‘She dies with me': Shari Lewis' daughter talks Lamb Chop's final act — including a new TV show and that song that will never end

Yahoo

5 days ago

There's only one Shari Lewis — but there are two Lamb Chops. When the pioneering Emmy-winning television puppeteer died in 1998 at the age of 65, her daughter Mallory Lewis stepped in to take over her signature sheepish sock puppet character, who has been entertaining children and adults since the mid 1950s, when television was still a young medium. That literal hand-off from mother to daughter provides the emotional climax to Lisa D'Apolito's new documentary, Shari & Lamb Chop, opening in theaters on July 18. And it's the one moment in the film that the younger Lewis finds hard to watch.
As outlined in the documentary, Mallory was present for her mother's last-ever Lamb Chop performance, which took place on the set of the PBS children's show The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, just after Shari had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Footage from that day is included in the film, and Mallory recalls the moment when she approached Shari, reached for Lamb Chop and said: "I'll take her now."
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"I thought I was hiding what I was feeling," Mallory, now 62, tells Gold Derby now. "But when I look at that video today, it looks like I've just been hit by a truck. I wish I could tell that girl, 'It is going to take a long time, but eventually it'll get better. Oh, and by the way — you're pregnant!'" (Mallory gave birth to her son, James, in 1999.)
Mallory waited two years until after Shari's passing to adopt Lamb Chop in earnest. Since then, she has kept the wisecracking character alive with live performances and more recently on social media via TikTok and Instagram. But she's adamant that Lamb Chop won't be handed down to a third generation.
"She dies with me," Mallory says matter-of-factly. "Nobody but Mom and I ever put their hand in Lamb Chop and it would be like somebody inappropriately touching my mother — that's the most ladylike way I can phrase that."
Rest assured that Lamb Chop and her two puppet friends, Charley Horse and Hush Puppy, will have a permanent home once they enter retirement. Mallory has promised all three characters — along with a selection of their costumes and several of her mother's Emmy statues — at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, which she calls "my most favorite museum ever." (The museum currently has a pop-up exhibition dedicated to Shari Lewis and will host a special screening of Shari & Lamb Chop on Aug. 9.)
"I know she'll be well-curated there and well-loved," Mallory says of Lamb Chop's pending afterlife. "Also, my son actually has a life! So for now, I'm just going to try and take really good care of Lamb Chop and myself."
In a separate interview with Gold Derby, D'Apolito credits Mallory with extending Lamb Chop's career through her canny use of social media. "Her following on TikTok is growing and growing," the filmmaker notes. "There's a third generation of Lamb Chop fans now, and I think that's pretty cool."
Mallory says that she currently has no plans to bring Lamb Chop back to the broadcast airwaves or even to a streaming platform like YouTube as the star of her own series. "YouTube is a platform that really deserves a fully produced show," she explains, adding that she has recently relocated from California to Portugal, where the resources for that kind of production are limited. "There was a time where that would have been everything I wanted, but now it's not. I love performing with Lamb Chop, but I don't want to get caught in that big of a harness."
That said, there is a chance that Lamb Chop could become a featured character in someone else's dream TV project. Mallory confirms that she's collaborating with writer Joshua Disney and puppeteer and producer Suzie Vigon on the series Love Sucks, which follows the exploits of a 600-year-old vampire puppet and Florida-based daytime TV host named Mezmeralda Moonlight. Lamb Chop would be the vamp's next door neighbor and hear all about her romantic exploits as Mezmeralda seeks out undying love.
"Mezmeralda is back on the apps and dating," Mallory teases, adding that the Love Sucks cast would also include WWE star Brimstone as himself. "Brimstone is Lamb Chop's best friend — she calls him Uncle Brim," she says, laughing. "You can imagine how cute the two of them are together. And Josh's scripts are laugh out loud funny."
The 13-episode first season of Love Sucks is currently being shopped around for a buyer, and Mallory says that that she'd book a flight from Portugal back to the U.S. if it gets picked up. "Lamb Chop is in 10 of the 13 episodes, so I would fly in, block-shoot all of my episodes and then get the heck back here! That would be the dream."
With Lamb Chop's 70th birthday looming in 2026, we asked Mallory and D'Apolito to share more stories about the character's long career with Shari Lewis — from taking political stands in support of public television to that beloved song that doesn't end.
Let's get political
While Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop began their collaboration as network television stars on New York's NBC affiliate in the 1950s, their second generation of fans remember them best as staples of PBS children's programming lineup with '90s series like Lamb Chop's Play-Along and Charlie Horse Music Pizza. "PBS believed in her mission of educating children," D'Apolito says of how the association began. "There was always an educational component to her shows, and that's what she was really looking to continue."
Throughout its existence, though, public television has been a target for criticism and threats of budget cuts by politicians — particularly those in the Republican party. PBS stars like Fred Rogers and LeVar Burton have appeared before Congress over the decades to speak on the importance of the network's educational programming to children. And Shari joined them when she entered the PBS family, testifying at the U.S. House of Representatives in 1993.
