Fernwood 2Nite
Encyclopedia : F : FE : FER : Fernwood 2Nite
Fernwood 2Nite (or Fernwood 2Night) was a comedic television program created by Norman Lear as a spin-off from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Fernwood 2Nite is a parody talk show hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), complete with a stage band, Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers (featuring Frank De Vol as the dour Happy Kyne, and Tommy Tedesco as one of the guitarists). Barth, was the twin brother of Garth Gimble from Mary Hartman. The show aired on the fictional Fernwood's Channel 6.
Like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Fernwood 2Nite was set in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio. The show satirized real talk shows as well as the sort of fare one might expect from locally-produced, small-town, midwestern American television programming. Well-known actors usually appeared playing characters or a contrivance had to be written for the celebrity to appear as themself. (In one episode, Tom Waits' tour bus happened to break down in Fernwood.) After one season of Fernwood, the producers reincarnated the show the following year as America 2-Night. In this second version, we find that Barth and Jerry's show has moved to Los Angeles and is now broadcast nationally on the fictional UBS network, whose slogan was "We put U before the BS". This change allowed the show to now have well-known actors on the show as themselves.
Recurring characters
- Mayor Merle Jeeter (Dabney Coleman)
- W.D. 'Bud' Prize (Kenneth Mars)
- Tony Rolletti (Bill Kirchenbauer)
- Virgil Simms (Jim Varney)
- Chuck Emmitt Saugis (Paul Willson)
- Garth Gimble Sr. (Robert Williams)
Alan Partridge
Norman Lear's brainchild about an offbeat talk show is not the only sitcom project orchestrated to span multiple, distinct television series in order to tell a story. In 1994, BBC Two aired Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge, another simulated talk show that, like Fernwood, presented a bumbling host in a talk show-based sitcom that its creators developed from an earlier project. In the case of Fernwood, the humble talk show finds success and a new format which appears in the following season's incarnation, America 2-Night. Contrast with Knowing Me, Knowing You, in which an ostentatious, multinational prime-time series fails miserably after six episodes, forcing its host into radio in the follow-up series, I'm Alan Partridge.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.