Surely you know who died yesterday [Jim Abrahams]

A friend and I rented Kentucky Friend Movie in the early 1990s from our local video store. His father made us turn it off when he walked into the living room during a nude scene. A lot of comedy ages like fine milk, so it’s no surprise it wouldn’t hold up over the decades. I do remember some scenes that were hilarious. The one with the housewife who is learning what life was like without some common commodity, like zinc or something, was great. And the nudity of course. I wouldn’t mind seeing again. Once more, with feeling.

Not quite. The Groove Tube was a compilation of sketches and such from an underground video outfit called Channel One. Its principal, Ken Shapiro, had been sending it around college campuses for a few years before he got the money to transfer it to film. ZAZ saw it and were inspired to start the Kentucky Fried Theatre, their own underground channel, in Madison WI.

Chevy Chase was only a cast member of Channel One for its premiere show. He was replaced by Richard Belzer.


Frankly, the one thing that saves Airplane II is William Shatner.

Meh. They appeared in 1974 and 1977. How much more closer do they have to be to be considered contemporaries? How many people back in the day had ever even heard of Channel One? Audiences have paired them for a half century.