Anyone remember that show? I loved that show. It came along right when SNL got lame, and it was weirder and funnier, though less professional & polished. I still remember some of their skits and while it is true that many things I thought were hilarious in Jr High turned out to be not so funny when I saw them as an adult, still, I think this show was pretty OK.
And they had some cool musical guests. I remember the Clash playing right after London Calling came out & they played 4 songs. And they had the Plasmatics, KISS right before the makup came off, the Stray Cats before they had a hit single, and others I’m straining to recall right now.
I still find myself doing the “Ahhh, la musica, la musica de los DriveBy Truckers” bit.
And I had a major crush on Melanie Chartoff. Wonder what happened to her. Think I’ll Google her right now. (Still kinda have that crush).
Melanie was way hot. I’ve seen her in some other stuff, but nothing major that I can recall.
Fridays was the first place I saw Michael Richards (Seinfeld). He did this hilarious solo skit where he was an overgrown kid playing tanks and soldiers.
Did a search and it turns out Ol Melanie’s been pretty busy. She’s a voice on rugrats, was in the final Seinfeld episode, has been on a buttload of TV shows & made for TV movies and, weirdly, has invented a device that reuses water from the shower.
And in said search, I have found many references to the show and the memories are flooding back:
Remember the Rastafarian chef: “gimme some pepper…gimme some breadcrumbs… gimme…GANJA!” (audience hoots & hollers)… “do you roast it… NO!..do you fry it…NO!.. you SMOKE it!” (rastafarian chef then SMOKES the dish he just prepared).
The wild eyed strung out pharmacist who’s answer to everything was “take a pill!”.
The guy playing piano with one hand, while the other hand used a chicken carcass as a puppet.
And the thing with Larry David- “Howdy Doody is here…right this way Mr. Doody, anything you say, Mr. Doodie”.
Other musical guests included Ted Nugent, the Jam (I don’t remember that one), DEVO, the Cars, Rockpile.
Remember the show, used to watch this then SCTV afterwards, while staying up late when I was growing up. I was way too young to be watching “Ganja Man” at the time, totally over my head. And I loved that whole underground bunker Battle Boy had to torture captured soldiers.
Count me in on a Melanie Chartoff crush, I remember when Larry David called his “pal” Prince Charles to give him marriage advice and described her to Chuck so he could think of someone else in bed to stay “interested”.
I remember DEVO and Kiss being on there, apparently so was King Crimson, according to the FAQ at elephanttalk, the KC fan
site. Wish I had seen that since I later became a fan.
ABC should have given the show another year or two, at least.
I remember the show. I have to admit I wasn’t a fan, although I’d be interested in seeing it again.
The one episode that really impressed me was after Lennon was killed. Their tribute was silence while the lyrics to “Imagine” scrolled up the screen. I thought it was very moving and classy.
I also remember that Fridays was on the night Belushi died. It was kinda weird. It was never mentioned until the very end when one of the cast (Maryedith Burrell I think) just said “We’ll all miss John Belushi” and then the credits rolled while the guest host & cast just all talked to each other, not smiling.
Michael Richards is the most (some would say only) famous person to come out of that show. And I would say that ‘Battleboy’ was probably Fridays!’ equivalent to the Church Lady (i.e. their funniest recurring character).
I can’t believe that I’m only just now realizing that Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David was the Larry David from that show! Didn’t he have a big, white guy afro on Fridays?