Lawrence Welk

Tom Ehrich 12-17-2013

Radio City Music Hall is home to the annual "Christmas Spectacular." Andrew F. Kazmierski / Shutterstock.com

“Bubble living” might be delusional, but it expresses deep and serious yearnings.

Take “Champagne music” maker Lawrence Welk. His music variety show on ABC was built on perpetuating the squareness of a prewar world being challenged by postwar change.

My father was still watching Welk reruns 40 years after it ceased production in 1971. They reminded him of a world long supplanted.