The New Show

I only remember a couple of episodes of this. The best skit I saw was the Steve Martin "Billie Jean" parody (which I could not find under the Steve Martin Television Appearances section on IMDB).

Another skit that stands out was the "Cartoon Bloopers" skit. The idea was so original and ridiculous at that time, although the idea has been somewhat over-used in recent years. Like, "The Jetsons", George is supposed to enter a room, and the space-age door slides up half way and gets stuck, and you can hear him laughing on the other side of the door. Great stuff!

Would love to see a "Best Of" DVD for this show!

8 out of 10 stars.

I remember seeing this short-lived series on Friday nights on NBC just after "The Master". It was sketch comedy featuring a lot of alumni from "Saturday Night Live" and SCTV. I used to watch it weekly, however 20 years later, I can only recall some gags with any clarity.

Steve Martin and (I believe) Catherine O'Hara appeared in one cafe setting where the extras in the table behind them keep on interrupting their performance. For a breath or two, Catherine isn't saying anything- one of the people in behind turn around to remind her of her next line. She retorts, "I was making a dramatic pause!"

Other funny bits include a 1984 parody where a face on a jumbotron is telling people what dance moves they should make in a discotheque (and being in a dance club listening to music from the year 1984 was truly an Orwellian nightmare). John Candy had a skit as a food repairman- he tells one potential client of the long hours and labour costs that would be involved in having to put all the salt back onto his pretzels! Plus, I remember a funny ripoff of the movie WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (still a cable favourite in those days).

I had long written off "Saturday Night Live" as having anything of worth, so it was a delight seeing famous alumni from that show, and Canada's own SCTV (which NBC had aired and then canceled), working together with material worthy of their talents. Too bad it didn't last long. I'd love to see if it still held up after all these years. DVD, please?

Watched this series in Jr. High the season it was on, and while the series was short lived, it included some very funny sketches. My favorite, and the one I wish I could dig up the videotape on, is the Steve Martin parody of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' video. Dressed as the KOP, Martin walked down the street, and had to stomp on some 'tiles' to make them light up, then gave a typical Steve Martin shrug and glance to the sky for divine intervention. The Den of Revulsion was another memorable clip ('Eeeeewwwww!'), and for some reason their spoof of phone sex sticks in my mind - the backwoods brothers that actually go to the trouble of establishing credit to speak with 'The Naked Lady' (Catherine O'Hara I think), who talks to them while taking care of her kids and ironing for her husband. It was a series that with a little better writing and a better time slot (prine time on Fridays, I think, matched up against 1st season Miami Vice), this show could have gone places.

I remember loving this show. The Jetson blooper reel was very funny.

John Candy played a owner of a food repair shop. A guy comes in with a pretzel that lost its salt. Candy tells him the man hours to replace each salt grain would make it cost to much to fix.

Carrie Fisher plays a woman frighten by phone calls asking who is watching the baby? The police call back and say the calls are coming from in the house. She scrambles to the baby's room to find the baby making the threatening calls.

The Quaid brothers did a bit playing two rednecks getting excited to talk to the "Dirty Lady" on phone. It was very funny.

I would like to see this on DVD. Or comedy central.

My dad has a VHS recording of The Best of the New Show (yes they had a "Best of" show with the few episodes they had) which has some bits which still crack me up. There was the Frightened Family, a neurotic family whose hair-raising experiences actually raise their hair. ["I was just thinking about that BUG again!"] And the Den of Revulsion, where hopefully you don't see a little bit of yourself. ["That's like using someone else's toothbrush!" "What's wrong with that? I do that all the time!" "Ewww!"] There were lots of great guest spots, too; Kevin Klein, Gilda Radner, Paul Simon, Steve Martin... (Kevin Klein and Gilda Radner playing an ice-skating team from such a poor country they couldn't afford skates; Paul Simon coming to Roy's Food Repair (John Candy as Roy) to get the salt from the bottom of his pretzel bag put back onto the pretzels; Steve Martin in a spoof of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" video...)

Anyway, there were definitely some worthless skits, but no more of a ratio of bad to good than the current SNL. I hope someday someone stumbles across The New Show and releases it on DVD.