Paper Three: A “Wunnerful” Adaptation

"The ones the listeners loved most of all in those early years were the four Lennon girls who became the whole nation's little sisters."

-Lawrence Welk

The Lawrence Welk Show is a piece of true Americana. With its big band music, charismatic emcee,and feature of the Lennon sisters, the program dominated the Top 30 charts for its first five seasons. It aired every Saturday night for 27 years. Who would have guessed that, decades later, another hit Saturdaynight program would adapt the Lawrence Welk Show into one of its most successful routines?

The creative minds of Saturday Night Live are always trying to come up with new material for their program. It was by someone's stroke of genius that they came up with the idea to adapt the Lawrence Welk Show into a comedic routine. The adaptation of the retro program had never been attempted before; it was a fresh idea and the SNL crew was ready to take on the task. Saturday Night Live's writers paid closeattention to detail in their recreation of the set, costuming, and characterization of The Lawrence Welk Show. For example, the Lawrence Welk Show always started off with it’s title– “The Lawrence Welk Show”– scrolled across the screen, with bubbles swirling around, as the program’s theme song played. Saturday Night Live uses almost the exact same opening to the original show for their skit. This gives theskit an authenticlook; it almost makes the audience believe that they’re watching a program from the1960’s–until a goofy Fred Armisen comes on camera as Lawrence Welk. Armisen’s costume looks exactly like Welk’s attire from the sixties. He wears a vintage checkered suit, a groovy tie, slicked back hair, and has a baton in hand.

Armisen's character of Lawrence Welk is further developed through his use of a fake German accent. Welk had a difficult time pronouncing the “th” and “d” sounds, so of course Armisen was directed to overdo the accent by shouting phrases that Welk frequently used such as “wunnerful, wunnerful” and “tank you all, tank you!” Armisen’s portrayal of Welk is spot on thank to his use of costuming and speech. Another way in which SNL adapts the characters of The Lawrence Welk Show is through their portrayal of the infamous “Lennon Sisters”.

The Lennon Sisters were a recurring act in The Lawrence Welk Show for years. The four sisters would come on stage and sing popular hits from the 50s and 60s. They were widely renowned for their beautiful voices– as well as their beautiful faces. While Saturday Night Live stays close to the original Lawrence Welk Show in respect to costuming, set, etc., this is the area where the writers branch out. Saturday Night Live changes the Lennon Sisters into the “Merrill sisters”.

These four sisters are the singing sensation of SNL’s adaptation. But something’s not quite right with one of them. The writers of Saturday Night Live thought it would be funny to have a clean adaptation with one small exception: one of the characters is completely different from the original. It’s funny because the entire show is changed just because of the altercation of one single character. SNL changed the youngest of the sisters into a physically and mentally “off” companion. Kristen Wiig plays “Dooneese”– the crazy sister.

While all of the other sisters sing lovely romantic tunes, Dooneese is in the background waving her freakishly small doll-like hands around, singing her own renditions. The contrast of the prim and proper sisters singing while the crazy one runs around on stage makes for an odd, yet funny, skit.

In fact, what makes the skit so hilarious is the oddity of it all. The Saturday Night Live writers took a random 1960s music television program and made it into something comedic; The Lawrence Welk show was never intended to induce laughter, but rather to just entertain. Saturday Night Live spun it into a whole different medium of entertainment. And on top of that, the writers added a character that has nothing to do with The Lawrence Welk show at all. Welk would never have allowed a young woman with physical or mental features such as Dooneese to ever work on his show. In fact, it has been said that Welk wouldn’t let anyone impure of body or mind to be apart of his “musical family”. The addition of Dooneese to the seemingly perfect quartet of sisters sets up a strange dynamic that undoubtedly ends in laughter. If Wiig’s character was not apart of the skit, there would be nothing to laugh at. The

skit would simply be a portrayal of the original Lawrence Welk Show.

Saturday Night Live’s adaptation of The Lawrence Welk show was a stroke of creative genius. Through careful thought to detail, the modern program was able to adapt the vintage show perfectly, while adding comedic flair. From costuming to characterization, the cast of SNL has been able to bring Lawrence Welk’s television show back to life in a new light.