Ted Baxter’s bombast was a pitch-perfect parody of Baxter Ward, who delivered the “news” quite successfully (that is, without getting fired) for several years on a local channel in Los Angeles (I want to say KHJ Channel 9, but it could have been KTLA 5. All I remember for sure is that it wasn’t a network affiliate).
Having grown up in Minneapolis in the '60s, I can assure you that Ted was representative of much of the “talent” on local TV back then. So far as I can imagine, he probably still is.
I’d probably treat it like I do SNL. If a skit was good, I’d watch on YouTube.
Living back then, it depend on when it was on. It at least sounds entertaining enough that I’d rather watch it than have to figure out something else to do at night.
There’s TGS with Tracy Jordan.
Yeah, maybe. Except with The Dick van Dyke Show whenever they cut to some sketch they’re planning for Alan to do (e.g. the bowling pin) I don’t think we’re supposed to groan at the corniness, but we’re really supposed to think it’s hilarious. On 30 Rock by comparison TGS is supposed to be pretty dumb. (“Someone put too many farts in this machine! It’s going to exploooode…!”)
What, and miss Sid Ceasar, Carl Reiner (Alan Brady), and Howard Morris (Ernest T Bass) creating utter mayhem? And isn’t the stooge in the audience (at :35) Neil Simon, one of the writers?
FTR: Howard Morris was one of the funniest people ever.
That may be true of TV, but not of movies. The “Let’s put on a show” plot of Busby Berkeley movies has the same wonderful dance numbers, both in the show and in the show-within-a-show. (Of course, there’s a slight plausibility problem with the show-within-a-show…)
I would definitely listen to WNYX from NewsRadio. Especially when “The Real Deal with Bill McNeal” was on or McNeal was performing the commercials of certain sponsors.
Alan Brady was doing a variety show. That WAS an extremely popular TV genre once, but it’s been defunct for decades.
I wouldn’t watch ***The Alan Brady Show ***today, but I DID watch Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, and Andy Williams’'variety shows in the Sixties.
You mean while smoking and blasting a civil-rights marcher with a firehose?
For a watchable movie-within-a-movie, I admit that I’d check out Mant!, the internal film of Matinee.