Shout Factory to Release Fridays (1 Viewer)

[FrankPitt]

Some things I remembered about Bruce Mahler, besides his hilarious Rabbi character on Seinfeld. He was in one of the F13th movies (can't remember which one). He was also the spokesman for a bird hobbyist magazine. Bird Fancy or something?

He's in the hospital scenes of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (that's the fourth one).

 

[Radioman970]

He's in the hospital scenes of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (that's the fourth one).

There you go! That's a very good scene, lots of suspense.

It might have been Bird Talk Magazine Bruce did commercials for. I just remember thinking, the guy from Fridays who plays with raw whole chickens! lol

 

[Mr. Handley]

Watched the second episode last night. In retrospect, "Diner Of The Living Dead" was fairly stupid, but pretty gross and shocking at the time. Same for "Women That Spit" (although Mary Edith Burrell gets some impressive flow going..can't believe I just typed THAT)! Larry David's lawyer sketch was good for a few chuckles.

The highlight of the episode for me was The Clash. "Train In Vain" is still one of my favorites to this day.

 

[Hasslein]

To bad the Brandis Kemp shot didn't make it. I always liked her since I saw the Sensuous Nurse sketch. I take it its not on this set?

 

[Hasslein]

After doing a little research I found out The Gregory Hines show featured the sketch "The Voluptuous Nurse of Verona"

 

[Mark Y]

I vaguely remember some skit which I think was a parody of late-night music shows like Midnight Special, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, etc. and there was an artist or group supposedly from Israel (?) singing to the tune of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," but instead singing "staying a Jew." Does anyone remember this? Maybe a commentary on Palestine vs. Israel? And I'm not sure if Fridays was where I saw it, but it sure seems like a Fridays kind of thing, more than say SNL.

 

[Jack P]

My only memory of Fridays was a sketch that aired the night the "Who Shot JR" episode of Dallas aired and they did one where suddenly after being shot, J.R. comes face to face with.......Jeannie.

 

[Radioman970]

I think the strongest memories I had of Fridays (until picking a homemade set years back) was Richards on the escalator, Richards trying to pick up a girl on the beach, the "take a pill" guy, the wrestler guys (the Golden Boys!) who keep adjusting the waistbands of their tights, the pot smoking chef, William Shatner/Luke & Laura episodes (which I think are the best), the Stray Cats, Devo, . Getting the home made set reminded me of the band who did that song "these are people who died...DIED!..." (used in the remake of Dawn of the Dead) appeared on the show once. I was missing the show a lot over the years and had almost no hope of it showing up again, much less in a set like this.

Oh! Just noticed it's actually Friday. cool..

 

[BobO'Link]

Yes, it's actually Friday and my set came in the mail yesterday! I'm thinking of opening it and watching an episode at 10:30 for old times' sake...

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I spoke with Roarke yesterday talking about the reunion piece they taped for the DVD. He said he actually thought the sketch where he played Ted Koppel standing up from the anchor desk and appearing in a tu-tu was somehow related to the show being cancelled. Imagine his surprise when the writer Steve Adams hosting the reunion then produced an angry letter the show received from Koppel condemning the sketch and basically accusing it of bordering on slander. In other words, Koppel had zero sense of humor and was trying to throw his (miniscule) weight around. Never mind an entire tradition of cross-dressing humor, including Milton Berle, Klinger, Monty Python, etc. etc. He was having none of it. So, with Koppel somewhat of a powerhouse at ABC at the time on "Nightline," it's entirely conceivable there was some pressure exerted there.

There is speculation also that, besides performance licensing for the groups, Larry David was one of the hold ups to this set ever being released. When you watch the show now, you get the feeling he had not yet developed his comic persona, so, with a half a billion dollar's worth now, he probably wasn't anxious for this nascent embryo of his developing style to see the light of day. But, if that's true, it's really awfully petty. Especially considering the family like atmosphere of the other players. How uptight do you have to be to hold up a time capsule of some fellow comics' talented work due to some embarrassment? Not not not pretty.

Also, apparently Richards has done a pilot with Kirstie Alley, where he plays her chaueffer. Don't know many of the other details, but it's good to see him getting back in the game, so possibly look for that series coming up.

I just watched The Clash episode. They performed four songs, which took up almost half of the original hour-length show. Quite the showcase for a historical band just getting it's feet wet in America.

 

[Mr. Handley]

Just watched the third episode last night (6/6/1980). Again, not much funny in the sketch department, although I did enjoy the rabbis played by Bruce Mahler and Larry David and the girls (especially Brandis Kemp) looked great in the final musical sketch. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were by far the high point of this episode for me.

