MovieChat Forums > The Dodge Dancing Party (1955) Discussion > Insipidness at its best

Insipidness at its best

posted 11 years ago by nycruise-1
7 replies | jump to latest

This show was everything that was wrong with America in the 60s and 70s.

Welk's "champagne" brand may have sounded great during the Big Band Era, but it fell flat in the Age of Television.

Some of the songs the performers sang were religious and country-western, which is about as far away from the Big Band sound as you can get. Yet they were mixed right in there as if it was all one style. Seriously, how does "Frosty the Snowman" on an electric guitar even remotely figure into the realm of "champagne" music?

Furthermore, every song's arrangement absolutely zapped all the energy out of it. Whether Broadway hits or folk songs, Welk's orchestral and vocal arrangements made the songs bland, bland and more bland.

And that BLAND SET didn't help! Ricky Ricardo's "Tropicana" looked lush and vivacious in comparison.

My grandparents used to watch this show every Saturday night without exception. One time, at my own house, I put the show on when my dad was in the room. All it took was a single pounding by Joanne Castle on the piano keys to make my dad react with "That's stupid!"

I never watched the show at our house again.

And I do honestly think that the Aldridge Sisters hated the Otwell Twins: there was never NEVER any chemistry between those girls and those guys.

Tom Netherton was HOT though, which is why I tolerated all the asinine production numbers.

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hifijohn 9 years ago

they performer the andrew sister boogie woogie bugle boy song once(one of my favorite songs of the WW2 era)and it was so watered down I did even recognize it until they started singing it.

[–] communionsong 8 years ago

It wasn't insipid to the audience the show was/is geared towards. So you're making fun of quite a few people who liked the show.

[–] Gubbio 8 years ago

It wasn't insipid to the audience the show was/is geared towards. So you're making fun of quite a few people who liked the show.

I liked the show when I was a teenager, because I liked music and played the piano.

But, over the years, as they got away from the "big band" and hired all these mediocre, young singers and dancers, the show became cringe-worthy.

The band was top notch. The rest of them, not so much.....

[–] DrakeStraw 8 years ago

The band was top notch. The rest of them, not so much.....

I love the instrumentals, but not so much the vocals. My pet peeve has always been the overly sanitized lyrics that get in the way of singing along.

DrakeStraw
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[–] julierom 8 years ago

I agree up to a point. Things started to change around the mid 70s .....the show just wasn't the same as it was .....there was something about those later singers that Welk hired that made the show look cheesy. Anacani, Tom Netherton and Ava Barber were great additions but, to be honest, Kathie Sullivan, The Aldridges and The Otwells, and especially Jim Turner were not the same caliber of performers like "The Lennon Sisters", "Guy and Ralna", "Sandi and Salli", "Clay Hart" and "Mary Lou Metzger" who were very talented. When Welk fired Cissy King I saw the handwriting on the wall and though Bobby Burgess was a great talent, he didn't have the same chemistry with Elaine that he had with Cissy. Towards the end, in 1982, the show had lost a lot of its appeal because the production values were watered down. If Welk hadn't had so many singers on the show and featured the band more, perhaps it would have maintained the high standard of its earlier production vales. There was one show broadcast in 1970 called "Thank You America" that was a true masterpiece and made one proud to be an American. It was the show that got more fan mail than any other show in Welk's long run! If you can find it on You Tube you can see what I mean. The later shows with those other performers were not that great because the band wasn't featured as much and, as I said, the production values were lukewarm.

[–] Gubbio 8 years ago

If Welk hadn't had so many singers on the show and featured the band more, perhaps it would have maintained the high standard of its earlier production values.

^^^ This, in a nutshell. I've been saying it for years.

I also agree that most of the singers were very common sounding and could do little more than carry a tune. If Lawrence hadn't given them a shot, they'd be totally unheard of. (My father used to call it "The Amateur Hour.")

Welk's mistake, in my opinion, was abandoning the idea of "Big Band" in favor of the younger, cutsie boy and girl singers to appeal to a younger demographic.

Why he felt he needed SO MANY of them is anybody's guess. 

I also think he tried too hard to appeal to the country/western fans.