#fernwood tonight

[bayareabadboy]

Rock In Peace Martin Mull, gone to that big, absurdist stage in the sky.

[hezigler]

Fernwood 2 Night - S01E01 - Talk to a Jew

[painfuldischarge]

[abriefingwithmichael]

“Fernwood Tonight” s1e25 (1977)

The second half lets it down somewhat.

The musical number - "Boogie Fever" - is a work of comedy genius. And the interview with the Gun Association guy is very funny and very sharp. Top marks also to Barth's pro-smoking opening monologue.

Only the segment with couple who are constantly in pain falls short. Not many laughs, and not sure what the point of it is.

8/10

[x-ref]

[greensparty]

Remembering Martin Mull 1943-2024

Actor, comedian and musician Martin Mull has died at 80. Before he was well known in TV and movies, he actually did comedy music. Fun fact: before Greg Hawkes was the keyboardist for The Cars, he toured with Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture. Mull's band actually opened for Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel in the early 70s.

Mull and Willard on Fernwood Tonight

Notable performances include the LOL funny Fernwood Tonight (syndicated 1977), Mr. Mom, as himself on It's Garry Shandling's Show. (Showtime 1986-1990), as himself again in Robert Altman's The Player, the 2016 season of Veep (HBO) for which he earned an Emmy nomination, and Arrested Development (Fox and Netflix 2003-2019). I especially enjoyed all the collaborations he did with the late great Fred Willard.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[authortoberecognized]

LESIURE SUITS CAUSE CANCER

                                                  LEISURE SUITS CAUSE CANCER I bet that caught your attention. This piece goes along with my series of, YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING OLD WHEN, because this statement comes from a TV show from a while ago which I found to be hilarious. The show began as Fernwood Tonight and morphed into America Tonight. The host was played by Martin Mull. His…

[boschmillennium]

Tom Waits, "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and interview on Fernwood 2 Night, 1977

[ghostofbriggiesmalls]

Jessica Walter greeting Gene Parmesan at the pearly gates.

[dewitty1]

https://apnews.com/article/martin-mull-dead-9e388ada08324634fe763b798abd0bc4

Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday.

Mull's Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”

[qupritsuvwix]

Fuck!

[flythesail]

Holiday prompts!!! Going with

45 - Is that my scarf?

74 - Can you help me put the star on top of the tree?

85 - Yeah, I've never made a pie before, but how hard can it be?

do any or all or whatever your heart desires! ❤️🦝✨

Thank youuu!! Starting with #45 but I might have to come back for the others haha. For you <3

Also on ao3

It's late when they make it out to Fernwood. So late they probably should have waited until tomorrow, but Nancy had never been one to wait. 

The snow crunched under their boots, more ice than snow in the places the snow began to melt and then refroze with Horseshoe Bay's temperamental weather. 

Nancy's flashlight caught on the bark of the trees, bare branches, and tracks in the snow from her footsteps earlier today. 

"It should be somewhere over here," she said, stopping in a small clearing. She shined her flashlight around a large fallen log. 

When the map was created, the tree was still standing. This tree was half-decayed and frosted over with a sheet of ice. But if they could find the tree, they could find wherever it was Earl Dorsey hid that box over half a century ago. 

“Nancy,” Ace said, his sigh coming out as a frozen puff. “There are hundreds of trees in the woods. It could be any of them.”

“Yes,” she said, the beam from her flashlight waving across the snow as she gestured with her hand, “but it was also in a clearing about the size of this one.” 

“And how many other clearings are the size of this one?”

Nancy spared him a glance. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his coat, and his hat was tugged down over his ears–strands of his hair poking out the bottom of it. 

It wasn’t like him to complain. Out of everyone, he was normally the first to say he would tag along. Often times he didn’t even say it. Where Nancy went, he went too. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked, shining the flashlight toward him. She was careful to keep it lower so it wouldn’t shine in his eyes. “I thought you liked the woods.”

Somewhere off in the distance, a branch cracked, snow falling with it. 

Ace shivered. “It’s cold.”

A small smile flickered across Nancy’s face. “That’s it?”

“You’re not cold?” 

Nancy shrugged. She hadn’t really noticed. The box was all she could think about, so it never occurred to her just how low the temperature had dropped tonight. 

“Come on,” she said, walking toward another clearing. “This will only take a few more minutes.” 

Ace trailed behind her. “You’re really not?” he asked. 

Nancy stopped suddenly, and Ace bumped into her. “This scarf is pretty warm,” she said, turning to him. 

His gaze dropped to the collar of her coat, where red yarn was just barely visible. 

“Is that my scarf?” he asked. 