In an unfortunate piece of timing, Shari & Lamb Chop is arriving in theaters just as the current Republican-led Congress is poised to make steep cuts to public television with the support of President Donald Trump. D'Apolito says that those headlines serve to make her film — and Shari's life — newly relevant. "She went to Congress several times really mad about the funding cuts at PBS and for children's television," the director notes. "So many kids look to those shows to give them lessons in life and help their creativity. She would definitely be out there fighting now."
Mallory agrees that her mother would be on the frontlines right now trying to keep that money in PBS's coffers. "She would be testifying at Congress and doing a press tour about it," emphasizes the younger Lewis, who doesn't shy away from posting political material social media — much to the shock of some followers.
"It makes me laugh when people say, 'Your mother would be horrified that you're involved in politics,'" she says. "I'm like, 'Oh, sir, you didn't know my mother.' And by the way, it is always a sir! That's part of the reason why I wanted to do this movie — people didn't know my mother. They knew the nice little lady in overalls who lived in a house that had a red barn. But she was also a businesswoman, a producer, and a woman who wore sexy clothes, did nightclub routines and talked politics."
The Henson connection
Shari Lewis's televised puppetry predated Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street, and both of those shows are clearly inspired by her work. As part of her pre-production research, D'Apolito says that she found correspondence between Lewis and Rogers and learned through interviews that she had a friendship with Jim Henson as well. While Lamb Chop never made a visit to Rogers's neighborhood, she did drop by Sesame Street in a memorable episode in the early '90s.
Asked whether Lewis felt any envy towards Rogers or Henson after their stars eclipsed her own during the '70s and '80s when she struggled to find new TV platforms, the filmmaker says that Shari didn't dwell on what other artists were doing. "She was such a creative person, and always thinking about new puppets and new things that she wanted to do. She used every opportunity to reinvent herself and keep going."
Mallory also says that her mother never had any harsh words for Rogers or Henson in their household. "Mom thought that what they both did was absolutely brilliant," she says, while also allowing that she might have kept any jealous feelings locked away. "She never said anything like that out loud. But Mom also had a filter, which is not my greatest strength!"
For the record, D'Apolito believes that Lewis' influence lives on in many contemporary children's entertainers, including YouTube-turned-Netflix star Ms. Rachel. "She has a connection with her audience that's very Shari-esque. And you know, Shari was always changing with the times. If she were alive now, she would definitely be on YouTube."
Emmy excellence
Lewis won 12 Emmy awards during the course of her career, and shares the only mother-daughter Emmy ever awarded to date with Mallory. The duo were recognized — along with the rest of the Lamb Chop's Play-Along writing staff — for Best Writing in a Children's Series at the 1993 Daytime Emmys. Besides her dozen Emmys, Shari also claimed a Peabody Award and a Kennedy Center honor among her many and varied prizes.
Many of these awards came later in her life, which Mallory says was a testament to her mother's persistence through the lean years. "She had stayed ready, and was thrilled beyond belief with those awards. She was pissed about dying because she's wasn't done! She was so happy being Shari Lewis."
Not surprisingly, D'Apolito hopes that Shari & Lamb Chop will be part of the awards conversation, especially after her previous film — the 2018 Gilda Radner documentary Love, Gilda — was recognized with two Emmy nominations. As Gold Derby has noted, celebrity-themed documentaries have had better luck with Emmy voters than with Oscar voters in recent years. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, I Am: Celine Dion, and Will & Harper are among the films that received Emmy recognition after being passed over by the Academy Awards.
That's a trend that D'Apolito has noticed as well. "I loved Super/Man and Will & Harper, so I was a little disappointed that they weren't recognized," the director says. "It seems like [documentaries] about really important issues seem to be recognized. But I love biographical documentaries — the person's story is always the most interesting to me. And in the case of this film, I think anyone who is a performer will understand Shari's story. The essence of any artist is to try to stay relevant, stay working, be creative and be respected for it."
The song that almost ended the movie's release
We couldn't leave you without one story about Shari and Lamb Chop's signature tune, "The Song That Doesn't End," which served as the closing theme for Lamb Chop's Play-Along. Footage of Shari singing that never-ending anthem plays over the closing credits of Shari & Lamb Chop, but Mallory says that it very nearly didn't make the final cut.
"The production company said, 'We can't use that — it's not long enough for the credits,'" she reveals, adding that she and D'Apolito were always in complete agreement that the song had to stay in the picture. "I actually had to refuse to sign off on the movie if they didn't include it! I told my manager, 'This is the hill I will die on.'"
The stand-off lasted six weeks until the production company agreed to make room for "The Song That Doesn't End." "With the amount of money that had been invested in the movie, it was going to get released," Mallory says, smiling. "But someone had to give on that point, and it wasn't going to be me! I knew that all of the Lamb Chop's Play-Along kids would want to hear that song."
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