Splitsider

 
History

Watch Conan O'Brien's 'Late Night' Audition from 1993

by | April 16th, 2013

Here's a short snippet from Conan O'Brien's audition to be the host of NBC's Late Night, which O'Brien's website Team Coco released this week to commemorate the 20th anniversary of said audition. Then a writer for The Simpsons, O'Brien was asked to do an off-air trial show with a live studio audience. His guests were Mimi Rodgers and Jason Alexander, and he ended the show with a classy, humble goodbye: "That's the end of my mock show. If that's all I ever get, it was a lot of fun. I had a good time. Thank you very much."

History

Seba Smith and the Birth of American Political Satire

by | October 15th, 2012

Ever since George Washington laughed at himself while attending a farce by the “father” of American theatre William Dunlap, comedians have been knocking down presidents just as fast as the electorate can set them up. Political satire may be the best example of what freedom of speech is good for: it's dangerous, persuasive, and brings the mighty low, just the sort of thing a democracy needs to keep things fresh. Best of all, comedy can reach across party lines and far beyond the self-absorbed circle jerk of political insiders. One good SNL sketch will change more minds than a thousand policy briefs and think tank reports.

Perhaps the first breakout [...]

History

'All in the Family' and the First Gay Sitcom Character

by | May 30th, 2012

In February 1971, All in the Family became the first sitcom to bring a gay man into America’s wallpapered, shag-carpeted, plaid-couched living rooms.

And he turned out to be a former linebacker.

It was only the show’s fifth episode. The Gay Rights Movement was still getting off the ground in earnest — the first Pride Parades had taken place the previous summer — but I can’t find an earlier sitcom representation of an openly gay character. For some insight into how shocking the half-hour had been for some viewers, one need look no farther than the Oval Office (the same room from which President Obama announced his “evolved” position [...]

History

The Fifth Stooge

by | April 13th, 2012

In November 1955, Moe Howard and Larry Fine were prepared to disband the most famous comedy troupe in U.S. history. It’s hard to blame them. The Three Stooges were still reeling from the surprise death of longtime partner Curly Howard, a fan favorite who passed on three years earlier after suffering a nasty cerebral hemorrhage. Then Moe’s brother Shemp — a founding member of the group who had left but rejoined after Curly’s health deteriorated — collapsed on a Los Angeles sidewalk after a night at the fights and died of a massive heart attack. Devastated by the loss of their comrades and skeptical they could find another collaborator with [...]

History

Get A Life: The Community of Its Time

by | March 7th, 2012

According to the internet, television network executives are a bunch of deplorable scumbags. They are wretched slime, only existing to please the philistines that situate themselves in the middle of America that find Tim Allen and Jon Cryer funny. They purchase Monets and use them as target practice. They are only experts at bringing joy to the deserving loud minority that appreciate high brow things such as irony, only to take it away and watch as Tumblrs drown in their tears. Executives get their assistants to make screengrabs of the most depressing tweets about a show's cancellation to show their children on Christmas. After tousling their kids' hair they [...]

History

Inside the Greatest Writers Room You've Never Heard Of

by | December 11th, 2012

Twenty-five years ago, millions of Americans gathered around their sets to watch the launch of a show that would transform late-night TV. This show would fuse comedy and news, offering desk pieces, taped dispatches from correspondents, and interviews with political figures. It would instruct as well as entertain. Yes, a quarter-century ago, America got its first glimpse of a program that had many similarities to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. It was called The Wilton North Report. The Wilton North Re-what? Exactly.

Still, pop culture history was made that night. I was a writer on the show and forgive me for bragging, but as a late-night programming fiasco, I believe The Wilton North [...]

History

Lenny Bruce Didn't Have the Best Relationship with His Dad

by | August 13th, 2012

Eesh. Here's a letter that Lenny Bruce wrote to his father upon facing jail time for a drug conviction in 1964. It's…dark. Dear Father,

This is the story of a boy and his father who spoiled him. He would want a bike, and his father would bring him one home: and if it wasn't to the boy's liking, he would throw it down on the ground and say, "I don't want that cheap old bike." And he would kick its spokes and jump on it: and the poor father would say, "Alright, my son, I'll work 24 hours a day and get you a nicer one." The [...]

