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!

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.

Okay, I'll be really honest. I DID NOT see the infamous Andy Kaufman episode. I have heard so much about it, it has become a part of my memory.If I did, I don't remember it, at all. I tried to watch this show, but when it was on, I was usually out on a date, or doing something else.

I DO remember some of the great skits, such as Michael Richards going from Ronald Reagan to Richard Nixon, in a bit called "Altered Statesman", a play on the hit movie of the time "Altered States". I recall the group "Devo" being on, and the great ongoing bit about drugs, "Do we eat it, No-no no-no! Do we smoke it, ya-ya ya-ya!!!"

It WAS edgier than Saturday Night Live ever was, as it had to compete with the concept that SNL was king. But, if you remember, SNL went into a decline with the 80-81 cast, and critics were sure that "Friday's" would live a long life. I think that the show suffered from being shuffled around with it's start times. I don't know if local ABC affiliates would push the show back to show local programs, or the network just kept moving it. I remember seeing it in late '81, starting well after midnight, central time.

A perfect candidate for DVD/VHS release, or being shown on TVLand, or Comedy Central.

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.