Shari & Lamb Chop
The legendary ventriloquist Shari Lewis rose to stardom with her beloved sock puppet Lamb Chop. When her popular children’s show gets canceled, Shari must find a way to make peace with her alter ego. Together they spend decades reinventing themselves until Shari’s unlikely comeback where she becomes a fierce advocate for children’s education.
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Before there was Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, there was Shari Lewis and her lovable cast of puppets, including Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and the most beloved puppet of all time, Lamb Chop. In 1960, while still in her early 20s, NBC gave Shari her first national network show, The Shari Lewis Show, replacing The Howdy Doody Show. Lewis quickly became a pioneer in television and changed the face of children’s entertainment. She created a playful, non-judgmental world for children and adults alike, inviting us not just to 'be ourselves,' but to be the best version of ourselves we can be. She used her puppets as her voice – to say the things that women couldn’t say in mid-century America and to take control over her personal story. Over five decades, she was able to straddle two very different worlds as a performer, conquering both children’s and more mature entertainment; from her Saturday morning program to her late-night talk show performances and Las Vegas club act. Then, after years of working to stay relevant, Shari defied ageism by having her biggest comeback in her 60s, endearing her to a new generation with Lamb Chop’s Play-A-Long. Shari used her renewed popularity to reinforce her commitment to children’s education.
At its heart, Shari & Lamb Chop is the empowering story of a multi-talented, continually underestimated woman who refused to give up in the face of myriad obstacles, who lost her voice for a time, and by finding it again, wound up enriching the lives of multiple generations of children. Shari leaves a profound legacy of lessons to live by in our ever-changing, complex world. Perhaps most powerfully: The more you are a friend to yourself, the better you will survive what the world throws at you.
