Rocking out at the Police Academy

The much-maligned 1984 comedy "Police Academy" was successful enough to spawn 5 theatrical sequels, a straight-to-cable sixth sequel ("Mission to Moscow"), two animated TV series and a re-boot that's been trapped in "development hell" for a decade.  One bright spot in the first film is the ridiculous closing riot sequence.  It's not as cartoonish as "The Blues Brothers," but it is a nice slice of early '80s visuals -- before neon and synthesizers took over.
To that end, the riot scenes actually have a dramatic-action-style soundtrack by Robert Folk.  No official soundtrack album seems to have been released until 2013.  A few samples (posted on YouTube) are below from the limited edition La-La Land Records release.

File 1
File 2
File 3

Fun Fact: "Police Academy 4" (featuring a young David Spade) ends with an otherwise unavailable Brian Wilson song, "Let's Go to Heaven In My Car."

Family Guy in Italian

Not really -- it's just Peter being an idiot.  This is so silly, it shouldn't be funny.  But it is.  Safe for kids!


#SNL4kidz

Norm MacDonald versus Charles Kuralt

Norm MacDonald was a writer/featured player on SNL before manning the Weekend Update desk.  His firing, and subsequent marginalizing by Hollywood, is insane.  He is one of the funniest men on the planet, as evidenced by this take on Charles Kuralt's retirement (1994).  Subsequent revelations about Kuralt's personal life only make this funnier.  As a newsman and storyteller, Kuralt was first rate -- read his autobiography, "A Life On the Road."  My favorite section is the one about the French cameraman trying to "airlift" footage.

UPDATE, 03/10/15: Jay Mohr was also on SNL when this sketch aired, and here he tells an illuminating story about Norm in the writer's room.  Mohr says the Kuralt piece aired in the Bob Newhart episode (2/11/1995), but it actually dates from the previous season's Kelsey Grammer show (4/9/1994).  Mohr tells another (non-Norm) story about THAT episode -- with the Frasier star -- here.  Beware the YouTube heading; I would not consider the episode a disaster, just the pitch meeting Mohr discusses.

SNL and Jasper Hahn

A totally forgotten Saturday Night Live recurring character, cartoonist Jasper Hahn was always getting himself into trouble.  This is hilariously ribald and charming, and the simple piano-plus-ink-drawing style reminds me of my Second City days.  On a side note, Horatio Sanz is a pretty great cartoonist.  You can watch one of his appearances here, and the other three appearances should follow in the playlist.  This is visually not safe for work... depending on where you work.

The lost episodes of "Cheers"

"Cheers" ran for almost 300 episodes from 1982-1993, but there's several one-off appearances by the cast that are not on the show's DVDs.

1) "Uncle Sam Malone": This was a short film for the U.S. Treasury, clearly written by outsiders.  I imagine they wrote this, then immediately turned around and wrote one for "Gimme a Break" or something, judging by some of the weak jokes.  Anyhow, I had heard tell of this for years, but only found it recently.  I believe this was produced during season 2 (1983).  More from another blog.

2) "Cheers" at the SuperBowl: Ken Levine explains this better than I, since he was there!

3) The DisneyLand 35th Anniversary: There's a weird crossover-flashback featuring Woody.  The kid playing him needs to be smacked.  It starts around 1:17 in.

4) Late Night With David Letterman: A cold open from 1990; this was reprised for Letterman's NBC finale (before Dave moved to CBS), which aired shortly after "Cheers" ended.  A bad year for NBC.

Dabney Coleman wants to sell YOU a Rambler

Look at Dabney Coleman, the slimebucket from "Tootsie" and many other hilarious 80s films (and the underrated, canceled-too-soon "Buffalo Bill" TV show).  This commercial is... cute.  The woman is Jean Hale, his wife at the time.  I drew his moustache on so you can tell who he is.  Looks perfect.

Here's the commercial...


...and here's a great scene from "Tootsie."



For good measure, here's a couple more Dabney Coleman commercials, from after he gained fame. The first, for the Dallas Times, looks to be from 1983 (when "Buffalo Bill" debuted)


And here he is for 7-11, around the time of "The Slap Maxwell Story"

Congratulations to George Harrison

As a kid (I'm talking 2-3), I did not know who George Harrison was. I only knew the weird photo on the fancy boxed set in my Dad's record collection.  The gold-leaf spine lettering and sheer heft of this package told me this was something IMPORTANT.  As I got older (4-5), I think I assumed it was classical music.  Finally, around age 6, I learned who he was and figured it out.

