Did anyone watch it?  Anyone still watch it? It's still on most PBS stations.

Did anyone watch it?  Anyone still watch it? It's still on most PBS stations.


I watched it with my grandpa all the time in the early 80s.

The music is really not my thing but I’ve watched it here and there just for old times sake.

I watched it with my grandpa all the time in the early 80s.

The music is really not my thing but I’ve watched it here and there just for old times sake.


If you watched it as a kid with family members you end up watching an episode for nostagia.  Glad I'm not the only one.

My grandmother watched it. It was  for old people and it was very square. A famous faux pas occurred in the early 70s when the Welk singers performed Brewer & Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line", a song about being high on pot, mistakenly believing it to be "a gospel song for our times" as Welk introduced it.  :D

Read about it here:

https://bestclassicbands.com/brewer-shipley-lawrence-welk-8-17-18/

I watched it when I was a little kid, with the grown-ups.  I didn't watch it in the 1970's because I was no longer a little kid then; I only watched in in the 1960's.  I recall I liked all the bubbles.

This rather lengthy thread should answer some of your questions about why it still swings and sways today along with its appeal. Personally, I've watched several episodes, but with a few exceptions like a holiday special, I find it too humdrum  for my tastes, and even my grandparents who came of age during the depression and WWII, who I never had a chance to ask if they liked that show, probably weren't too big into him and I never recall them watching it, since it was likely targeted toward THEIR parents who came of age around WWI. You'll even see that some commentators in the thread below show that it makes Ed Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, or Jackie Gleason seem like Dick Clark, and since its move to PBS in 1987 (the last original episode aired in 1982), has become fodder for pledging. Even jazz music on that isn't too widely appreciated, and certain comedy is also turned down to the degree that certain comedic acts were banned as well. It seeks to be nostalgic to attempt to emulate the vibe of German and Polish Americans of the early 20th century in terms of its presentation, with "skiddling", "tapping", accordion playing, and of course "blowing bubbles" what I think of that show. 

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?648018-Lawrence-Welk-Is-Still-On-I-Don-t-Get-It/page2

Nope, never watched it. I don't recall anyone in my family watching it either. Lawrence Welk was always a line in a joke to us.


Cat

This rather lengthy thread should answer some of your questions about why it still swings and sways today along with its appeal. Personally, I've watched several episodes, but with a few exceptions like a holiday special, I find it too humdrum  for my tastes, and even my grandparents who came of age during the depression and WWII, who I never had a chance to ask if they liked that show, probably weren't too big into him and I never recall them watching it, since it was likely targeted toward THEIR parents who came of age around WWI. You'll even see that some commentators in the thread below show that it makes Ed Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, or Jackie Gleason seem like Dick Clark, and since its move to PBS in 1987 (the last original episode aired in 1982), has become fodder for pledging. Even jazz music on that isn't too widely appreciated, and certain comedy is also turned down to the degree that certain comedic acts were banned as well. It seeks to be nostalgic to attempt to emulate the vibe of German and Polish Americans of the early 20th century in terms of its presentation, with "skiddling", "tapping", accordion playing, and of course "blowing bubbles" what I think of that show. 

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?648018-Lawrence-Welk-Is-Still-On-I-Don-t-Get-It/page2


Man. People seem to invest far more sociological significance in the Lawrence Welk Show than it warrants.  Suffice to say, Welk's heavily polka-influenced "champagne music" (whatever THAT is) is what the oldsters of that era wanted. The oldsters of THIS era (myself included), who were the rebellious youth of the original Welk era, cut our teeth on the dazzling, innovative and as of yet unsurpassed brilliance of the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, etc.  No "champagne music" for us.  8)

Man. People seem to invest far more sociological significance in the Lawrence Welk Show than it warrants.  Suffice to say, Welk's heavily polka-influenced "champagne music" (whatever THAT is) is what the oldsters of that era wanted. The oldsters of THIS era (myself included), who were the rebellious youth of the original Welk era, cut our teeth on the dazzling, innovative and as of yet unsurpassed brilliance of the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, etc.  No "champagne music" for us.  8)
  You're comparing two genres that have no link.  Coming from someone who grew up with both "oldsters"and a Doors, Stones ect fan I find that you can be influence by both.  Thankfully you do not speak for everyone.