History

10 'SNL' Sketches Cut From the Reruns

by | May 1st, 2012

One interesting aspect about reruns of Saturday Night Live is how they’re sometimes very different than what went over the air live during the original airing. The piecemeal nature of the show makes it easy to remove an entire segment from the show rundown if necessary, and the producers can easily fill time using a pre-taped bit, material that originally aired during another show or even debut a previously unaired segment. This practice dates back to the early years of the show and continues today. Some segments have been restored for syndication, the DVD and online streaming versions.  Reruns of shows after Lorne Michaels’ 1985 return have an increased amount [...]

History

The Inspired Insanity of The Gong Show

by | March 27th, 2012

Forget Pet Rocks and bell bottoms. If you want evidence the seventies were the strangest decade in American history, feast your eyes on The Gong Show, the brief-but-oh-so-memorable game show that aired from 1976 through 1980, in a daytime version on NBC and nighttime version in syndication. Even taking account Community, Conan, and all the other “off-beat” shows currently on TV, it still stands as among the strangest television programs of all time. And I would argue, among the funniest.

The Gong Show was initially dreamed up by mega-successful game show producer Chuck Barris (The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game) as a straightforward talent competition. But, the story goes, [...]

History

Charles Farrar Browne, the Sometimes-Racist Father of Standup Comedy

by | February 28th, 2012

On September 22, 1862, the men who pulled the levers of war and government assembled at the White House for a Cabinet meeting. The members arrived impatient and preoccupied with their own enormous burdens in service to the war and like 90% of people in meetings everywhere, they were anxious to get the whole thing over with. But they came anyway out of respect for the dignity of their positions expecting to conduct some business worthy of their time. Abraham Lincoln cast his eyes upon these powerful men, gathered at his word in this moment of great crisis, and he read to them a profane story about the destruction of a wax [...]

History

The Rope-Throwin' Political Comedy of Will Rogers

by | October 26th, 2012

There has never been a comedian with as much political influence and esteem as Will Rogers. If Jon Stewart was one of the most popular movie stars in the country you’d be getting close, but only kinda — and you’d still need to add a bunch of rope tricks. Remember Stephen Colbert’s campaign? Will got there first, and he was drafted into his campaign. Plus he actually received a few votes at the convention. Twice.

Rogers was as full of contradictions as America itself. He was a Cowboy and an Indian. He had a country voice loaded with urban slang. He rose to stardom telling jokes with a chorus [...]

History

Inside 'The New Show,' Lorne Michaels' Early-80s Sketch Show Flop

by | May 30th, 2012

In the Broadway Video offices, I asked a couple of staffers if they had tapes of The New Show.

"Of course," replied the taller one. "We have everything Lorne's done."

"Why do you bring that up?" added the wider one.

"I watched it every Friday night — well, the Friday nights it was on. It got yanked pretty early."

They stared at me.

"You think a complete set of the show will ever be released?" I asked.

"Don't let Lorne hear that," said Mr. Tall. "It's not something he wants remembered."

They were assembling a Michael O'Donoghue reel for me. I hinted that if they threw in some select [...]

History

A Look Back at the 1987 Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship with Host Alan Thicke

by | April 24th, 2012

The 1980s were defined by myriad phenomena, and perhaps just below the end of the Cold War in terms of cultural relevance was the growth in popularity of group aerobic exercise. The Richard Simmons Show premiered in 1980; the next year brought Physical by Olivia Newton-John.  Jane Fonda’s first video workout tape was released in 1982, and John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis starred in the film Perfect three years later.

But on April 24, 1987, the ultimate merger of mass media and body mass reduction took place when at least one television station in the United States (KTLA in Los Angeles, as evidenced by the clip above) [...]

History

Timing Is… Everything: The Story Of Charlie Barnett

by | March 21st, 2012

16 years ago last Friday, comedian Charlie Barnett's life was cut tragically short, the ends to a drug and doubt-fueled means that had reduced one of the most naturally gifted performers of a generation to an AIDS-stricken, debt-ridden smack addict.

Yet in spite of the sordid details of his demise, it is his Barnett's talent, fearlessness, and generosity — to his audience, his disciples, and his craft — which carry his legacy.

* * *

It took the Village to raise Charlie Barnett.

Born in 1954 to an alcoholic mother and mentally ill father, he lived with his grandmother in the coal mining town of Bluefield, West Virginia [...]

Older posts »
-->