Finally, as an annoying middle schooler (12-13) I listened to the album for the first time.  There's 2 solid LPs of George's songs (which were usually passed over by John and Paul dating back to 1965).  The third disk, "Apple Jam," was literally just jamming.  And quite good.  George should have released this separately as a sort of "Super Session," and it still would have done well.  They do it in jazz all the time!  Anyhow, the only non-jam track is "It's Johnny's Birthday," a weird audio salute for John Lennon's 29th or 30th.  The melody stuck with me for years till I heard Cliff Richard's "Congratulations."

Say what you will about Richard, but he essentially invented rock and roll for British teens (teens like the Beatles).  He only had a couple stateside hits, but his influence on England's music cannot be denied.  He's not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; never been nominated.  He does not seem pleased by the "snub."  I guess if he gets in, you have to include other huge hitmakers-in-foreign-countries like Bryan Adams?

Anyhow, he recorded "Congratulations" in 1968 for the Eurovision song contest.  That's where every European country puts forth a song/performanace, and the whole world (except North America) watches, and the winning country gets to host the next year's contest, and if Israel wins, the Middle-Eastern nations cut off the broadcast early and announce the second-place country as the winner.  Weird.  It's SUPPOSED to be like the Olympics, where politics are put aside and everyone takes drugs.

"Congratulations" was so heavily favored to win, the papers started asking who would come in SECOND to the song.  Instead, in some bizarre twist of nationalism, one country threw its votes to a different country than expected and Spain ended up winning by ONE vote.  There's an entire documentary on the Francoist conspiracy that caused this, but it's apparently been debunked.  Either way, "Congratulations" remains a popular British hit that's identified with Eurovision, while the winner ("La, la, la") is not.

The General Motors Firenza

Here's an article about what's been called the worst car ever to hit Canada.  It was meant to be their Chevy Nova (an affordable compact with some flair) and ended up being worse than the Edsel, Pinto and Corvair -- combined.  The Vauxhall Firenza basically birthed the Canadian class-action lawsuit.  However, comparing it to the three cars named above is a little misleading...

1) The Edsel was a decent car, but it was poorly positioned in the market, price-wise.  It had an odd front grille.  It hit the scene just as a recession set-in.  Yet it was marketed as the greatest car ever made.  Combine all that, and it was DOA.
2) The Pinto was affordable and fairly reliable for its time.  It's reputation was eventually destroyed by lawsuits over fatal fires caused by rear-collisions. To this day, people claim this was due to Ford engineers carelessly placing the gas tank in the rear.  FALSE -- almost every American car at the time had a gas tank in the rear; the engineers did what everyone did.  It was the later internal memo that said protecting the gas tank would be "cost-prohibitive" (a few dollars!) that is the real culprit.  Bean counters winning over engineers.
3) The Corvair had two generations: 1960-64 and 1965-69.  The latter car was stylish, fun-to-drive and economical.  The former was just economical, but had odd understeer/oversteer that could be dialed out by tweaking the suspension and tires.  Nobody at GM thought to tell the public this.  So the car was easily attacked by Ralph Nader, just as the Ford Mustang loomed to eat the Corvair's market share.  Part of the problem was its rear-mounted engine: GM had never done a rear-mount, and figured "imports (i.e. the VW Beetle) are selling well.  We want to compete with them.  Let's make a car with the engine in the back -- that must be the reason the VW sells."  Cynics.  This is also the same company that, despite the Canadian Firenza's issues, picked the name up and slapped it on an Olds in the 1980s.  So maybe they have a sense of humor.  I must say, I think the Canadian car is pretty sharp-looking in coupe/sedan form.  The hatchback -- like ALL hatchbacks -- looks terrible.

Archie Bunker and Buddha Bless You

"All In the Family" asks what people say around the world, in place of "Bless You."

The Starland Vocal Band

The Starland Vocal Band with "Afternoon Delight" on "The Merv Griffin Show."  They're so cute!  The fellow on the left is now a successful touring keyboardist, and the one on the right lives off royalties AND runs a restaurant; he also wrote "Take Me Home, County Roads" for John Denver, whose label they recorded for.  They, and their wives (center) are no longer together.  Sad.

Will Ferrell made it popular again in "Anchorman," but it was also in the excellent and underrated "PCU."  Ferrell and his Anchorman peeps returned to SNL to promote the sequel in 2013, with One Direction at their side (includes Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner).

The Rubber Dubber

If you've ever seen a bootleg album cover like this one, it may well have come from the Rubber Dubber!  This was in the late '60s/early '70s before bootleg albums became the (alleged) scorn of the record industry (and before the Copyright Act of 1972).  In reality, it seems like anyone buying a Little Feat boot (for example), probably buys every single official release, too.  During these early "glory" years, most of the bootleggers were also fans.  And they also have some ridiculous tales to tell about their work.  A really good one is posted here.  Maybe I'll post about TMQ aka TMoQ (Trademark of Quality) at some point, another big boot label from the late 60s/early 70s.  Their albums tended to be more spartan (plain white jacket, maybe a rubber stamp and/or a photocopied/mimeographed insert as to the contents), but just as interesting.

