Fernwood 2 Night

"Fernwood 2 Night" was a strange and delightful summer series from the mind of Norman "All In The Family" Lear. I never got addicted to its associated series, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" but I really enjoyed watching this talk show spoof. Taped at the fictitious WZAZ-TV studios (Channel 6, Fernwood, Ohio), every night was a parade of peculiar - and often talentless - guests. Occasionally the Mirthmakers would go on strike, leaving poor Happy Kine, the woe-be-gone-faced bandleader, to play the show's signature theme, solo, on a clarinet. I could have it mixed up with "America 2 Night" (the series that followed the next summer), but "Fernwood 2 Night" also had special features such as "Rocket 2 Stardom" (that showcased new "talent"), and "Bury The Hatchet" (which allowed those with grudges to settle them on the air).

This show was a predecessor to the later wildly popular "Larry Sanders Show" on HBO and Comedy Central's "Primetime Glick", two other send-ups of the talk show circuit. In many respects, though, "Fernwood 2 Night" was a classic. I certainly hope the entire series is made available on DVD sometime.

I absolutely rolled on the floor with laughter at this show. Martin Mull and Fred Willard were the perfect choices to play the hosts of "Fernwood Tonight". During those days, Johnny Carson was so popular and it was hilarious to see the hosts of "Fernwood Tonight" act as if their show was just as popular on a small town scale. I would love to see this series come out on DVD. It's a shame that this type of humorous show is no longer....there is too much nudity,sex and violence on TV these days. I miss just laughing at something silly! It would be so much fun to reminisce and watch this show. After all these years, I've never forgotten it. So many other shows seemed to be released on DVD right away, PLEASE release "Fernwood Tonight" to DVD!

I was never a big fan of 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' but this hilarious spinoff of that show (a local talk show from the 'MH, MH' setting of Fernwood, Ohio) featured Martin Mull as smug host Barth Gimble and Fred Willard as his empty headed sidekick.The show rather mercilessly skewered small town America, its prejudices and foibles. One show for example featured a Jewish man whose car broke down in Fernwood and was featured as a guest in a segment called "Talk to a Jew".(One old lady: "Barth, I can't believe someone as sweet as this young man murdered Our Lord").It only lasted one season and for some bizarre reason the next year, the show moved its setting to Hollywood and became 'Hollywood 2Night" but without the small town setting the show's point was lost.

Extra props to the late, great Frank DeVol(veteran tv/movie composer of the 'My Three Sons" theme) as the eternally basset hound faced show's band leader Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers, who also owned Fernwood's finest fast food joint the "Bun

'n' Run"

I can tell you this for a fact. Lear wanted to do an improv show and went to Alan Thicke who said "You can't do that". Lear fired him. Thicke went into an office wrote the first week of what we know as Fernwood 2Nite. Thicke went to Lear and said "this is the only way I know how to do a show, they can improv around it". Lear hired him back. What he called "Kirkland Lake 2Nite".

I always thought of Mr. Thicke as a dull, regular performer. Knowing that he conceived and wrote this piece of brilliance puts him (in my mind) in the same league as Monty Python, KITH, Gary Shandling. Imagine the guy who played the Dad on Growing pains, actually has such a twisted and hilarious sense of humour.

Truly Thicke is an unsung genius.

Definitely a show before it's time. I really wish somehow they would do reruns. Of course, the content may not be 'politically correct' but that is what I have always admired about Norman Lear, and Lorne Michaels too. They run on the edge and beyond and that is what makes their comedy so entertaining.

Sometimes some of the best shows don't remain. I was not a fan of Mary Hartman Mary Hartman but loved Fernwood 2nite. I remember the dead pan-ness of Martin Mull and the always over exuberant Fred Willard. This show is probably what put Martin Mull on the map?

Last poster said Norman Lear is deceased.

Norman Lear is very much alive!