Shari Lewis’ Daughter Opens Up About Continuing Her Mother’s Legacy with Lamb Chop

Mallory Lewis looks back fondly on time spent with her late mother, Shari Lewis, and her puppet Lamb Chop. Lamb Chop is a wonderful childhood memory for many kids who grew up in the ‘90s (like me!) and now Shari’s story and her rise to fame are being explored in a new documentary called Shari & Lamb Chop, featuring her daughter, coming soon.

Mallory says that her mother had always wanted to be an actress but taught herself ventriloquism as a child. When her acting career wasn’t working out the way she hoped, she began using her skills and performing with puppets in the 1950s. Shari first debuted Lamb Chop, the puppet she would become famous for creating, on the children’s program Captain Kangaroo.

PBS/Everett Collection

By the time Shari and her husband Jeremy Tarcher had their daughter, Mallory in 1962, she was quite busy. Mallory explained, “She always worked from home. We had a full-on, staffed office in our house. I’d come home, we’d talk for three minutes, and then she went back to work.” Despite being so busy, she always made time for Mallory. Mallory admitted that her mother would lie to her staff about when she was going to return home from business trips to spend some uninterrupted time with her daughter. She said that they had a lot of fun and now she carries on her mother’s legacy with Lamb Chop and adorably calls Lamb Chop her sister.

John Nacion/Getty Images

When Shari passed away after a battle with cancer in 1998, fans would ask if Lamb Chop died too. Mallory says that she didn’t want to see that happen, so she took over doing live shows with the puppet. While Shari had sold the rights to Lamb Chop to Classic Media, which is now DreamWorks Classics, a part of NBCUniversal, Mallory owns the live performing rights. In addition to doing live shows, she is on Cameo and can send you a personalized video featuring Lamb Chop.

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Kid Stuff

June 2018

Unleash your inner child by reliving your favorite kids TV shows, cartoons, toys and more!

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