“Maybe.” Nancy shrugged, turning to head further into the woods. 

“I asked you if you knew where it was, and you said no!”

That was technically true. He did ask, and at the time, the scarf was nowhere to be found. Eventually, of course… Nancy found it in the mudroom, buried under the other winter apparel they dropped at the door before heading inside the house. 

But by that point, Ace had been missing his scarf for so long, she figured it deserved a new home. 

And it was warm. Knitted by Rebecca with the best yarn you could get from the craft store. Soft and cozy, so unlike the scratchy scarf Nancy normally wore throughout winter. 

Nancy stopped again, shining her flashlight up and down a particularly wide tree trunk. According to Earl’s granddaughter, he had carved his initials into the base of the tree too. But with so many years having gone by, the odds of his initials holding up to weather and the growth of the tree alike might not be great.

Ghosts and supernatural entities were Nancy's typical domain, but business at Nancy Drew Investigations was slow over the holidays, and if searching for a buried family heirloom was what kept the lights on at Icarus Hall—so be it. 

She turned to Ace, who was now bouncing on his heels in an attempt to stay warm. 

“Do you want your scarf back?” she asked, reaching for the end of it under her coat.

He shook his head. “You keep it.”

“You sure? You seem a little cold.”

At least that got him to smile. "Then you'd be cold." 

"Maybe I'm just more suited to winter than you." Nancy walked around the perimeter of the tree. "How did you handle it when you were an Eagle Scout?" Winters were practically eternal in Horseshoe Bay.

Ace stopped near a different tree, clicking on his own flashlight to examine it. 

"I was first to earn my fire-making patch." 

Nancy's flashlight flickered, and she smacked the side of it with her gloved hand. 

"So if I ever need someone to start a fire, you're my guy." 

"Depends. What are you setting on fire?"

"You're the one who's cold. Does it matter?" 

The beam of her flashlight grew steady again, and she moved to the next tree over. 

There, just at eye level, were two faint letters. 

E.D. 

"Found it!" she called. 

Ace joined her at the tree. "Nice." He shined his flashlight over the letters. "Now what?" 

"Well, the ground is too frozen to dig anything up. We'll have to come back next week." 

"Nancy." 

"Come on," she said with a laugh. She grabbed his hand to pull him along with her. "I'll give you your scarf back." 

He shifted so his arm was around her. Now tucked into his side, Nancy realized she had been cold. 

"I don't believe you," he said. 

"I mean… I wouldn't mind keeping it." 

"I wouldn't mind having it back either." 

Nancy glanced up at him, catching a flash of his smile even in the dark of the woods. 

"Then I guess we'll just have to share." 

Two weeks later, one more box was under the tree on Christmas morning. 

**********

Ryan picked it up, checking the tag before handing it over. 

"For you, Nancy," he said. 

She took it, careful with how she removed the wrapping paper. It clearly wasn't from Ryan. He was terrible at wrapping, and Carson was more of a gift bag guy. 

Nancy snuck a glance at Ace. He was sitting on the couch, and casually took a sip of coffee. His face gave away nothing as he watched her from over the rim of his mug. 

When the paper was all removed and set to the side, Nancy lifted the lid from the box. 

"Cozy!" said Ryan, peering into the box. 

Inside, lay two different colored scarves. One black, and one blue—the same blue as her Claw uniform from what seemed like a lifetime ago. 

"Who's that from?" Carson asked. He had a plastic bag in hand and was beginning to collect all the scraps of wrapping paper. 

Nancy ran her hand over the scarves. They were both soft, and she knew they would be warm too. 

She got up and joined Ace on the couch.

"Thank you," she said, leaning to give him a kiss. 

"You're welcome," he said, taking another sip of coffee. 

Nancy watched him, a smile playing about her lips. "Is there a reason you got me two?" 

He set his mug down on the coffee table, then put his arm behind her. "One for sleuthing. One for casual wear." 

"And so I give yours back?" 

Ace smiled, and Nancy laughed, moving to rest her head on him.

"I'll think about it."

[adultswim2021]

Saul of the Mole Men #1: “A New Friend” | February 12, 2007 - 12:00AM | S01E01 Revised version first aired April 17, 2007 @ 12:15

Imagine you’re watching a movie. A character in the movie turns on the TV, and there’s a show that’s too stupid to REALLY exist in the real world. TV shows are already a heightened form of reality, and so are movies, so when the character watches this show, chances are it’s going to be pretty dumb by our standards. But because the movie person lives in a heightened version of reality, it only makes sense that the TV show will be a heightened version of that heightened reality. That movie character is used to this version of television. But, we as the audience watching the movie are not. 

