Fridays

Fridays was a great show! Everything that everyone wrote is the absolute truth. I would also love to see re-runs on Comedy Central! I found this web site by trying to find Fridays on video because no one at work has ever heard of the show. How sad for them that they never got to experience this great show on a Friday night. My favorite was Michael Richards acting as the deranged boy picking on his sisters dolls while blowing up his soldiers. It reminded me so much of my brother and how he picked on us girls, lol. Of course the pharmacist pulling and twisting his hair and saying, "I can handle it" keeps popping in front of my mind. I really wish someone would show re-runs or at least put the episodes on video/DVD for purchase!

The late night sketch-comedy FRIDAYS began when SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was transitioning from the original cast, and while not every skit is drop dead hilarious, and both were an Americanized MONTY PYTHON with far-out silliness pushed to deliberately insane, conceptual limits, it was a pretty cool show...

While SNL had become a kind of faded classic rock ashtray, FRIDAYS felt like one of those new wave/punk rock music store buttons with random shapes swimming in hip colors and brisk design...

Featuring Melanie Chartoff, the straight-woman liken to Jane Curtain only extremely sexy, and she could also play offbeat, wild-haired like Gilda Radner... not only terrific with improv but the primary newscaster, making the satirical stories all too real: a comedic performer and character-actress both...

But what made FRIDAYS really shine, other than Andy Kaufman's fake-yet-seemingly-convincing bout with future SEINFELD star Michael Richards, were those awesome live bands...

Ranging from THE CLASH to KISS with performances that sounded clearer, looser and more open/less constrained than SNL, the bands were even more important than sporadic celebrity hosts...

Making FRIDAYS a rare glimpse into that relatively neglected, limbo era when the 1970's had morphed into the 1980's before losing its sparse, exploitative edge and gaining that bright neon, arcade aesthetic... when The Clash fit best.

"Fridays", which ran for two seasons on ABC, was a live sketch comedy show with a celebrity guest host & famous guest band. It aired at 11:30ET on, duh, Friday nights. So yes, it was ABC's version of Saturday Night Live. But more importantly, it was done from Los Angeles, so it was a West Coast version of SNL. And it showed.

Too many of the sketches were simple, 'one-joke' bits. The Rhasta-man for example, consisted of nothing more than the audience waiting for the jamaican guy to finally say, "ganja!" so they could hoot & holler (picture Married with Children's or Arsenio's audience). The same thing would happen during the Weekend Update-style newscast. Melanie Chartoff, who was the show's sex kitten, served as news anchor and the audience would howl at her thru most of the bit. Mark Blankfield's "I can handle it" pill-popping pharmacist was also little more than that, him acting whacked-out on speed and trying to deal with customers.

The show did have some bright spots:

Michael Richards 'Battle Boy' for instance. He was this psychotic kid who did terrible things to his army men (set them on fire & scream horribly). Plus he had a white trash mother who would just yell at him all the time. Richards also did a great 'Record Critic Guy' where he basically trashed everything (and early 80s music deserved some serious trashing!)

John Roarke was a very good impressionist, though his characters were too sterile and robotic. He had great technique but little flair for personal nuance.

Bruce Mahler not only did the memorable & weird 'dancing chickens' bit but also several good news skits opposite Chartoff such as having removed his brain and holding it in his hands still connected to his spine via a cable. And a simply yet funny bit with the two of them inhaling helium.

Also Rich Hall started out on this show (great trivia question: Who's the only person to be a regular cast member of both Fridays & SNL? Him!)

And I did indeed see the Kaufman show. And it was disappointing to find out the next day that the whole fight thing had been fake.

I also saw one of the last shows on March 5th, 1982 (John Belushi had died earlier that day).

Howard E. Rollins from the "In the Heat of the Night" TV series hosted and did a very funny bit about an insane morgue attendant who made the corpses act out little sketches with him.

And William Shatner, some 5 years before his infamous 'Get a life' bit on SNL, showed his gift for wacky comedy for the first time hosting Fridays.

Overall it was a funny show. Not groundbreaking in the least, and a complete ripoff of SNL, but still funny and worthy of more than just two seasons (I don't remember hearing about its cancellation, it just wasn't on anymore).

Friday's was ridiculed as a poor man's Saturday Night Live and I think that's an unfair assessment. The show had a wealth of talent with a brilliant Mark Blankfield, a very funny Melanie Chartoff and our first look at Michael "Cosmo Kramer" Richards. It displayed inventive, cutting edge comedy and simply awesome musical guests (among which was a must-be-seen-to-be-believed performance by British punkers The Clash and the shock theatrics of The Plasmatics). Unfortunately, Fridays never quite caught on with the masses and died a rather premature death. I'm sure everyone has heard about the brawl involving Andy Kaufman on one episode. Even though it was staged, the hype surrounding it was just as funny and a great stunt. Along with SNL and SCTV Network 90, Fridays gave America in the early 1980s a reason to stay home on weekends. Those of us who remember late night TV back then should consider ourselves very lucky to have had a show to watch of this calibre. I was very disappointed when it was canceled. I think there would be no Kids In The Hall or Mr. Show without the late night comedy TV shows of the late 70s/early 80s. Fridays is certainly on that list.

This show was always great! I wish it could be brought back as repeats! There are a few skits that come to mind. Mark Blankfield playing a Pharmacist with unusual events happening to him, and his famous line "I can handle it". Or, Michael Richards playing the little boy burning little green plastic army men out on the lawn turned into a dirt pit, making a loud ruckus, and his Mom (played by Maryedith Burrell) having her moments with him. Or, Bruce Mahler dressing up a dancing chicken and playing the piano. Or, Darrow Igus playing the Jamican Man showing what he can do with fish and other items. And Melanie Chartoff, the cutest comedian ever! And the show also had great musical guests, Boomtown rats, J Giels Band, John Cougar, Plasmatics, B52s, ACDC, and many others. A great show. If you have been lucky enough to experience the show, I hope the above comments brought back some great memories. :-)

A devoted Fridays fan