The 1970s/80s

In 1970, Sonny and Cher starred in their first television special, The Sonny and Cher Nitty Gritty Hour. A mixture of slapstick comedy, skits and live music, the show was a critical success, which led to numerous guest spots on other early 70’s hit television shows.

Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting on The Merv Griffin Show, and Silverman offered the duo their own variety show. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series. It returned to primetime later that year and was an immediate hit, quickly reaching the top ten. The show received numerous Emmy Award nominations throughout its initial four seasons on CBS. The duo also revived their recording career, releasing four albums and charting two more top ten hits: All I Ever Need Is You, and A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done (1972).

Sonny and Cher's monologues were patterned after the successful nightclub routines of Louis Prima and Keely Smith: the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife. The show featured a stock company of zany comedians, including Freeman King, Ted Ziegler, and Murray Langston (later The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show). One sketch satirizing CBS's detective show Cannon and its portly star William Conrad was so successful that Sonny and Cher staged several follow-ups, with Tony Curtis as Detective Fat. Everybody in these sketches wore wide-waisted fat suits (similar to hoop skirts), so Detective Fat and his clients and his suspects would spend most of the time bumping each other and bouncing across the crowded room.

By the third season of the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in early 1974, the marriage of Sonny and Cher began to fall apart; the duo separated later that year. Therefore the show also fell apart, while still in the top 10 of the ratings. What followed was a nasty and very public divorce (finalized on June 27, 1975).

Bono launched his own show, The Sonny Comedy Revue, in the fall of 1974, retaining the Sonny and Cher troupe of comedians and writers. Cher also announced plans to star in a new variety series of her own. Critics, surprisingly, predicted that Sonny would be the big winner with a solo comedy vehicle, and didn't hold much hope for Cher's more musical showcase. After only six weeks, however, Sonny's show was abruptly cancelled. The Cher show debuted as an elaborate, all-star television special on February 16, 1975 featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler and special guest Elton John. Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest-stars a few weeks later, and the series received four additional Emmy nominations that year. The first season ranked in the Top 25 of the year-end ratings.

As a result of the divorce, Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Sonny's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married. After struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. Sonny went on to an acting career and later entered politics, eventually becoming a U.S. Representative, Cher continued a successful singing career.

The couple made two surprise impromptu reunion performances: the first in 1979 on The Mike Douglas Show and the second in 1987 on Late Night with David Letterman where they performed their hit song I Got You Babe.