The Lawrence Welk Show: Original ABC Closing `71

Includes Lawrence dancing with Rose Weiss and the full closing credits from the last ABC show. (1971)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lawrence
• Welk
• Rose
• Weiss

[calihartley2010]

Nice clean dancing. Now it is that horrible grinding and booty dancing. How vulgar

[futura51]

Long running and classy as well, Lawrence welk

[AlbieGray]

@tomservo56954 Which was a crying shame, but Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk got the last laugh, when their shows went into Syndication and lasted such a long time and became beloved classics!

[landrykkb]

@donnacheer11 It was the bubbles and beautiful ladies dressed eloquently that drew me in as a kid,although I had no idea about musical tastes at the time.Yeah,I hear you and I wouldn't be doing much complaining to waltz with them all.

[Peckbo]

What a classy way to end a show. To call that guy out for water and honor him like that when he could easily have just taken the last few seconds to take a bow or toot his own horn. I'm not going to lie, my Grandma used to watch this when I was young and I would do everything in my power to run out of the room. But there is no doubt this guy had talent and now I see that he had class above and beyond as well.

[tomservo56954]

Interestingly, it was being a good advertising conduit that got Welk to ABC originally. He started a show on Los Angeles television in 1951, sponsored by the local association of Dodge dealers. By 1955 they convinced the corporate people in Detroit to take the program national. Welk showed his appreciation by driving Dodge cars for decades, long after the company ended its affiliation with the program.

[tomservo56954]

Madandbugged....the Geritol sponsorship is key to why ABC cancelled the show. They fell the audience was too old, poor, and/or rural to attract prime advertising dollars. A number of shows ended in 1970 and 1971 for that reason, most notably all the countrified comedy shows on CBS ("Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction", "Hee Haw" and the like).

[PhotosByHamza]

Lawrence Welk had Class!

[collfan]

You had to know President Nixon was tuning in to this.

[cmulwee001]

Apparently, The "Adios, Au Revior, Auf Wiedersehen" closing song was not sung until the syndicated version, but what episode? The first syndicated episode's closing number was "Thank You Very Much" from SCROOGE(it was also the opening number). Maybe "Adios" was sung beginning with the next episode.

The early b/w episodes ended with "Goodnight Ladies" with newly rewritten lyrics to fit the programs format.