to be a bit corny, often resorting to Benny Hill-like schtick by parading the more-attractive female members in skimpy bikinis (including Ladd, Laura Lacey and the spectacularly-endowed Barbara Joyce). Or was "Wow" simply ahead of its time? What can't be denied, however, is that as a spawning ground for the likes of Martin, Garr, and Ladd, "Wow" made a lasting, if inadvertent, impact--even if it took us several years to realize so.

I remember being crazy about this show for one week and one hour. After the series was over, I figured that the powers that be had a choice of either having a bleh six episodes or having one terrific episode and showing it, with a little new material, six times. Looking at the small excerpt on You Tube, makes me doubt my judgment about how great the first episode was but, it seems likely that the best material was in the unexerpted two thirds or so of the show. Given the number of star cameos and the good production values, I think the network must have had big hopes for this. The five stars is an average of the whole series. I wish I could see the whole first episode again.