Fridays

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

Created in early 1980s by ABC as an imitation of "Saturday Night Live," it was more extreme, crazier and funnier than "SNL." Besides Andy Kauffman, it featured Larry David and Michael Richards (both later of "Seinfeld").

Richard's violent, war-mongering and ultimately self-destructive boy in the sandbox was a brilliant creation. It broke the rules of physical comedy, going far beyond the predictable smart-alek jokes of "SNL." Richards was the genius of the show, not Kauffman, who by then was sadly running out of ideas.

By the way, the Kauffman episode of "Fridays" depicted in the movie "Man in the Moon" was not a spontaneous outburst. It was planned ahead of time, according to B.K. Momchilov, who runs the Andy Kauffman Home Page.

The Comedy Channel should play "Fridays" re-runs to offset "SNL's" stale re-runs.

Friday's wasn't always brilliantly written but, unlike SNL, it was consistently funny.

Friday's was what SNL used to be, high energy, edgy and hip. SNL had become tedious and chances are that if you thought the same about Friday's you were just too young to understand the comedic references. SNL had become a media institution at that point (like Rolling Stone, which used to be considered part of The Underground Press) and if you had a media product to peddle it was simply a base that had to be touched by the star or written into the sketches.

Friday's didn't care about any of that; From the announcer's screaming greeting "Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive, from the Los Angeles basin!" to music by that day's hippest bands, Friday's showcased some of the most outrageous comedy to be found on TV. Most folks remember Darrow Igus's Rasta Gourmet - a one trick pony to be sure but a crowd pleaser every time - "Do we bake it?" "No no no no!" "Do we fry it?" "No no no no!" 'til finally "We SMOKE it!" "ya ya ya ya" exclaimed Igus' gourmet, whose only spice was Ganja.

Michael Richard's Battle Boy got sicker and sicker as he developed the character, finally taking his little Sister hostage, burying her in the ground and threatening to torture her Barbie. Most folks remember how he liked to set his Army men on fire, complete with simulated screams of agony.

I also liked Richard's hip biker record reviewer, wherein he sailed rejected albums (I usually agreed with him) into the crowd like so many Frisbees.

Mark Blankfield's DRUGS R US stoned out pharmacist made me exhausted watching it. He sailed back and forth on that ladder, popping the inventory and getting more crazed by the minute. Funniest bit was when two midgets walked into his store and he screamed MY GOD, I'VE GROWN!!! Bruce Mahler was brilliant in anything he touched, even his stupid dancing chickens was irresistible. He and Blankfiled excelled above the others in a skit called "Men mmmm Who mmmm Say mmmm 'MMMM' between mmmm Every mmmm Word." When they got going fast it was simply insane.

Another brilliant team bit that they repeated several times was The Transfibians, where three of them had "the operation" changing them into ManFishes. Their school-like movements were hysterical.

Chartoff, the show's cutie-pie, was also a brilliant performer. I don't recall any signature pieces of her's, beyond the News bit. I know she always held up her end of the log in skits - quite a feat among such an insane bunch. I do recall her doing a very edgy piece about a relative who was a molester (she played a little girl). SNL had a similar skit but Friday's took it farther.

I don't recall Larry David at all, I guess he didn't impress me. Rich Hall was there as well as on SNL.

Friday's was truncated right in the midst of it's comedic development. It was a long way from becoming stale like SNL and performers like Michael Richards had to finish the development of their characterizations elsewhere. In Richard's case his nervous tic ridden character begun on Friday's ended up giving birth to Seinfeld's Cramer.

When Friday's was canceled I was just leaving "The Biz," where I worked as an Accountant. Many insiders were mystified at the cancellation of a clearly superior show. Did somebody get a big wig's nose out of joint? Was Friday's deep-sixed for some manner of major faux pas ala Aresenio Hall? Surely the rise of Howdy Doody's big brother Ted Koppel and the creation of Nighline wasn't enough to bump a screamingly funny show like Fridays, was it? We probably will never know. I've seen Friday's reruns on some of the more obscure cable channels but I hope to see it on DVD one day, they'd fly off the shelves.

bB

I loved Fridays. That's why I had to comment on what I read about it here. Despite what the plot outline says, it had musical performances every week. I remember seeing The Cars perform one time and at the end of the show, Michael Richards stood next to Ric Ocasek (dressed just like him) and he looked like his twin!

It was also John Roarke that did the perfect Reagan impersonation. In fact, Roarke's impersonations in general were just awesome.

I'd really like to see all the episodes go to DVD. Michael Richard's performances alone merit that. Add to that Blankfield's Pharmacist, Chartoff's news and really all of the performer's characters and you have a very enjoyable show.