One of the funniest, most knowing TV parody shows of all time, IMO.
This send-up of talk shows aired for about 3 seasons on FOX in the early 90s, and E! picked it up later on, which is where I discovered it. Timothy Stack played Dick Dietrick, the world’s oiliest, snarkiest talk show host. Dietrick stood in the audience and the guests were onstage in chairs, so it was set up like Donahue, except there was a box of Kleenex on a table next to the chairs. LOL The topics were Springeresque, and Jerry Springer himself made a couple of guest appearances. If you remember it, you’re smiling already.
Dietrick was supposed to be dull-witted and clueless. Stack played him to perfection. He had never read the books or seen the movies the guests were promoting. He invariably made a double entendre every time he opened his mouth. When the audience snickered, he turned around like a mortified 4th-grade teacher and snapped his fingers saying, “oh people, no no.”
“Night Stand” was an equal opportunity offender. One night the guest was a Klan recruiter. Regulars included a rapper named Tupac Zemeckis, a plastic surgeon named Dr. Hamilton George and the neurasthenic psychiatrist Dr. Lonnie Lanier.
There were lots of “Secret Crush” shows. One night the male guest turned out to have a crush on Dick. DIETRICK: So you’re telling me you’re homosexual. GUEST: That’s right. DIETRICK: And you’re also gay. . . very good. GUEST: What’s the difference? DIETRICK: If you’re homosexual, it means you like men. If you’re gay it means you know all the words to South Pacific."
My best friend was in the audience for a taping. It was the episode with Garry Marshall promoting his new show about three jiggly-puff girlspies. The joke about “the computer uses ‘dose’ and I only know macintosh!” is still in circulation with us. She and her husband are visible on-camera a few times, decidedly unamused by the goings-on.
‘If she had a chimmichanga it’d be a whole nother show’
I do wish that sometimes instead of having a completely scripted show, they had given people character descriptions and some guidelines and then allowed audience members to ask unscripted questions.
I saw the show a few times and wasn’t a big fan, but I recognized Timothy Stack immediately when he first showed up on My Name Is Earl as Camden’s only “local celebrity”. He’s had a few very short appearances on the show.
I remember one show I saw with my girlfriend, who didn’t realize at first that the show was spoofing Springer-type shows. I didn’t tell her that it was just a comedy show until she got herself good and worked up about the left-handed -cross-dressing-Klan-dentists or whatever the guests were.
Who also showed up on the season finale of Boston Legal as a sleazy paparazzo.
My favorite Nightstand episodes had to be the ones with the white trash family who lived in the “Pair-o-Dice” trailer park in Las Vegas. I seem to remember that they had a son named Billy Joe Jim and Dick was always getting a chuckle over their use of quaint country “aneurysms”. Great stuff!