I really doubt that Larry David was holding up this release. Seems more of an issue of the musical performances. BTW at the time, who would've thought that of all the cast members, LD would be the most successful today?!?

 

[BobO'Link]

I watched the first 2 disks worth last night and this morning. In spite of religiously watching the program every Friday night during the original airings I don't remember most of the sketches I've seen so far. While I'm really enjoying rediscovering the show and *most* of the sketches I'm sad to report several episodes appear to be edited with sketches removed.

Here are the run times of those first 8 episodes.

44:46 (Appears intact)
1E1 (E1) (April 11, 1980): Musical guest Kenny Loggins performs "Keep the Fire"Backstage, the producers remind the cast that the show will not be a clone of Saturday Night Live.
Sketches include "Ken The Monster," "Friday Edition" (featuring the Friday Focus Report: Muppet Hunt), "Conversation at The Bar," "V.I.S.T.A.H.," "They Want 'It,'" "Police Gynecologist" (Michael Nesmith/William Dear film), "Howdy Doody the Cocaine Addict," "Los Angeles School for Doormen," and "Door to Door Whores."-----
41:27 (Possible sketch cut - "Doctor Pain")S1E3 (E3) (April 25, 1980): Musical guest The Clash performs "London Calling", "Train in Vain", "Guns of Brixton", "Clampdown"Sketches include "Friday Edition," "Doctor Pain," "Diner of the Living Dead," and "Women Who Spit."
-----
48:03 (Appears intact)
S1E8 (E8) (June 6, 1980): Musical guest Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform "Shadow of a Doubt", "American Girl"Sketches include "Dick Trains At The Fitness Gym."-----
45:18 (Appears intact)S1E10 (E10) (June 27, 1980): Musical guest Graham Parker and the Rumour perform "Stupefaction", "Empty Lives"-----
36:45 (Other than the cut songs appears intact as the 2 cut songs could easily make up the missing time)S2E3 (E15) (September 19, 1980): Musical guest The Cars perform "Touch and Go" (cut songs: "Shoo Be Doo" and "GimmeSome Slack")Sketches include "Friday Edition" (featuring "Film Review with Larry David" reviewing Shogun).-----
46:13 (Appears intact)S2E7 (E19) (October 31, 1980): Musical guest Dire Straits perform "Skateaway", "Romeo and Juliet"Sketches include "The Monster After."-----
32:20 (Missing both a song *and* sketches)S2E8 (E20) (November 7, 1980): Musical guest Devo perform "Whip It" (cut song: "Uncontrollable Urge")Sketches include "Backstage Cold Open," "Moving Into the White House," "Battle Boy," "Friday Edition" (featuring the Friday Focus Report), "Drugs R' Us: Delivery Girl," "Atrocity at the Retirement House" (Tom Kramer film), and "The Liberation of Women."
-----
37:40 (Other than The Bus Boys missing performances appears intact. But insult is added to injury as the cast mentions The Bus Boys performance in the "Good night" routine.)
S2E9 (E21) (November 14, 1980): Musical guest The Bus Boys (Performances not on the DVD would have been "KKKay," "Johnny Soul'd Out" and "Minimum Wage.")Sketches include "Star Wars Memories," "Friday Edition," and "UFO" (Tom Kramer film).

The first 2 seasons the show ran 70 minutes with commercials. With the typical 20-25 minutes of commercial matter in late night at that time we're left with 45-50 minutes of program content. Anything running less than 45 minutes has most likely had content cut. Some of these can be accounted for by missing musical performances but on a couple that still doesn't add up properly. For example, in Episode 20 Devo is missing one song. With a running time of 32:20 that cut song would have to be 10 minutes or longer for the time to add up properly. I'd have to watch again to be 100% sure but I do not recall the Tom Kramer film or the sketch "The Liberation of Women" being in that episode plus they are not listed in the booklet. So that episode appears to have both music and sketches cut. I also do not recall the "Doctor Pain" sketch in Episode 3. It, too, is missing from the booklet listings. However I'm not 100% sure about the sketch names as those came from Wikipedia and you know how reliable that can be... I've still not found a authortative listing of episode content.

I'm now ready to get to the episodes from S3 to see if they hold up to running times for a 90 minute late night program (it was expanded to 90 minutes for S3) which should be in the 60-70 minute range for program content.

OK... with a title of "The Best of Fridays" I guess I can be a bit lenient over cut content as it's quite possible the few sketches which appear to have been cut in these first 8 episodes may have been really bad. I've watched several sketches so far that didn't quite work and went on way too long. If the missing sketches are worse than those I'll grudgingly forgive the cuts, but still I'd rather have *complete* episodes with no cuts of any type.

