Everyday Online

A not very successful syndicated talk/variety series, "Everyday" ran for one season in the late nineteen-seventies and starred a cast of largely unknown personalities. It featured musical and comedic bits sandwiched between interviews with guests ranging from authors hawkin' books all the way up to Bob Hope hawking his TV special. The two hosts were actors Stephanie Edwards and John Bennett Perry. Perry was probably best known for playing the sailor in the Old Spice TV commercials. Stephanie Edwards was competent in her capacity as an interviewer, but these were the days when TV actors were also recruited to be TV hosts and Perry's inexperience really showed. In one segment he was interviewing a lesbian author who was talking about her lifestyle and at one point she proposed, mistakenly or not, that perhaps our sexual preferences are actually a product of social conditioning, to which Perry, sounding almost outraged, expressed his personal disagreement with that particular theory. When the interview was over, the in-studio band played some tune to which Perry responded, "thank you guys for bringing things back up again 'after that'."

The cast included pretty young comedic actress, Ann Bloom who later did a lot of series TV guest shots, and most significantly, former "Sonny & Cher" regular (and the man under the bag of "The Unknown Comic"), Murray Langston, who was a lot funnier than some of the other less talented regulars that participated in the sketches.

It only lasted a year and it wasn't very good, but what does stand out in memory is the very catchy theme song that each member of the musical cast (and Edwards, who shoulda' known not to try and sing) would do a verse of. Of course it's very unlikely anybody's ever gonna read this, but now, for the first time anywhere in nearly 30 years, the lyrics to "Everyday":

(John Bennett Perry on guitar): "We don't know the reasons for the changes of the season but we know we gotta walk through everyday."

(Stephanie Edwards): "We go up and we go down while the world just turns around, it helps if you can talk through everyday."

(Moustachioed singer Tom Chapin): "Open up your hearts, open up your eyes and let us take you by surprise,"

(Entire cast): "Everyday! Everyday! Everyday! Everyday!"

(Short blonde singer, Bob Corff): "So we hope that you are with us for the strength that you can give us. Life is what you make of everyday."

"Open up your hearts! Open up your eyes and let us take you by surprise,"

(Chorus): "With Everyday! Everyday! Everyday! Everyday-ay-ay!"

It is hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since the short-lived "Everyday" variety show aired. It was good, wholesome television entertainment. I guess that I was one of the few that was sorry to see it leave the air. I remember it well because I was a college student at the time, having just moved from New York to Los Angeles. I had a part-time delivery job that put me near Television City's CBS Studios in Hollywood in the early evenings - precisely the time when the "Everyday" show taped. I sat in the studio audience for many of the shows. It was always fun, and the featured guests were often big celebrities. In addition to regular cast members Tom Chapin, Murray Langston, John Bennett Perry (who's son Matthew became a big television star years later) and Stephanie Edwards, I particularly remember seeing an interview with Lucie Arnaz and a musical performance by a Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame). There was also an upbeat "Everyday" band. Tom Chapin & John Bennett Perry sang songs with them frequently. The "Everyday" theme song was very catchy too. It would be interesting to hear a recording of it again after all these years. Does anyone know if that exists?

Comedian Rich Hall made regular appearances with the news in miniature. Even though the co-hosts started out a little wooden, the show was progressing into something more than the sum of its parts. Let's face it, the hosts were adored by the cameras. The writing was very well executed. The supporting cast did a spectacular job pulling Perry and Edwards along, Just the fact that a lesbian author was being interviewed shows the direction the producers were aiming for. Why they let Perry interview the author instead of Edwards is beyond me. It could have been something akin to the Vanity Fair cover with KD Lang shaving Cindy Crawford... I hate to think Edwards may have passed because of her religious convictions...

The second verse starts with:

We know that tomorrow there'll be joys and there'll be sorrows But turn around today is yesterday

Then your verse "We hope that you are with us for the strength that you can give us. Life is what you make of everyday."

This show was on after school each day which turned into something we all would comment on in school just like any other show that was on TV or shows you hear are the hit of the water cooler in offices. It was to my generation like Leave it to Beaver was to the older generation. Would it have been so if it was on prime time, not at all, it just happened to be on when we all got home and we started to follow it each day (everyday).

They probably would have done better to address the time slot crowd better, then maybe it had a chance to be on longer. We all know it was something to fill in the schedule with so at least one age group found it very entertaining. Better than Bonanza which was on at the same time.