Cursing in Casino with Martin Scorsese's mother

Scorsese's mother, Catherine, appeared in small parts in many of his films.  My favorites are in Goodfellas, and here in Casino.  There used to be a clip online from the excellent "Late Night with David Letterman" from 1991 or so, with Martin promoting Cape Fear (I think), and Bill Murray backstage.  Catherine comes out and does a segment where she shows how to make pizza.  It is cute and hilarious and spellbinding for some reason.  Murray and Martin join Dave to eat at the end.

Here's another scene from Casino, synced for Burt & Ernie from Sesame Street:

SNL40 no-shows

Here's an article about who was a no-show at the Saturday Night Live 40th reunion.  And another article.

Most people noticed Julia Louis-Dreyfus was absent, but she was apparently in the audience.  Gilbert Gottfried, Sen. Al Franken, Cheri Oteri and Rob Schneider all were reportedly in the audience, but not visible (and did not participate).

Much has been made about the Weekend Update montage leaving out Cecily Strong.  The montage also left out the early '80s female co-anchors: Gail Matthius, Christine Ebersole and Mary Gross.

A few more absences, although some of these folks appeared in clips (and maybe I missed some!)

-Unsurprising no-shows: Abby or Chris Elliot, Janeane Garofalo, Harry Shearer (who said on Twitter he "loathes" Lorne Michaels), Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Jenny Slate, Nasim Pedrad, Michaela Watkins

-The women of the early '90s "bad boy" era (Julia Sweeney, Beth Cahill, Siobhan Fallon, Melanie Hutsell)

-George Coe from season 1!

-writer/performers Conan O'Brien (apparently in Cuba), Don Novello, Jim Downey, Alan Zweibel

-Peter Aykroyd (Dan's brother!)

-Yvonne Hudson (a utility player who actually made appearances from 1979-1984, under all three of the show's producers)

-Laurie Metcalf (later of "Roseanne"), who was there for one episode at the end of season 6

-Joan Cusack, Randy Quaid, Damon Wayans from Lorne Michaels' weak first season after he returned

-Nasim Pedrad, Mark McKinney, David Koechner, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Sarah Silverman (she was shown backstage on Twitter; did she ever actually appear on the show?)

-frequent hosts/musical guests Lily Tomlin, Buck Henry, Danny DeVito, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Tom Petty, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Adam Levine, Eminem, Elliot Gould.

-It would have been nice to have musical-guest-only montages, as they did for SNL15 and SNL25.  Instead, one clip package served to include everything at the top of the show, with later montages grouped by subject.  That worked out fine, but they left out big-deal musical acts Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones.

Green Jelly 1994's Three Little Pigs

The rumor was always that the band was originally "Green Jello" but got sued.  Enjoy #SNL4kidz

Tina Tina Chaneuse and her Custom Doorbells on SNL

New doorbells!
One of the weirdest -- and most wonderful -- Saturday Night Live sketches in recent years, starring the lovely Jenny Slate (who started her one-and-only season by dropping an F-bomb).  She re-did this later with car horns and alarm clocks.

Dorothy Fuldheim vs. Jerry Rubin

In 1970, Dorothy Fuldheim was the grande dame -- and major fixture -- of news in the nation's 8th (or so) biggest city, Cleveland.  Here, she interviews Yippie (and Cincinnati native) Jerry Rubin of the Chicago Seven.  He's there to promote his book "Do It!"  He eventually left the movement, invested in Apple Computer and became a yuppie.  Then he was hit by a car and killed.


Here's Fuldheim a few years later with a hilarious election night blooper.  I am not convinced this was an accident.

Gallagher in a coma... with David Letterman

The crazy comic has made a career of two decades of "prop comedy," followed by two decades of crabbiness.  Here he is with a shot on Letterman to explain his then-recent heart attack.  You'd think -- after waiting 30 years to be invited onto Dave's show, with a career that mostly hit state fairs -- he'd try to be a little nicer and come off less caustic.  Doesn't he sound like he's shouting at Dave the whole time?!  Also, Letterman probably had him on simply because they both started at The Comedy Store around the same time in the late 70s, and may have crossed paths frequently.  Still, Gallagher gets off some funny lines here ("you knew before I did").  The link is here; they won't allow embeds.

Even more amazing is Gallagher's "Spanish" show.  A link to the hilarious review is here; this has entered comedy lore through everyone from Ken Levine to Patton Oswalt.  I do not believe they have seen the preview piece, linked here.

Also, here is Gallagher walking off Marc Maron's WTF, plus Maron explaining it later.