On the plus side I've seen quite a few very funny sketches with the political ones being among the best. I vividly recall the Carter/Regan election as it truly felt as if there was no good choice. The sketch about the 2 faced collectible coin you would use in the voting booth echoed the feelings of many people... Heads you lose, or Heads you lose. They had the absolutely *best* impersonators for Carter and Regan (as well as Woody Allen). The Marx Brothers sketch was simply wonderful and had all the spirit of the original films with spot on impersonations of the Brothers. Stuff like that was simply amazing for a late night sketch comedy program.

I've mostly enjoyed the musical guests, the exceptions being those I've never liked. Even so I'd have to say the roster of musical guests is stronger than what was offered up by SNL during those years.

I'd rate the video/audio quality as quite good for a video taped program from 1980-1982.

Overall, I'm glad to have this set in spite of the missing material BUT I'm leaning against the purchase of another volume (should one be released) unless there are no cuts of skits or music. Part of me is hoping this release is not a "test the waters" release which will be followed by full seasons should it sell well. If so I'll feel somewhat ripped off as product from Shout! is typically a bit higher priced. This is one of those shows where they really should have released full seasons *or* a full series set.

 

[Radioman970]

The second episode felt a bit like a Clash Concert with a few skits thrown in. Really enjoyed most everything. Diner of the Living Dead was great. Although the spitting talk show went a little too long. This one reminded me of several things, how cool I used to think punk rockers were, missing teeth and all. I still like them. Also, how I felt with this show and SNL.. like watching something I wasn't supposed to. I guess I was in the sweet spot of the age range on these things. I think John Byner's show Bizarre was basically Fridays with titties. Nothing wrong with that! lol In fact, the 10 volume set of Bizarre is available and I'd recommend it to those who still like Fridays.

Oh..in the courtroom skit, I could have sworn that was Tom Petty sitting on the right in the back of the courtroom. I noticed after that he's the musical guess in the next episode. Probably wasn't him...

 

[BobO'Link]

I absolutely agree on the "Clash" episode. I'm not a fan so it was overly long for me. I skipped the 2nd duo of songs as soon as they came up because the first cemented that I really do not like their music/style (not a fan of "punk" at all).

That spitting talk show sketch is one of those I felt just kept going and going and going with nothing new to add along the way. I'll have to go back and rewatch that courtroom sketch as I didn't pay much attention to the background people on that one. I found myself watching background actors, etc. if the sketch was boring or went on too long. In the wrestling one I kept wanting them to get out of the way of the cute actress behind the jukebox. They kept covering her up and she looked very familiar.

 

[Radioman970]

I actually thought they were aggressively punk in those performances. And you know all the girls were having dreams about those ugly guys later. lol

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The dribbling drinks bit with Bruce Mahler was a regular part of his stand-up act. Roarke explains that they rehearsed the bit with the two of them dribbling back and forth in the bar scene (from that first episode) in Mahler's apartment bathtub wearing rain ponchos, which, Roarke said, was probably a lot funnier than the scene that actually aired.

 

[Radioman970]

^^ now that was a funny bit. I was wishing they had dribbled on each other more or on their watches, or priceless pieces of art, or something like that. lol

 

[BobO'Link]

I finished watching the set yesterday and am now watching the bonus disk of interviews, etc. I *really* enjoyed the episodes and am liking the bonus material too (Melanie Chartoff still looks good)! Yes, there were some *very* weak sketches ("A Pattern for Success" [Pac-Man] was especially bad as was "Raiders of the Lost Thing") and I did not like Billy Crystal - but I've never been a fan of his "old guy" schtick. I'm not a KISS fan but their performances were good and the music not as bad as I was expecting.

Here's the final run tally for the last 2 disks.

