Shari & Lamb Chop

After a few years of playing the festival circuit, the documentary Shari & Lamb Chop finally makes its public theatrical debut. Lisa D'Apolito's chronicle of a woman and her puppet is pretty much worth the wait. So, how about we get to it?

Shari Lewis, the children's entertainment pioneer, grew up in a loving Jewish home in the Bronx. She wasn't raised on fairy tales like Cinderella, as her mother Ann wanted her to be her own woman. Her father, Abraham Hurwitz, meanwhile, was a professor, who was also the magician Peter Pan the Magic Man. He taught her showmanship, up to and including ventriloquism. She eventually took her act to the Captain Kangaroo show, which is where she conjured up her other half, the puppet Lamb Chop. 

Over several TV shows, Shari introduced Lamb Chop’s other puppet friends - Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and Wing Ding. Her self-titled show, in particular, beat Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street to the air by nearly a decade. But NBC didn't give her much credit; they didn't even tell her in-person when they cancelled the show in 1963. Afterwards, Shari and Lamb Chop took their act wherever they could. Shari sometimes went without Lamb Chop, but not for long. It all culminates in their triumphant return to TV in 1992 with Lamb Chop's Play-Along.

How about a few highlights? For starters, its chronicle of Abe Hurwitz gives us a fascinating look into his organization, F.A.M.E. (Future American Magical Entertainers), a club for aspiring magicians. It makes it look like a rather fun after-school program, and all the more essential for it. Its history lesson on ventriloquism, as well as watching Shari work, makes the craft enticing, even for a few minutes. An interviewee tells us how she performed a full act at a carnival to a less than packed house. As much as it's cool to watch her operate two puppets at once, or even dance with a full-puppet Fred Astaire, it's even cooler watching her professionalism at work. 

 I have residual memories of Play-Along, particularly from its intro and its entertainingly annoying outro, The Song that Doesn't End. I don't think I've ever realized how funny Lamb Chop could be outside of children's entertainment until now. It's quite unforgettable as we watch Lamb Chop drunk or even sass her own puppeteer! A few interviews with Mallory Lewis (Shari's daughter and Lamb Chop's current puppeteer) and Megan Piphus (muppeteer for Gabrielle on Sesame Street) paint a good picture of the duo's significance. Its most profound moment comes late in the film, as we look behind the scenes of Shari's final TV episode (this past Saturday marked twenty-seven years since her death).

What else do we have? I went in knowing a little about Shari's second husband, Jeremy Tarcher, a publicist and author. I didn't know much about their married life, particularly how they made it last forty-years. I knew even less about her first husband, Stan Lewis, a major figure on several TV quiz shows until that scandal. Suffice to say, I found the pictures painted of both her marriages to be rather vivid. There's quite a bit of ground that the film doesn't cover, such as the time she and Tarcher wrote an episode of Star Trek (Season 3's The Lights of Zetar). Still, what we get out of her life and career here is already thorough enough, so any omissions aren't that bothersome.

There's quite a lot to learn about Shari & Lamb Chop in this documentary. When it's all done, you might not help but tap your foot once The Song that Doesn't End kicks in at the credits. That's what I did; I didn't even move from my seat until the song finally ended. Whether you've last played-along with its subjects sixty, thirty or even ten weeks ago, Shari & Lamb Chop makes for quite a compelling documentary. It's worth a watch at any price. Tune-in soon.