A Transitional Season for SNL: 1984-85

Next year, Saturday Night Live marks 50 years on the air. It’s been a springboard for many funny people over the years, such as Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Dana Carvey, David Spade, Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Jan Hooks, and many more. It’s an American institution that has stood the test of time. I really enjoyed the 10th season, which was 1984-85. I was in high school at that point and found many other fans of SNL in my classes. This season started on October 6, 1984 and ended on April 13, 1985. A writers’ strike and budget constraints caused it to be an abbreviated season. At this point, Dick Ebersol was in his final season as showrunner. Lorne Michaels took a 5-year break from 1980 to 1985. The cast for 1984-85 included: Martin Short, Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer, Rich Hall, Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pamela Stephenson and Christopher Guest. The opening credit sequence was created by the same person who made the video for “You Might Think” by The Cars. It depicted the cast members as giants among New York City landmarks. The previous season saw the departure of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Robin Duke, Brad Hall (husband of Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Tim Kazurinsky. Christoper Guest became the host of Saturday Night News.

Harry Shearer left mid-season, in January of 1985, due to creative differences. He did not enjoy the experience and atmosphere of working on SNL. He was the co-creator, co-writer and co-star of the 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. He has provided many voices for The Simpsons, which has been on Fox since 1989. 

Martin Short joined the cast of SCTV later in its run, 1982-83, where he was known for characters like Ed Grimley, defense attorney Nathan Thurm, and songwriter Irving Cohen. His Ed Grimley character had a shock of hair sticking up like Alfalfa from The Little Rascals. His catchphrase was “I must say.” Ed was obsessed with Wheel of Fortune and its host Pat Sajak. Nathan Thurm was a paranoid lawyer who would appear in a 60 Minutes parody on SNL. In that skit, Christopher Guest played the novelty toymaker, Herb Minkman. Irving Cohen was a very old songwriter, and his catchphrase was “Give me a C, a bouncy C.” He would reminisce about the old days of Vaudeville. Jackie Rogers Junior was an odd albino performer who was in a memorable SNL skit where he was a game show host. It was called “Jackie Rogers Junior’s $100,000 Jackpot Wad.” In his autobiography, “I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend,” Short said that he preferred SCTV over SNL, since the former was taped, not live. He liked being able to perfect a sketch and try it many times, but this was not possible on SNL. He was hesitant to join the SNL cast but said yes after hearing that the show had hired Crystal, Shearer and Guest. Those four signed one-year only contracts. 40 years later, Short is still going, after a career with a wide variety of TV and movie projects. He appeared in the films Three Amigos, Father of the Bride, Innerspace, Captain Ron and Mars Attacks. He played the clueless celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick on Comedy Central from 2001-03 on the show Primetime Glick. In 2016 he had an NBC variety show with SNL alum Maya Rudolph called Maya and Marty. He currently stars in a Hulu series called “Only Murders in the Building” with Steve Martin and Selena Gomez. Martin Short and Steve Martin have a very funny live stage show that has toured the country. For 50 years, Short has been friends with musician and fellow Canadian Paul Shaffer, who was part of the SNL band before he worked as David Letterman’s bandleader. A memorable skit from the 10th season had Short and Harry Shearer playing dim witted synchronized swimmers. The skit was directed by fellow cast member Christopher Guest. Short is 74 years old but still in demand. All this week he is the guest host on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live. 

Billy Crystal had appeared in the sitcom “Soap” (1977-81), but SNL allowed him to appear on a sketch show. His character Fernando, had the catch phrase “You look marvelous.” He would also say “It is better to look good than to feel good.” He was based on the actor Fernando Lamas. He did a segment called Fernando’s Hideaway where he would interview celebrities. Episode 15 had him interviewing Mr. T and Hulk Hogan. Fernando became so popular that he had his own song and music video, “You Look Marvelous.” On SNL, Crystal portrayed New York City talk show host Joe Franklin. People outside the New York area probably did not realize that Franklin was a real talk show host, and Crystal was doing a spoof. One Joe Franklin skit had Martin Short playing magician Doug Henning, and one had Short playing singer Jackie Rogers Jr. 

The writers acknowledged that they did not utilize Julia Louis-Dreyfus as much as they should. It didn’t hurt her career since she went on to have success with Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Veep. 

Jim Belushi had the goal of establishing himself as a funny sketch player, but it must have been rough to be in the shadow of his late brother, John Belushi, an SNL legend. Jim starred in the sitcom According to Jim from 2001-2009. 

Rich Hall was a writer-performer on David Letterman’s morning show in 1980. He appeared on the late-night show Fridays from 1980-82. He is the only person to have been a cast member of both Fridays and SNL. He currently splits time between Montana and London. He has become better known overseas than in America. 

After leaving SNL, Christopher Guest became known for his mockumentary films such as Spinal Tap, Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and more. In SNL, Guest and Crystal played co-workers Willie and Frankie who describe painful situations they bring on themselves. Their catchphrase was “I hate it when that happens.” Guest played a Spanish ventriloquist who appeared in the Joe Franklin Show spoof. 

