# Reactions to Lawrence Welk for those over 40 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947 "2008-11-09T22:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/21 "2008-11-10T01:32:47Z")
When I was 12, LW was sheer torture. How I wish Mom could torture me with it now. Mom would be 85 if she were still living, I am 47. Mom always marvelled at the costuming and both Mom and Dad loved the dancing. Dad is still going strong at age 87, and he and wife go out ballroom dancing several times a week. god bless him. And a one and a two ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/22 "2008-11-10T01:38:34Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I watch it somewhat regularly, needless to say with a fair amount of postmodern bemusement. The strictures of racial and gender roles are presented utterly unselfconsciously; the music is cheesy and diabetic-shock-inducing; the technicolor clothing is indeed freaky and psychedelic. I do spend a fair amount of time wondering about the young people, especially – would they rather have a different career, or did they find this a wonderful refuge from a mass culture they were totally alienated from? I suspect the latter, because of the utter lack of irony amongst the performers. > > Why do I watch? It’s the only place on TV I can count on seeing seeing some tap-dancing. That’s it. Its the utter lack of irony and mountains of cheesiness that make it so special. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/23 "2008-11-10T02:06:59Z")
I’m 42, and while I really can’t watch it now, I have very pleasant memories of doing so with my parents when I was wee. ::sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/24 "2008-11-10T02:59:59Z")
53, and can’t imagine ever watching it on purpose – not even for irony or nostalgia. I do remember my dear sweet old Quaker grandmother and two great-aunts gathering around the Philco console to torture me with it, but no residual fondness for them wound up rubbing off on the show. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/25 "2008-11-10T04:41:22Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Of course, all that was getting less and less relevant every year even in the 60s and 70s. The Champagne Music was a tight little family of do-as-I-say, dumb-simple Protestant values. Apart from the man actually having been Catholic, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/26 "2008-11-10T04:44:46Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I do spend a fair amount of time wondering about the young people, especially – would they rather have a different career, or did they find this a wonderful refuge from a mass culture they were totally alienated from? I suspect the latter, because of the utter lack of irony amongst the performers. A big part of the appeal was undoubtedly the chance to be a working musician. Besides, by the 1960s, brass and winds had been pretty much been booted out of mainstream rock. As an interesting bit of trivia, Buddy Merrill, a guitarist with the band in the early 1950s, was one of the first celebrity endorsers of the Fender Stratocaster. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/27 "2008-11-10T04:56:08Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > > [@Beware of Doug](#): > > > > The Champagne Music was a tight little family of do-as-I-say, dumb-simple Protestant values. > > Apart from the man actually having been Catholic, yeah. Hey, nobody’s perfect. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/28 "2008-11-10T05:54:35Z")
My parents were music lovers, so never watched Lawrence Welk. But it seemed like every time I visited my best friend’s house his mother would be watching either Lawrence Welk or Liberace or Mitch Miller. I’m glad we usually played at my house. ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/29 "2008-11-10T06:11:49Z")
I’ve gotta tell you, I’m 50 and I absolutely hate Lawrence Welk. I had to watch it when I was a kid because my grandmother loved it. (She was born in 1905). Every once in in a while, I put it on for my kids to watch (14 and 17) to see what I had to put up with when I was a kid. But, I can’t watch it long. It was really horrible. I know the musicians were talented, but it was horrible. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/30 "2008-11-10T07:36:44Z")
My parents knew if they wanted to clear the living room and be alone, all they had to do was turn on LW. It did the trick every time and it was a sure fire way to get us kids to leave and do homework or just hide. I occasionally flip it on, just to see how bad it really was. It usually only takes me about a minute to remember why I used to flee the room. But those outfits…OMG…I think the costume designers were stoned back in those days. One classic Lawrence Welk screw up: He was introducing the song, “Take The “A” Train” and, reading from the cue card, said, “Now, we will play the song, ‘Take A Train’.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/31 "2008-11-10T13:48:19Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > One classic Lawrence Welk screw up: > He was introducing the song, “Take The “A” Train” and, reading from the cue card, said, “Now, we will play the song, ‘Take A Train’.” That’s what you get for being born and raised in North Dakota. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/32 "2008-11-10T13:56:17Z")