39:21 (Missing song)
S2E11 (E23) (December 5, 1980): Musical guest Pat Benatar perform "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" (cut song: "Hell Is For Children")-----
34:16 (Missing entire musical guest and possibly a sketch - "Motzoi" does not appear and is not listed in the pamphlet)S2E12 (24) (December 12, 1980): Musical guest Steve Forbert (Performances not on the DVD would have been "Romeo's Tune," "Lonely Girl" and "Get Well Soon.")Sketches include "The Ronny Horror Show," "Friday Edition," "Calvin Klein Jeans takeoff," "Nat E. Dred- Rastafarian Chef," "Matzoi," and "Square Trees."-----
38:01 (Missing musical guest and possibly a sketch - "The Return of Frankenstein does not appear and is not listed in the pamphlet. If accurate this could have been ~50:00 with the missing material included)S2E19 (E31) (February 20, 1981): Guest host Andy Kaufman, musical guest Sir Douglas Quintet (Performances not on the DVD would have been "You're Gonna Miss Me," "Mendocino" and "It Was Fun While It Lasted.")Sketches include Andy Kaufman's monologue, "The Moral Majority Comedy-Variety Hour," "Masked Magician," "Friday Edition" (featuring Andy Kaufman's Thought/Counterthought segment), "Howdy Doody," "The Return of Frankenstein," "Latin DJ," and "The Marijuana Sketch."-----
46:07 (Possible missing sketches - "Dick's Date Night," and "A Comic's Line" (Tom Kramer film) do not appear and are not listed in the pamphlet - again this would have made for a 50:00 plus running time)S2E20 (E32) (February 27, 1981): Guest host Billy Crystal, musical guest Randy Meisner and the Silverados perform "Hearts of Fire", "Gotta Get Away"Sketches include "Altered Statesman," "Dick's Date Night," "Friday Edition," "A Comic's Line" (Tom Kramer film), Creative Palm Reading," "That's Meshuggah," "Andy Kaufman's apology," and "Meaning of Life."-----
38:28 (Missing songs)S3E2 (E39) (September 25, 1981): Guest host William Shatner, musical guest Kim Carnes perform "Miss You Tonight" (cut songs: "Bette Davis Eyes", "Under My Thumb")Sketches include "Backstage Cold Open" and "Man Reacted Violently to Minor Pain."-----
39:22 (Missing song - otherwise appears intact)S3E4 (E41) (October 16, 1981): Guest host Karen Allen, musical guest Stray Cats perform "Stray Cat Strut", "Rock This Town" (cut song: "Runaway Boys")Sketches include "Raiders of The Lost Thing."-----
52:34 (Only one song cut? Running time is much longer than "normal" indicating it may have been a "special length" episode)S3E12 (E49) (January 8, 1982): Guest host Valerie Harper, musical guest the Cars perform "Shake It Up", "Since You're Gone" (cut song: "Think it Over")Sketches include "Friday Edition Special Report: 1981: Year in Review," "Teddy Bear knew Mommy's Secrets," and "Punk Ballet" (Tom Kramer film).-----
44:56 (Missing song which would have pushed the run time to ~50:00.)S3E13 (E50) (January 15, 1982): Guest host Tab Hunter, musical guest Kiss perform "A World Without Heroes", "I" (cut song: "The Oath")Sketches include "Matzoi in "You Should Only Live Twice" and "Hollywood Cubes", and "UFO" (Tom Kramer film) (NOT in E21 as Wikipedia indicates).
-----

So... According to the panel discussion with the show writers it *did* expand to 90 minutes (from 70). This seems to indicate those S3 episodes are way too short as the run times mostly much match S1/S2 with one major exception. The others that look to push 50 minutes if the missing material is added back don't exactly fit the length needed for a 90 minute run time. They *do* fit what would have been "normal" for a 70 minute late night time slot. Otherwise that would have been 30-40 minutes of commercial time in 90 minutes which was very long for those broadcast years, even in late night. It makes me wish I'd kept some of the program logs from back then to know for sure (I worked for a ABC affiliate during the years Fridays aired).

Overall - Very well done and I'd *love* to see full season sets. I'd like to see some of the sketches mentioned in the cast interview bonus segment, too, but again, don't know if I'd purchase a 2nd "Best of" volume.

 

[Radioman970]

I was digging through some old VHS tapes looking for a few horror movie, etc things. Found em! Also found my copy of The Jerk Too! I'll bet not many remember that one. I think it was on cable 1 time and I was somehow on top of that. It stars Mark Blankfield in the Steve Martin role. From what I remember, it's about 4% what the original is, but still interesting. Blankfield wasn't bad.

(just noticed it's on youtube as well...)

 

[BobO'Link]

I went back and very closely watched the sketch: "Man Reacts Violently to Minor Pain" [S3E2 (E39) (September 25, 1981)] to determine if it's as aired or a edited version.The section of the scene in the sketch where they are dancing and William Shatner knocks Brandis Kemp on the ground causing her skirt to fly up revealing her bare butt is indeed edited. A slow playback reveals a different take of the scene was inserted as the action does not match, although it's very close. Look for the positions of Shatner's legs - they are different going into and out of the edit. I'd guess the video in the edit was footage from the dress rehearsal taping. The fact that there's a lot going on and it's a rather quick insertion somewhat hides that it's a different take.