Mary Gross is the sister of Michael Gross, who played Steven Keaton in Family Ties. On SNL she played Alfalfa from The Little Rascals, and did many impressions, such as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Pee-Wee Herman and Mary Tyler Moore. 

Pamela Stephenson was born in New Zealand. A Rolling Stone writer called her “A bright spot in a weak season.” She has a doctorate in psychology and has been married to comic Billy Connolly since 1989. 

On SNL, Gary Kroeger impersonated Walter Mondale. He played Donny Osmond in a sketch where Julia Louis-Dreyfus played Marie Osmond. After leaving SNL he appeared in various TV shows and has relocated to his hometown in Iowa. He writes a column for a newspaper and has owned a restaurant. He has appeared in community theater productions.

The musical guests for this season included: The Thompson Twins, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Kinks, Billy Squier, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, The Commodores and more.

I still look back fondly on season 10 and it was my introduction to the comedy of Martin Short. He is my favorite comedic actor. 

 *Some information from imdb and wikipedia.

ABC's Modern Family Has Been a 21st Century Hit

I have always been a fan of situation comedy TV shows. I think the golden age of sitcoms was in the 1980s when NBC had their “Must See TV” lineup. On Thursday nights this included: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers and Night Court. For the last several years, sitcoms have become rare for the major broadcast networks. Much of prime time is occupied by reality shows like Survivor, Big Brother or The Amazing Race, and the hour-long crime dramas such as CSI, FBI or NCIS. The reality shows are cheaper to produce since the only star to pay big bucks is the host. The crime dramas seem to follow a specific template and they lack creativity in my opinion. Some of the best sitcoms through the years have included: Seinfeld, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, MASH, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Recently CBS aired the final episode of Young Sheldon, which I thought was well done. That was a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory. So many spin-offs are a disappointment when compared to the original show, but I enjoyed Young Sheldon more than The Big Bang Theory. The E! network airs Modern Family each weeknight, and I feel that it was an excellent show, with a top notch cast and creative storylines. The show has been credited for reviving the sitcom format for the 21st century. This show aired on ABC for an impressive 250 episodes, from 2009 to 2020. The main structure of the show was based around three couples and their adventures. The three couples are diverse, representing a nuclear family, a blended family and a same-sex family. Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara played Jay Pritchett and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett. Jay is much older than Gloria, who is from Columbia. Jay owns a company that makes blinds and organizes closets. Jay’s kids are Claire and Mitchell, other key characters in the show. O’Neill is best known for his role as Al Bundy in the Fox sitcom “Married with Children” (1987-1997). Craig T. Nelson (“Coach” and “Young Sheldon”) turned down the role of Jay Pritchett. Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell played Claire and Phil Dunphy. Julie Bowen appeared in 83 episodes of the sitcom “Ed” from 2000 to 2004. Claire works for her father’s company and Phil sells real estate. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet play Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker. They adopted a baby from Vietnam. Mitchell is a lawyer and Cameron sometimes works as a substitute teacher. Primary kids in the show were Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett. Anderson-Emmons won a Screen Actors Guild Award at age 4 in 2011. That made her the youngest winner of that award. On imdb, even Stella the dog, a French Bulldog, gets a credit. Her name is Beatrice and she was in 46 episodes. The co-creator of this show was Steven Levitan. He created the show “Just Shoot Me” (1997-2003). He directed several of the “Modern Family” episodes. The other creator was Christopher Lloyd who was show runner/writer for “Frasier.” The 6 main cast members appeared in all 250 episodes, which is unusual for a show with an ensemble cast. This show has won 22 Emmy Awards over its 11 seasons. Ed O’Neill knew the show would be a winner from the beginning. He felt it would be on for 10 seasons after reading the first script. At first, he was hesitant about signing on to do the show. Creators Levitan and Lloyd set out to create a relationship-driven and heart-warming show so that families could watch together. The show had some similarities to “Cheers” and “Frasier” since it would make viewers laugh and cry. The cast was allowed to improvise to a degree. The casting director saw over 1400 actors for the 10 main characters. The show was designed to be enjoyed by the whole family, so the writers wanted to avoid any racy storylines. Often times, someone in the show will break the fourth wall and look into the camera. Recurring characters were played by Fred Willard, Nathan Lane, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion. “Modern Family” is a mockumentary type of show, similar to “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” CBS and NBC turned down the show. The show’s average number of viewers ranged from 6 million to almost 13 million. In the 2010-11 season, “Modern Family” was the #1 scripted show in the 18-49 demographic. From the first season, the show received critical acclaim from Rotten Tomatoes, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Metacritic and others. The series has been successful in syndication in America, plus in other countries, including The United Kingdom, South Africa, Sweden, Israel, India and Canada. *Some information from imdb and Wikipedia.

