he puns are
still groan-in-
ducing. The
material is still
suitable for
kids of all ages.
The hostess is still petite and
perky. The ponytail was re-
placed long ago by a copper-col-
ored perm, but Lamb Chop,
Charlie Horse and Hush Pup-
py are still there.
In short, not much has
changed about Shari Lewis.
And that's fine by her.
"The interesting thing to me
is the continuity," Lewis said
recently in a telephone inter-
view. She has been making the
rounds, plugging her latest ef-
forts, Lamb Chop's Special
Chanukah, which airs on
Channel 56 at 10 a.m. Sunday,
and a Phillips Interactive CD-
ROM, Lamb Chop Loves Mu-
sic.
"There's a thread you can
follow all the way back to
my childhood," Lewis said.
"The CD-ROM is based on the
story of the musicians of
Bremen. The kids end up
knowing about
all the instru-
Pat Morita,
Lamb Chop and ments in the or-
Shari Lewis
chestra and a
latke up a
wide variety of
storm.
musical styles.
based Covenant Foundation,
an organization dedicated
to promoting Jewish educa-
tion.
The show, Lewis admits,
wasn't her idea. "Executives at
PBS came to me and said,
`When we were kids we never
understood what Chanukah
was all about. Now we're
adults and we still don't
know,'" she recalls. They told
her to create a Chanukah
show that "will enrich the lives
of non-Jewish families with a
knowledge of what's going on
in their Jewish neighbors'
homes."
Lewis was delighted to com-
ply. "I find that many non-Jew-
ish people think that
Christmas and Chanukah are
related because they coincide
on the calendar," she ex-
plained. "But they're wildly dif-
ferent. Christmas is a very
religious holiday, while
Chanukah is the most secular
of Jewish holidays."
She quipped, "It's the only
Jewish holiday not mentioned
in the Torah, other than
George Burns' birthday. And,
of course, one of the first peo-
ple I asked to be on the show
was Pat Morita (of Karate Kid
movie fame). He said, 'I'd love
to do it — after all, I'm half Ju
and halfJitzu."'
She turned more se-
rious again. "You
might say that
Chanukah is our In-
dependence Day. It's
about a people achiev-
ing liberation, a story
of true grit."
Lewis made the
special with a specific
message of tolerance
in mind. "I want non-
Jewish viewers to
come away from the
show feeling that Jewish fam-
ilies are just like any other
families," she said. "They cel-
ebrate holidays by getting to-
gether over a good meal and
honoring their
history, singing and playing
games. And it's OK for
that history to be different.
That's what makes life inter-
esting."
Besides, it's only fair that
Lewis finally gets to do a
Chanukah special. After all,
she has already recorded and
written Christmas books and
music.
Kosher For
Chanu
Shari Lewis brings
Lamb Chop and a
host of other
friends together in
a PBS special.
Ci)
w
w
GEORGE ROBINSON
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
CC
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AO
"But Shari, I'm not Jewish. How can I come to your Chanukah party?"
asks actor Alan Thicke. Lewis replies, "Alan, you go to birthday parties
when it's not your birthday, don't you?"
My mother brought me up to
be a musician, and she was
one of the music coordinators
for the New York City Board
of Education."
The TV program also attests
to a parental legacy. Lewis'
father was a professor of
education at Yeshiva Univer-
sity, and one of the key un-
derwriters for the Chanukah
show (along with PBS and
the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting) is the Chicago-
George Robinson writes on
Jewish arts and culture for a