Shark Bytes

I was sad when "Mary Hartman" went off the air but fortunately Fernwood and then this show came on. You can find episodes of this on one of the Classic TV newsgroups on Usenet, everyone! I downloaded one with Karen Black, and then a really funny one with Phyllis Diller where they were supposed to be showing a live execution from Death Row on the air!

Am I the only one who remembers the show where Martin Mull had written a brand new song, but it was just a tad too racy for network TV. Still want to perform it, he "would just hum the dirty parts, sing the clean parts". It went something like this: HHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM WHIPS AND CHAINS HHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM GREAT DANES HHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM AND A GARAGE DOOR OPENER... HHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMM Laughed my ass off at every

Show was a riot! Two episodes stand out; something happened in which Happy's band walked out on him one by one or went on some kind of strike, and he was left by himself, playing the show theme solo on a clarinet! Then the show where guest Jack Jones was being interviewed by Barth, and Jerry kept interrupting by singing (terribly!) Jones's hit singles, and Jones just kept giving him this dead-eye, "your not funny at all" look...! GREAT SHOW!

Unbelievable how this show (and its forerunner, Fernwood 2-night) ran 5 nights a week, yet was consistently funny throughout. Martin Mull and Fred Willard played off of each other perfectly, and the writing was terrific. Plus, a tip of the hat to Frank DeVole (an actual band leader who did the music for, among other things, "My Three Sons"), as band leader Happy Kyne.

This show and Fernwood 2Night never jumped. I can't remember if it was America or Fernwood, but 2 episodes stand out. One was when Anne Murray was the guest and Fred Willard kept wondering if she was going to sing "Snowbird" in Canadian. The second was when Fred had a book for kids explaining sex. Even Martin was shocked...

Never jumped. I loved the band leader, Happy, who had a dour, hang dog expression. And Kenneth Mars played a recurring guest who had half a golf ball strapped to his chin to keep his jaws in line. Funny, funny stuff.

This was one of the greatest shows and I loved the character of Thelma, she was funny and always got them into some crazy scheme or another.

We put YOU before the BS! Now, that's one great network slogan. I also loved the fake sitcom promos where Fred Willard's announcer character calls everything "the wackiest thing YOU'LL ever see!" Also, the smarmy little child actress who is unsatisfied with her latest movie because some other actor is playing a co-starring part that "just cries for Bill Bixby."

Unbelievably funny! One of the few times I laughed out loud watching television. My favorite episode was when the snake got loose on the set. Martin Mull fled in panic and Fred Willard tried to take over the show. Mull comes back with a shotgun, and the bandleader tries luring the snake out with a flute.

"We put U before the BS" Great Show. I loved the episode where they previewed the new fall schedule of UBS shows. One was a 'Charlie's Angel' knockoff where the woman detectives dressed in t-shirts and chased the bad guys on trampolines for 45 minutes.

This show never jumped. Although if I recall correctly, it wasn't on very long. My Mom and I always watched the show. Very disappointed when it went off the air. Brilliant stuff. Fernwood 2-night was just as funny. I can't believe it is not on reruns somewhere or on *****. It is in the same limbo as the other classic comedy show: SCTV.

TV stations which carried Fernwood 2Night (it was first run syndication) wanted name stars on the show. So we concocted a scenario whereby Barth et al. moved to Alta Coma, California, near San Diego, where there might plausibly be more "stars" available than in Fernwood, Ohio. One favorite episode was Steve Garvey of the Dodgers was a guest, and Jerry (Fred Willard) starts giving him batting tips. Harry Shearer wrote most of the Mull/Willard monologue stuff, where Jerry would start going into a rambling rant. We drew a lot of the material from current events; when it was discovered that marijuana eased the symptoms of marijuana, my partner and I wrote a bit, played by Fred Grandy, about a glaucoma eye doctor. He discovered to his "amazement", in a preliminary exam before the show,that all the band members had glaucoma symptoms and needed "medicine" immediately.