In 1971, Sonny and Cher had stopped producing hit singles. Cher's first feature film, Chastity, was not a success, and the duo decided to sing and tell jokes in nightclubs across the country.
CBS head of programming Fred Silverman saw them one evening and offered them their own show. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was originally supposed to be a summer replacement series, but high ratings gave Silverman sufficient reason to bring it back later that year, with a permanent spot on the schedule.
The show was a Top 20 hit in the ratings for its entire run. Every episode, Sonny would exchange banter with Cher, who was usually very proficient in one-liners. Comedy skits would follow, mixed in with musical numbers. At the end of each episode, Sonny and Cher would sing their hit I Got You, Babe to the audience, sometimes, with daughter Chastity Bono in tow.
In 1974, Sonny and Cher agreed to end the show as they were separating from each other. Their timeslot was given to Tony Orlando and Dawn the next fall.
Cher's solo career ended up slightly overshadowed by her work with Sonny & Cher, but at the time she was fully competitive on her own terms -- her first LP reached the Billboard Top 20 and was on the albums charts for six months.
Both Sonny and Cher were starring on separate TV series that fall, but they also each faced poor ratings; so the pair decided to team up professionally once more in 1976 for a new Sonny & Cher Show, although Cher was now married to Gregg Allman and pregnant with their son Elijah.
Cher was in London in January of 1998 when a call from her daughter Chastity brought the shocking news of Sonny Bono's death in a skiing accident.
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