Michael Richards on SNL ??
Dennis Cuy
Hi ho rats! (that's rec.arts.tv'ers)
I know there was recently a posting of the SNL casts from the
first season through today. I also know that Michael Richards
(Kramer from "Seinfeld") wasn't among the cast members. And,
I also know that supposedly Kramer was on some Friday night show
as a cast member...Ok, here's my problem:
I remember watching what I thought was SNL sometime back in the
80's where one of the players had this recurring roll as some
spazzy guy who thought he was really cool with women. The character
had this really bad case of the shakes. It was pretty funny :-)
Anyway, when "Seinfeld" started, and Kramer was on the show, I
could have sworn that this was the same actor. Does anyone who
watched either SNL during the (maybe) mid-'80s or whatever the
Friday night show with Michael Richards was remember any recurring
characters that fit this description. If it was SNL, who played
that guy? If it was the Friday night show, then "oh."
Hope someone can clarify this for me...no flames if this has already
been hashed somewhere. There are too many posts that I haven't read
yet to find out.
Thanks!
Dennis
email: c...@usc.edu
"I'll have a steak sandwich and a steak sandwich."
- Chevy Chase (nothing from SNL, but a very funny movie)
Bill Bulko
>Anyway, when "Seinfeld" started, and Kramer was on the show, I
>could have sworn that this was the same actor. Does anyone who
>watched either SNL during the (maybe) mid-'80s or whatever the
>Friday night show with Michael Richards was remember any recurring
>characters that fit this description. If it was SNL, who played
>that guy? If it was the Friday night show, then "oh."
Yes, it was Michael Richards, and yes, it was the Friday night show. The
show was called "Fridays", appropriately enough. Let me see how many
of the cast I can remember:
Michael Richards (now on "Seinfeld")
Larry David (writer or producer of "Seinfeld")
Melanie Chartoff (now Principal Russo on "Parker Lewis")
Brandis Kemp (I saw her recently doing a guest appearance on some
show, but can't remember which)
Darrow Igus (vanished)
Melanie Chartoff was the anchorperson on the "Fridays" version of "Weekend
Update". Also, Michael Richards and Melanie Chartoff were *great* in a
recurring skit where they played a brother and sister, each about 4-5 years
old. He always wore an Army helmet and a T-shirt with a picture of a
mushroom cloud on it, and played with toy soldiers in a VERY violent
fashion. (Setting them on fire, as if hit by a flame thrower; running over
them with tanks, etc.) She played with Barbie and Ken, usually with Ken
all over Barbie.
There was also another cast member whose name I can't remember who played
a third child in the above skit -- a nerd with a butterfly collection. I
remember him most for his recurrent skit as a drugged-out pharmacist
("I can handle it! I can handle it!")
The thing I remember most about the series was how talented Michael
Richards was. I'm glad to see his career taking off.
Bill
_____________________________________________________________________________
Artificial Intelligence: the art of making computers
that behave like the ones in movies
Bill Bulko IBMnet: AUSTIN(WCBULKO)
AIX Communications and I/O Software Internet: wcb...@austin.ibm.com
Austin, TX d38s/905 TieLine: 8-0703
_____________________________________________________________________________
Doug Krause
# Melanie Chartoff (now Principal Russo on "Parker Lewis")
Musso.
**** Douglas Krause djkr...@uci.edu One yuppie can ruin ****
**** University of California, Irvine your whole day. ****
Joe Clark
>I remember watching what I thought was SNL sometime back in the
>80's where one of the players had this recurring roll as some
>spazzy guy who thought he was really cool with women. The character
>had this really bad case of the shakes. It was pretty funny :-)
Michael Richards was on an ABC show called "Fridays" in the early 80's. It
was a bit rawer than SNL, but considering the state of SNL at the time,
Fridays occasionally rose above it. There were some good cast members, but
Richards was arguably the best.
He often played the twitchy character you are referring to. He also played
a freaked-out kid who was always burning up his toy soldiers and getting
screamed at by his mother.
The show just disappeared. I never thought it was _that_ bad. One of the
cast members did a dead-on Ronald Reagan.
The show had a looser, hipper, more L.A. feel to it than SNL, which has
always felt more NYC-East Coast-Chicago-Second City to me.
Hope this helps.
---
The REAL Joe Clark NOT: 1. Former Canadian Prime Minister
Florida State University 2. Bat-wielding High-school Disciplinarian
jcl...@mailer.fsu.edu 3. Late Senator from Pennsylvania
904-644-0830 FAX: -6257 4. Subject of "Fare Thee Well" Song
K. Mirenda
[...]
> Michael Richards (now on "Seinfeld")
> Larry David (writer or producer of "Seinfeld")
> Melanie Chartoff (now Principal Russo on "Parker Lewis")
> Brandis Kemp (I saw her recently doing a guest appearance on some
> show, but can't remember which)
> Darrow Igus (vanished)
[...]
>There was also another cast member whose name I can't remember who played
>a third child in the above skit -- a nerd with a butterfly collection. I
>remember him most for his recurrent skit as a drugged-out pharmacist
>("I can handle it! I can handle it!")
That was Mark Blankfield. He's still around, always plays that same
character type, often in small sitcom roles. He also starred in "Jekyll and
Hyde: Together Again," which was supposed to be *awful*. *k*
--
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
K. Mirenda (mir...@panix.com) Greenwich Village, NYC
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
U15...@uicvm.uic.edu
Mitch Pravatiner
U15...@uicvm.uic.edu
WEL...@miamiu.bitnet
parody that they did of "Rocky Horror" with the title being, I believe
"Ronny Horror".... this ring a bell with anyone else?
Bill Lack
Matt Ackeret
One of the funniest things I remember from that show is when the
anchors for their weekly news segment all breathed helium.. They weren't
breathing enough oxygen along with the helium, and you could see they were
very lightheaded/woozy by the end of it..
Even though drug jokes are usually not funny (e.g. Cheech and Chong
are morons), Mark Blankenfield's wacked out chemist was sometimes funny.
--
unk...@apple.com Apple II Forever
unk...@ucscb.ucsc.edu These opinions are mine, not Apple's.
Jamie Lubin
>
> One of the funniest things I remember from that show is when the
>anchors for their weekly news segment all breathed helium.. They weren't
>breathing enough oxygen along with the helium, and you could see they were
>very lightheaded/woozy by the end of it..
>
> Even though drug jokes are usually not funny (e.g. Cheech and Chong
>are morons), Mark Blankenfield's wacked out chemist was sometimes funny.
The pharmacist: "I can handle it, I can handle it!!"
IC...@asuacad.bitnet
>
> One of the funniest things I remember from that show is when the
>anchors for their weekly news segment all breathed helium.. They weren't
>breathing enough oxygen along with the helium, and you could see they were
>very lightheaded/woozy by the end of it..
>
helium, but the best was the last one they did. Bruce Mahler said the
experiment would show that breathing helium would prevent alcohol from
having any effect. So he and Melanie Chartoff would started taking drinks
of strong alcohol and breathing helium. Soon they were supposedly very
drunk and talking helium-voiced. Hilarious.
These are some of my other favorite Fridays sketches:
"Women who Spit".
The scene with Melanie Chartoff and Tony Geary playing romantic lovers
who hated each other.
"The Ronnie Horror Show"
"A Cop with 'Roids"
The scene where 4 guys are playing cards when Melanie Chartoff and Brandis
Kemp arrive at the door, playing door-to-door prostitutes.
B. Long