Fernwood 2Night was a true cultural treasure. If you don’t remember it, it was a parody of a late-night talk show, blazing a trail for The Larry Sanders Show, with the twist that the show was local rather than national. Mull was the smarmy, lusty host who thought he was too good to be working with mid-American yokels. Fred Willard, as the local version of Ed McMahon, had already perfected his clueless shtick. Frank De Vol was the leader of an awful band. The great Dabney Coleman played the mayor of Fernwood. The writers of the show did an amazing job at coming up with new material, considering that it was on five nights a week (they could only sustain that for a few months). The show was almost perfect. I was totally hooked on it.
The show also parodied the usual assortment of variety show guests. My favorite was Tony Roletti, the inept, insincere lounge singer.
My only memory of Martin Mull: Dueling Tubas.
Another classic!
1,Martin Mull: “When you’re too tense, I always say reduce it by a fifth.”
2.I’ve mentioned the show here before. Fernwood 2Night was a spinoff of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the comedic soap opera (before Soap.)
Martin Mull’s character on Fernwood 2Night was the twin brother of his character on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. On that show he played a total lech who died walking into a closet and getting impaled on a 1970s style wire Christmas tree.
Nudity-related credit: he played the strip club owner in Dance with Death, starring Babara Alyn Woods, a silly, but entertaining movie
Don’t forget “The Humming Song”–90 seconds of pure hilarity!
“Hmm, mm mm mm, whips and chains,
Hmm, mm mm mm mm, Great Danes!”
…and his famous quote – “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”
I was a huge Martin Mull fan and am very sad to hear of his passing. I saw him in a club years ago when “Mork” was hot. Someone in the crowd yelled out, “Robin Williams!” Mull looked out into the crowd and speaking as if addressing a slow child said, “No…I’M here tonight. See how reading helps?”
I have all of “Fernwood/America 2Night” on bootleg DVDs, along with his great Soundstage special with Flo & Eddie, “60 Minutes to Kill,” which is now on YouTube. Another great overlooked project is the movie “Serial” that lampooned all the then-current trendy, New Agey fads of wealthy Marin County liberals.
Even as little kids, my friends and I would stay up late to watch Fernwood 2Night. Always a Martin Mull fan.