Very simply, you have what you’d refer to as a “fake show”. These usually exist so you can watch a movie character watch the show, giggle at how stupid it is, and maybe also giggle at how stupid the character is for liking it, or how notice how cool and relatable they are for not liking it. Sometimes, not often, but SOMETIMES, the show is actually fully produced to some extent and included as an extra feature on the special edition DVD. Isn’t that neat? 

Fake shows exist on TV, as well, usually serving some allegorical function. “Invitation to Love” on Twin Peaks. “Terrance and Phillip” on South Park. “Pscyho Dad” on Married… With Children. That sort of thing. This blurs the concept of “Fake shows” altogether.

You’d think this was a simple concept, but it’s not. In fact, there is yet another step towards the uncanny: the “fake shows” that exist in real life. Some of them are a little less vague because they are broad genre parodies (Fernwood Tonight*, Night Stand with Dick Deitrich). But for some of them, the joke is that they exist at all. Those are the truly uncanny ones: That’s My Bush!. Let’s Bowl. And this: Saul of the Mole Men. 

Saul of the Mole Men was created by a big foam mouth whose top part of its head was the word FUNNY and jaw was the word GARBAGE. I don’t really care to actually untangle the ownership here; for some reason I assumed Jimmy Kimmel was the owner of this company because I remembered he had an affinity for Josh Gardner (the titular Saul), and he supported the career of Adam De La Pena (whose Minoriteam sported this production logo). There’s some vaguely recognizable names in here, like Tom Stern and Tim Burns, who worked with Alex Winter on Idiot Box (underrated) and Freaked (one of the best comedies ever made). Oh, hey, Alex Winter is credited as a voice in this! I think that’s him as the king Mole Man?

The premise was that Saul Malone, a nerdy and anxious geologist, is one of the sole survivors of a disastrous mission involving a drill-mounted underground vehicle (is there a word for this?? I wonder!). Among the living is a rude robot who says stuff like “(slur)”, and a vapid 60s style pop star, who is in stasis on board during the first scene for some reason that isn’t explained. When their vehicle crashes and everyone on the ship winds up dead, Saul ventures into the subterranean world of the Mole Men, to go and have… serialized adventures… uh, down there. 

The first episode’s plot: the craft crashes, Saul, Johnny Tambourine, and Robot need to find their locator antenna, which has landed in the Mole King’s throne room. The Mole King dutifully brings the antenna to Saul, and kindly introduces himself. Saul is freaked out by the Mole Men to such a degree that it causes him to ignore this friendly gesture and stab the king in the head with the antenna. And that all takes 11 minutes for some reason. 

Okay, so the show is cheesy and crappy-looking on purpose. It’s meant to look like a Sid and Marty Krofft production from the 70s. Other references get thrown around like Doctor Who. The opening reminds me of Ark II, or any number of Saturday morning semi-serious action shows shot in the desert aimed at really stupid children. It shares something in common with Sid and Marty Krofft productions: damn, it looks really fun! But also: damn, the people shooting this really didn’t give a shit. Like at, at all. 

That’s the prevailing feeling with Saul of the Molemen. The aesthetics are really pleasing, honestly. The Mole Men are really fun to look at. The opening theme sequence and credits and stuff are beautiful. It does look really fun to make. But the script and the shooting of the show? I will give props to Josh Gardner, who had a small cult following from Gerhard Reinke's Wanderlust on Comedy Central, a short-lived show that never grabbed me, but I remember a small number of people in my orbit insisted that it was “actually pretty good”. His performance is occasionally very fun, and he embodies the character well. Certain action shots are on-purposes lackluster. That’s the main joke of the show: unconvincing action and dumb jokes. 

Speaking of jokes: actual written jokes are few and far between. There are maybe two lines in this that qualify as a joke: Saul’s dying crew mate thinks Saul is another guy on the team: “why do you have his cold sore?” “It’s a mustache!” “The coldest sore of them all”. It’s an okay joke, but you can’t imagine anybody in the room saying “let’s try and come up with something better”. I would bet that this show was entirely produced from first draft scripts. 

That’s not entirely accurate; this episode is in fact a revision of a revision; First there was the pilot version of this, which I recall adultswim.com had clips of online (I found information that suggests the whole pilot was up, but I only remember a clip package that shared the scenes that were cut from the final version). The shot with Saul being barfed on by subterranean birds seen in the opening is derived from the original pilot. There are also many shots that seem like they were shot at different times; The costumes, Saul’s mustache, or the video quality all seem slightly different from shot-to-shot. 