The Odd Couple

The New Odd Couple with Matthew Perry looks to be terrible.  Please enjoy a couple of my favorite episodes of the original 1970-75 ABC series instead.
The still here is from the episode "Two On the Aisle," which features Neil Simon's only cameo on the TV series.  He wrote the original stage play, which led to the 1968 movie, which led to the TV show, which he was indifferent toward since he had sold his financial interest in "The Odd Couple."  But a family member convinced him the show was good (three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, and three wins for "Best Lead Actor": 2 for Klugman, 1 for Randall).  This scene is always cut in syndication, but it's posted here.


#86, The Flying Felix (January 18, 1974): check out who plays the ticket agent!  The "simulated" flight, and then Felix's attempt to say bye to Murray at the gate, are my favorite scenes.  Also, Myrna could not be more annoying in the cold open.  Sorry, Penny Marshall.



#98, Strike Up the Band or Else (October 17, 1974): How can you not like the Sophisticados and Pernell Roberts?  Roberts had been on "Bonanza," then played "Trapper John, M.D.," which followed the doctor in the late 70s (when the show aired), years after the character had left "MASH" (where he was played by Wayne Rogers from 1972-75).  The producers of "MASH" sued, saying "Trapper John" infringed on their copyright.  The producers of TJ countered by saying their show was based on the BOOK "M*A*S*H," not the show.  So the MASH TV producers wrote a script in which Hawkeye (in the early 50s) is informed Trapper John is dead.  Yikes.  The episode was never made, but I can't imagine this was fun at the CBS Christmas parties.


Other great episodes include "Fat Farm" and "Password" (both on TV Guide's list of the Greatest Episodes of All-Time, 1997).  Pretty much anything from seasons 2-5 is great.  Season one features a single-camera, no-audience set, identical to the movie.  For season 2, they started filming with a live studio audience, and the show skyrocketed (although not in the ratings; it never made the Top 30).

The Rolling Stones 1983's "She Was Hot"

Here's the video for "She Was Hot," probably the best track off the 1983 LP "Undercover."  This was essentially their first all-new album since 1978's "Some Girls," because the two albums in between ("Emotional Rescue" and "Tattoo You") were mostly based on older outtakes that were polished up.  Still good stuff.  But then they had to undertake a "fresh" 1980s approach and made this plodding LP.  Yet "She Was Hot" (and the title cut) were among the highlights, and got lavish videos to accompany them -- their first specifically for MTV.  Unfortunately, the button-popping segment at 4:23 was clipped out by the network for being too racy (as if the rest of it were just fine).

I vividly remember this video on MTV, and have it on an old tape.  I was surprised to hear the song at the very end.  It's also interesting that the song runs REALLY fast here, and there are a couple extra lines at 0:38 seconds:

There goes the telephone
And suddenly I feel at home
And there's a sweet voice on the line

What is the face Mick makes at 0:55?!  All of this makes me think the Rolling Stones think about sex a LOT.  I am shocked.


R.I.P. Anita Morris... although that second-to-last set of sparks looks, shall we say, unattractive.

Remembering Marty Feldman

A great skitch with Marty Feldman aka Igor from "Young Frankenstein."  (Co-)written, I believe, by Feldman, John Cleese and Graham Chapman.  Of Monty Python.  The TV show.  What would it have been like with Feldman added to the Pythons?
I've seen several productions of this with various pairs of actors -- some even longer -- and this is my favorite.  John Junkin is brilliant; you may know him as "Shake" from "A Hard Day's Night."
Any Brits out there who can explain "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying"?  And is it Charles Dickens or Dikkens?!

And here's another great sketch featuring the "Mr. Annoying" character opposite Cleese.  This is from "At Last the 1948 Show."


#SNL4kidz

The first day of MTV: August 1, 1981

The first day of the end of music... MTV launches a thousand techno-geeks-with-synthesizers into our faces, destroying forever the organic tradition of music-making we had so enjoyed from Woody Guthrie to the Mills Brothers to Aretha Franklin to Steely Dan to Donna Summer... or something.
Believe it or not, American Express was a co-owner of MTV!  And allegedly, they wouldn't play music videos by black artists.  "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video played (I hesitate to call it a MUSIC video).
The first day's festivities aired out-of-order, too, thanks to wacky automation software, which I believe really just consisted of a big rubberband.
Nice touch with the Pioneer reel-to-reel in the background... ALREADY obsolete in 1982.  I think the last new mainstream reel deck model came out the year before, the dreaded (due to its flimsy drive system) and wonderful (because it looked cool and sounded pretty good) Akai GX-77.





Here is a pretty great video explaining why they don't play videos anymore.  NSFW, and they finally call out Napster!