I finished watching season three of Sha Na Na over the last couple of days from episode 17 to episode 24. There were some interesting things that went through these episodes.

After the first three or four episodes, I noticed that Dirty Dan and Screamin’ Scott had been doing a bunch of the songs, more than they usually would do. Then, I wondered why we were not getting the amount of Denny songs. As soon as I thought that, Denny did a bunch of songs over the next several episodes. I have to admire how well the group did of giving everybody the spotlight without shorting anybody. Chico was probably the least used singer in the group of episodes I saw, but he was there with Rubber Ball, where he was back on roller skates.

The final two episodes were very different than any other ones prior. They both carried a storyline throughout the entire show. In episode 23, Jocko fell for an uppity British woman named April (played by Lorrie Gia, who was announced with the opening credits). April wanted Jocko to change for her and he went on an episode-long journey to try and de-grease himself. Troy Donohue guest starred and tried to help in a My Fair Lady type story.

Meanwhile, in episode 24, Bowzer was hired away from Sha Na Na by Charo to play the piano for her Charo’s Cuchi Cuchi Club. The whole episode focused on Bowzer’s work for Charo and his eventual return to Sha Na Na.

I am curious to see if these storyline-based episodes will continue into Sha Na Na’s final season.

It was also interesting that Jay Johnson from Soap appeared on the show with his ventriloquist dummy, Squeaky… whose name was Bob on the show. Did that mean that Squeaky was the real name and Bob was the character he played? That seems weird.

Other guests in this run included The Kingston Trio, James Darren, Steve Allen, The Crystals and the 5th Dimension.

These episodes featured some of the comedy bits that stood out in my memory, such as 16 Tons, Romeo & Juliet, Book of Love and one that I did not remember, but it had the cast dressed up as bunnies doing At the Hop.

Screamin’ Scott was always my favorite Sha Na Na member and I remembered clearly him doing “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” So to see it again in episode 18 was a treat.

Lennie and Bowzer did a version of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and their voices mixed so well together. I think Lennie could sing with anyone.

It was sad that episode 17, specifically, was such poor video quality. I know that the person who put these episodes up on YouTube did the best they could to make it as watchable as possible, but it was an old VCR recording from 40 plus years ago. Clearly, the rights to the songs make it nearly impossible to put these out on anything more up to date, despite the fact that I do believe that there would be an audience for them.

I have just one more season of Sha Na Na to go.