The version available online for viewing was actually revised a second time; later they added a gag where the show kept playing different opening sequences for different shows before settling on Saul. This version aired midway through the series and became the “final” version of the episode. I VASTLY prefer the first aired version and don’t think the additional intros opening adds much. In fact they come off too jokey and at worst tacked-on (they are in fact both of these things). What IS legitimately great though is the actual Saul of the Mole Men theme song, sung by television’s Trey Parker. It’s very catchy, and the single best thing about the show. 

There is one other notable dialogue-driven joke: Robot can’t tell if the Mole Men are mongoloids or what. Johnny Tambourine says his sister was (paraphrasing) born retarded. Or was it Chinese? Actually, she was stillborn. (end joke, which ends on a lingering shot of Saul furrowing his brow as if the home audience needs to recover from laughing so hard) I’m not trying to win woke points, I swear to god, but: this joke always rubbed me the wrong way. Like there’s something really unsatisfying about it. Maybe it’s a hat on a hat kinda thing? I remember friends quoting it and I sorta was like, “yeah, I guess that’s funny.” I don’t know man. I feel like they were going for stupid-on-purpose, but the stupidity on this show has a way of leaving me cold. The writing just seems brushed-off. I often wonder if this show was a little more PG or a little more straight-faced, as though it really were children’s television, if it would be better. 

It reminds me of certain producer-types I’ve talked to, whose whole attitude is that comedy is easy: you just try a bunch of dumb but novel ideas and wait for one to catch on. This one apparently caught on: I mean, it sold, didn’t it? For some reason Adult Swim greenlit 20 episodes of this thing, and it’s baffling why? Did they commission and then not even watch the pilot? I’m hazy on the details, but I remember them taking shots at this show later on in bumpers: citing it as an example of greenlighting gone-wrong. 

I… (gulp) remember this being the best episode of the show, from what I saw. It’s only downhill from here. Oh no!

PS: I am going to save the Jonah Ray bashing for another write-up. This is already too many words. 

*FERNWOOD TONIGHT ADDENDUM: Fernwood Tonight is typically described as a spin-off of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, but I’m one of the few people on Earth who has actually watched every episode of Mary Hartman so I am going to use this blog to clear up the distinction: YES: there were moments in the show where characters watched a show called “Fernwood Tonight” but it did not resemble the real-life Fernwood Tonight at all and was more of a local news magazine program. In that incarnation it was just an expression of the idea of “going on TV” whenever the plot called for it. Like, if a character on the show is doing something that gets media coverage, it’s gonna happen on “Fernwood Tonight”. The Mayor needs to announce something to the whole town, it happens on “Fernwood Tonight”, etc. The concept of the show being revamped and hosted by Martin Mull as Barth Gimble (twin brother to Garth Gimble, who died on Mary Hartman) was introduced late in the series as a tease for the upcoming “spin-off”. So I don’t really count it as a show-within-a-show really at all. It’s more of a calculated extension of the Fernwood universe. Thank you. Thank you for letting me say this stuff.

MAIL BAG

Tim and Eric Awesome Show premiering on Adult Swim, THE CARTOON NETWORK, was like Bob Dylan going electric. Same feigned outrage followed by significant amounts of influence for the world of comedy. May Tim and Eric STAND the TEST of TIME!

I agree with you, even though I don’t know who Bob Dylan is. Seems like a weird guy to know about honestly. Bye.

Hacky Sack Extreme. Million Dollar Extreme. See the connection? As the late Bill Murray would say: Friend of yours?

Bill Murray recently found himself in hot water for massaging his niece Geena Davis. So back the fuck off pal

I have a friend named Connor but we call him C-Boy from time to time so its pretty cool there was a C-Boy on Tim and Eric. Shout out to him! Keep New Jersey weird dude, Jersey style!

This is a banner day for mentioning weird guys. But... I have a feeling... this C-Boy of yours is a good guy and a good friend. May the friendship STAND the TEST of TIME!

I dont like how they say "fuckin podcast" in the podcast episode. So rude! If that was the first thing I ever saw them do I may have never give them a chance. Instead I love the guys. Can life be really that precarious?

I agree, and yes. It’s like my friend who turned off the Comedy Central TV Funhouse show because an animal swore. He hated that. Even when I pointed out “that was in all the promos. You were ready for it”. He stuck to his guns. That guy died, probably.

[abriefingwithmichael]

“Fernwood Tonight” s1e24 (1977)

Bill Kirchenbauer absolutely steals the show as cheesy lounge singer Tony Rolletti. He's hilarious and the banter between him and Barth is razor sharp.

Loved the second guest, too. A mobster who is clearly murdering his rivals.

9/10