The Midnight Special

This show was taped at NBC Burbank, down the hall from Johnny Carson. The executive producer was Burt Sugarman. Producers were Dick Ebersol and Stan Harris. It aired as a special in 1972 and started its weekly run in 1973. 90 minutes, 1:00 am to 2:30 am, Friday nights. At that point, stations would sign off after 1 am. Sugarman wanted to attract the 18-33 age bracket audience. There was another reason to have programming after 1:00 am. As of 1971, tobacco ads on network TV were prohibited, so that led to lost revenue that the networks wanted to earn back. Once the time slot became popular, NBC added Tomorrow with Tom Snyder to air Monday through Thursday from 1:00 am to 2:30 am. Wolfman Jack was the announcer and he hosted from 1973-81 for 109 episodes. There was a different guest host each week. The show featured performances by some of the biggest popular music acts of the day. They were taped in front of a live audience. The performers sang live, with no lip-syncing. In 1981 when the show was cancelled, it was replaced by the sketch comedy show SCTV. In 1983, in the dawn of the MTV era, the time slot was taken over by Friday Night Videos. Performers on the show included: Electric Light Orchestra (seven appearances, more than any other band), David Bowie, Tina Turner, The Bee Gees, Paul McCartney, Blondie, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Chuck Berry, BB King, Earth, Wind and Fire, Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, Steve Miller Band, The Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, Prince and many more. Comics that appeared included: Steve Martin, David Brenner, Andy Kaufman, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, George Burns, Bill Cosby, Carol Burnett, Richard Belzer, Joan Rivers, Jonathan Winters and more. This show was created by Burt Sugarman, who was a friend of Johnny Carson. In the 6/4/24 episode of Mark Malkoff’s “Inside Late Night” podcast, Sugarman talks about how Johnny promoted the show since he knew it would attract younger viewers to his show. Sugarman and Carson would play tennis together. From 1975 to 1980, Sugarman was married to Carol Wayne, who worked with Johnny Carson as his “Tea Time Lady” in the Art Fern sketches. Since 1989 he has been married to Mary Hart, host of Entertainment Tonight from 1981 to 2011. The You Tube page for this show has lots of fascinating videos. The quality of the performances was top notch, especially for fans of that era’s music. *Some information from imdb and Wikipedia.

Book review: “Johnny Came Lately” by Fred deCordova, 1989

From 1970 until Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show went off the air in 1992, his executive producer was Fred deCordova (1910-2001). Before working for Johnny, Fred already had built an impressive resume in Broadway, TV and film. He worked with stars such as Jack Benny, Fred MacMurray, George Burns, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and many more. He earned a law degree from Harvard. He directed 108 episodes of My Three Sons. Johnny never let him forget that he directed a film called Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) which starred Ronald Reagan and a chimpanzee. Fred talked about what he called “The Five Musketeers.” This included himself, Johnny, Ed, Doc and director Bobby Quinn. He had a chapter on the Joan Rivers controversy when Joan got a Fox late night show to go against Johnny. This caused a rift and Johnny never talked to Joan for the rest of his life. Fred’s book talked about the many guest hosts who filled in for Johnny over the years. Some were great, some, not so much. Fred mentioned the stars that they would love to have on the show, but their response is always…thanks, but no thanks. Those include: Woody Allen, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and others. I enjoyed the first half of Fred’s book more than the second half. The first half was largely focused on the day-to-day activities involved in planning The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He detailed in-depth information about his schedule planning the show which involved many meetings. Fred said that every day he had lunch at the NBC commissary, known as The Hungry Peacock, with assistant producer, Peter Lassally. He discussed the roles of the segment producers and writers, who are key to the success of the show. The segment producers/talent coordinators find the appropriate guests and interview them to determine what they need to discuss on the show. Certain writers would provide jokes for the monologue, and others provided material for the comedy bits that Johnny did after the first commercial break. If you listen to Tonight Show producer Peter Lassally’s Carson Podcast, he said that he did most of the work and Fred largely was a figurehead who chatted with the guests. True or not, Fred was involved in many meetings and behind-the-scenes details of putting the show together. He also stood just off camera to give Johnny time cues. During the breaks he would talk to Johnny about any issues with the show. He was an advisor on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show after Johnny retired. Fred even played a producer of a late-night show (what a stretch) in Martin Scorsese’s film The King of Comedy (1982). Ironically, Scorsese wanted Johnny for the main role, a late-night talk show host, but he said no and the role went to Jerry Lewis. Fred played himself on HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show in 1995 and 1998. The fictional late-night show profiled on The Larry Sanders Show seemed to be patterned after Johnny’s show. The second half of the book was the autobiography section, where Fred discussed his work in show business. Different people will find different things interesting. Some may not want to read about every detail of what went into planning Johnny’s show. I found that to be endlessly fascinating. But in the second half of the book, I did not find it interesting to hear some of Fred’s “Old Hollywood” stories about the likes of Ronald Coleman, David Selznick, Sam Goldwyn, Jack Warner, Sam Spiegel, Harry Richman, Tallulah Bankhead and the like. But those people all played important roles in the life of Fred, and an autobiography will discuss prominent people. It’s just that for someone my age, those people were way before my time. No book is 100% perfect, and for those who are hardcore fans of Johnny and his show, this book is recommended, especially the first half. Another great book about the details of putting together Johnny’s show is “Johnny Tonight” by Craig Tennis. The author had the inside scoop since he worked on Johnny’s show for several years as a segment producer.