HBO!...How about "Not Necessarily the News"?? (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

Does anyone else remember this HBO series from the early 80's? It starred Rich Hall.


Remember....Sniglets?

 

[Timothy Alexander]

I totally forgot this show even existed. It was so frickin hilarious. People who have never seen this before, think a raw-er "Daily Show".

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I should think they could release a sort of "best of" with some of the less-topical sketches, but I doubt you'd ever see a "complete season" release (or reruns), due to the fact that the show was pretty topical.

 

[Jon Martin]

This was a very funny show that I think I only started appreciating recently.

I have an old VHS of best of segments somewhere and a lot of it still holds up.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Sniglet: Esso-Asso -> A person who cuts through a corner gas station to skip the cars at a red light.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Fenderbergs: the ice that builds up under your fender after a snow.

 

[rockinricky]

Yenkel: A man who combs his hair over the bald spot in an effort to hide said bald spot.

 

[Sam Favate]

I'd buy every single season set of this show.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Me too. It had some of the best material since the early days of SNL.

M.

 

[MaraKM]

I remember it being pretty hilarious too, though the sniglets are the only specific bits that I can actually recall (and only yenkel, at that). Was it a very clip-heavy or music-heavy show? While I'm not in favor of 'best-of's in general, it wouldn't surprise me if clearances for full-season sets would be heinously expensive, so I'd take a best-of over nothing.

 

[BradD]

I can only remember the sniglet portion of the show.

What was the sniglet for the dried up ketchup around the top of the ketchup bottle?

 

[Greg_S_H]

Flen

 

[Jimmy M]

My own Sniglets I came up with when the show was on the air:

Rigsplatz (RIG•splatts): The feeling you get, when passing a tractor trailer truck, that it will pull into your lane before you have passed it.

Escalleration (ESS•kell•ur•A•shun): When the handrail on an escalator moves at a different speed than the stairs.

Jimmy!

 

[todd s]

I have the Sniglet book somewhere. I have to find it and check it out.

 

[Michael Reuben]

As I recall, clips were rare except for news footage (which shouldn't be hard to clear), and they tended to use the same pieces of music over and over. Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" was a favorite.

M.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I remember some bit about a hara-kiri hotline, with Stuart Pankin saying, in a mock Asian voice, "Sorry to cause some confusion, but the suicide hotline is busy!" while some guy kills himself. As I recall, that was in one of the last episodes. The bit where Rich Hall jumped on different lengths of gas station hose to play a song might have been on NNTN, too.

 

[Jon Martin]

Favorite Sniglet : Howuzitizing: Trying to see how a movie is from the reaction of the people exiting the previous showing.

As for the music, they often used rather generic, maybe even original music (I'm singing the song they used quite often in clips, wish I could post it).

But I don't know if they would have problems getting the rights for clips, since the show was made up of a lot of news clips, with the cast editing themselves in.

 

[David Lambert]

Sniglets I still use to this date: Cinemuck - that gooey substance on the floor of the theater that sticks to your shoes. LapFlaps: the cards that fall out of magazines and into your lap when you open the magazine.


I loved Rich Hall, Stuart Pankin, Mitchell Laurance and Lucy Webb in this...they were all funny. I vividly recall those sequences where someone - usually Pankin, IIRC - would pretend to be a reporter at a Presidential news conference and they would splice together actual Reagan quotes from press-conf's to make silly answers to the questions. They would always start those sequences by showing Reagan walk up to the podium in a quiet room and with very squeaky shoes...that made me roll on the floor every time!


Greg Daniels, Al Jean, and Conan O'Brien all wrote for this show. Great stuff, a classic! I don't know, though, if HBO would be the ones to ask to put this out. Moffitt-Lee Productions made it (they also did the recent version of Hollywood Squares), and so this - like HBO's "1st & Ten" is doing - would probably have to hit home video through an indy label.

 

[todd s]

Alright David. Now you have your homework assignment. Contact Moffitt-Lee and get this released.

 

[David Lambert]

:p)