Fernwood 2 Night

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!

Other than Monty Python, I can't think of too many shows where I would actually hurt from laughing so hard, but this was one of those shows.

I think there were a lot of elements that made this show so great: all the characters were wonderful, and I like how they were so earnest in the way they went about doing their show in the small town of Fernwood Ohio, the guests who happened along and got their 15 minutes of fame momentarily, the non-PC way Barth and Jerry conversed about pretty much any topic or person, and of course, Happy Kyne and the Merthmakers.

I'd like to see the shows again to see if they were all as good as I remember.

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!

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"

One of my favorite features on Fernwood Tonight was the guests. One was a scientist researching the effects of polyester using white rats. He held up a rat dressed in a tiny polyester leisure suit, and a control rat dressed in tweed. He reported that, not only did the rats in tweed get less cancer, they got more girls.