“Fridays” – the best sketch comedy show you never heard of

Take a walk back with me to 1980. If you were a fan of Saturday Night Live, you were truly dedicated – most of the classic lineup had departed the show after five seasons.  No Dan Aykroyd, no John Belushi, no Gilda Radner, no Jane Curtin, no Bill Murray – yes, young’uns, those actors were part of the Saturday Night Live cast lineup.  Instead, you had such major stars as Denny Dillon, Gail Matthius, Charles Rocket and Ann Risley in the lineup (oh yeah, Gilbert Gottfried was one of the players as well, how’s he doing these days?).

At the same time, ABC started putting together their own late night life sketch comedy show.  Rather than compete with Saturday Night Live, they created a show that would air on Friday night.  And they called it Fridays. Their improv cast included, believe it or not, Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Michael Richards (Seinfeld), and Melanie Chartoff (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose).  They had their own satirical news segment, they had their own musical guest performances, and they had a ton of sketch comedy.  And for about a year, it had better ratings than Saturday Night Live.

Fridays lasted only two years; the show’s second season was moved to a post-midnight time slot due to ABC expanding their new late night newsmagazine Nightline from four nights a week to five.  That, and Fridays’ reliance on drug humor – almost every other sketch on the show paid homage to the consumption of various illegal substances – cost them several affiliates.

And thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you get to see, right here – for maybe the first time in 30 years – what Fridays was all about.  Note: these sketches were designed for late night broadcast, and although there clips shown contain no profanity or graphic content, some of the subject matter might be NSFW.

Here’s one of the recurring sketches, “The Pharmacist,” where the titular character (Mark Blankfield) tries to take care of simple tasks – with his catchphrase “I can handle it, I can handle it,” keeping him from having a complete freakout.

And long before he was Kramer on Seinfeld, Michael Richards’ most famous character was that of the Battle Boy, who created elaborate war scenarios in his backyard. Funny stuff.

And could you imagine this show on the Food Network – Darrow Igus as Nat E. Dred, the Rasta Gourmet?

This Three Stooges sketch (featuring Larry David as Larry Fine) only aired once on Fridays – the estate of Moe Howard protested the sketch, and it was never repeated after its initial airing. I wonder why…

And now let me show you some of the most famous – or infamous – Fridays sketch clips. This one, “Diner of the Living Dead,” featured a satire on the George Romero horror classic Night of the Living Dead, and was considered so offensive – even in prime time – that several ABC affiliates stopped airing Fridays broadcasts.  If you can handle an episode of Walking Dead, you can handle this video clip.

“The Ronny Horror Picture Show” was considered Fridays‘ tour de force. Clocking in at nearly 20 minutes of comedy, the sketch takes the newly-elected President of the United States and turns him into Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Again, this aired only once – Richard O’Brien, who owns the copyright to the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was not thrilled with his film being parodied in such a way.  The clip is in three parts; all three parts are shown below.

And finally, here’s THE Fridays sketch. Michael Richards and Melanie Chartoff go out to dinner with guest host Andy Kaufman. And halfway through the sketch, Andy Kaufman kicks down the proverbial fourth wall. You have to see it to believe it.

So what happened to Fridays?  During its first season, the show aired at about 11:30pm on Friday night.  When ABC expanded its newsmagazine Nightline to five days a week, Fridays was moved back a half hour to midnight.  And some ABC affiliates, who were leery of the increasing drug jokes and crude humor on the show, delayed Fridays even further – with some stations airing the show after 2:00 a.m.!

After two seasons, Fridays was quietly canceled in 1982.  The show has never appeared on DVD; although several clips from Fridays do appear in Seinfeld DVD boxed sets, as both Larry David and Michael Richards were involved in both programs.

In tomorrow’s blog post, I show off several of the show’s amazing musical performances.  It’s a time capsule of the best music of the early 1980’s.