I find it nostalgic, too (I’m 47). My parents & grandparents all watched it, and I’ll occasionally watch it if I stumble across it on cable. I can’t find a link, but SNL did _the_ most hilarious take-off on Welk and a pseudo-Lennon Sisters act recently, with the “new chick” Kristin Wiig (forgive if I spelled that improperly) as the sister that was just…not…quite…right. VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/33 "2008-11-10T14:47:13Z")
I grew up with Lawrence Welk. My grandmother loved it (Welk himself once said that most of his fans seemed to be grandmothers), but she was really his target audience. Welk was trying to recreate those weekend get-togethers in the local Hall featuring Eastern European music and dancing. I was never a fan, myself. My own musical tastes are odd, but never really went to his style, which was more my parents’ and grandparents’ era. The nuns at my parochial school urged Welk on us as an example of “good music”. To keep us from listening to that awful rock’n’roll, no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/34 "2008-11-10T15:08:02Z")
My mother watched it faithfully. I can appreciate the talent of the performers, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/35 "2008-11-10T16:01:12Z")
I’m 49. I think my family watched it pretty regularly, but I don’t remember a whole lot about it. Probably I was reading most of the time it was on. I find it kind of amusing that it’s endlessly rerun on PBS now. During the 60’s it was pretty much exactly the kind of lowbrow mass market programming that PBS was supposed to give you an alternative to. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/36 "2008-11-10T16:02:54Z")
> [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](#): > > I find it kind of amusing that it’s endlessly rerun on PBS now. During the 60’s it was pretty much exactly the kind of lowbrow mass market programming that PBS was supposed to give you an alternative to. Heh. Good point. I never noticed that irony before. Well, I did mention its appeal to me was the lack of irony … 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/37 "2008-11-10T16:30:52Z")
My great grandmother on my father’s side liked it but my mother hated it. Whether this was due to her having extremely limited musical tastes or to disliking everything about my father’s side of the family (including my father) I don’t know. I can stand to watch it about twice a year before I start screaming. Based on what little I’ve seen of it, the music seems rather bland and soul-less and I find that disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/38 "2008-11-10T16:36:18Z")
My grandparents were fans of the Lawrence Welk show, and I was condemned to have to watch it with them when they were babysitting me as a child. Even when they were doing music that in its original form was half decent, they managed to emasculate and ruin it. Part of the loathsomeness was that every performer was obliged to smile, smile, smile during each number. Even the band was supposed to grin - it was painful to watch a clarinetist attempting to smile during his solo. I guess this was the show to watch if you thought Mitch Miller was too Satanic-looking. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/39 "2008-11-10T16:43:28Z")
My PBS station plays it only during pledge periods. They SAY. “Where else but PBS can you get such wonderful programming,” but what they MEAN is, “Pay up or we’ll start playing this crap year round. It costs us nothing and we need to show something to keep the transmitter warm until your kids wake up and we can go back to playing _Barney_.” ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947/40 "2008-11-10T16:54:46Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I’m 44 and I hated LW. I hated that whole day, whatever it was. Sunday? LW, **Hee Haw** , and something else. Can’t remember. Hated that day. It was mom’s day to punish us with her shows. Probably why I took up reading and drawing and a few other pastimes. Lawrence Welk evening was a total write-off. We never watched LW, thank Og. It must have been on Saturday night, though, because we definitely watched Hee-Haw! I think Dad like the T&A, for some reason. BR-549. 🙂 ETA: (I’m 50.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reactions-to-lawrence-welk-for-those-over-40/471947.md?page=3)