Fridays

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

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

Friday's was one of the best shows I have ever watched. It was well written and superbly performed. I would love to see the show re-runs so they could be enjoyed by a whole new generation of people. The character development was superior to anything on television today. I was trying to tell my 21-year old about this show but words can't describe the superior comedic performances that appeared week after week. I still don't understand how lesser-quality comedy shows survived while this one didn't. The pharmacist and the angry little kid (played by Michael Richards) was side-splitting comedy at its best. I still chuckle when I think of some of those crazy skits. Any ideas out there on how to revive the shows for syndication?

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.

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.