1978
SNL at the Movies
October 14, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Saturday Night Live is in its 35th season.
35 years of sketches, recurring characters, and Weekend Update.
35 years of Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!
35 years of laughter.
Shortly after it premiered in 1975, cast members started appearing in movies. They soon became box office gold.
Animal House, Caddyshack, Beverly Hills Cop, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, Stripes, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Land of the Lost, Old School, Ghostbusters, Trading Places, Scrooged, Seems Like Old Times, Tootsie, Tommy Boy, 48 Hours, Driving Miss Daisy, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, Dr. Doolittle, Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and Shrek.
These movies all starred or featured at least one SNL cast member in a prominent role.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are not and were never cast members of Saturday Night Live, but their numerous appearances as guest host arguably give them honorary cast member status.
Add their movies to the SNL cast member movie roster.
Altogether, the total box office gross of these movies will likely be in the billions.
Quite a contribution for a show that was christened Saturday Night Dead by the media at several times in its history.
Saturday Night Live cast members leave Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the big screen.
It’s part of the show’s history dating back to a little movie directed by John Landis that captures America’s fascination with a time that was simpler -- before the Vietnam War, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.
The setting was 1962.
The film was National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Produced on a budget reportedly less than $3 million in 1978, Animal House became a pop culture icon, conquered the box office dragon, and secured John Belushi’s rightful place as a box office attraction.
He was the first SNL cast member to truly break through the television-film barrier.
Belushi was also a good dramatic actor. The romantic comedy Continental Divide pits Belushi’s hardened, cynical, Chicago newspaper columnist Ernie Souchak against Blair Brown’s environmentally aware eagle researcher Nell Porter.
Belushi died in 1981 from a drug overdose at the age of 33. His premature death prevented us from knowing the true depths of his acting talents.
But Belushi’s breakthrough role as Bluto in Animal House set a trend that continues today.
From Eddie Murphy to Mike Myers.
From Dan Aykroyd to Tina Fey.
From Bill Murray to Will Ferrell.
david@davidkrell.com
Saturday Night Live is in its 35th season.
35 years of sketches, recurring characters, and Weekend Update.
35 years of Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!
35 years of laughter.
Shortly after it premiered in 1975, cast members started appearing in movies. They soon became box office gold.
Animal House, Caddyshack, Beverly Hills Cop, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, Stripes, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Land of the Lost, Old School, Ghostbusters, Trading Places, Scrooged, Seems Like Old Times, Tootsie, Tommy Boy, 48 Hours, Driving Miss Daisy, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, Dr. Doolittle, Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and Shrek.
These movies all starred or featured at least one SNL cast member in a prominent role.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are not and were never cast members of Saturday Night Live, but their numerous appearances as guest host arguably give them honorary cast member status.
Add their movies to the SNL cast member movie roster.
Altogether, the total box office gross of these movies will likely be in the billions.
Quite a contribution for a show that was christened Saturday Night Dead by the media at several times in its history.
Saturday Night Live cast members leave Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the big screen.
It’s part of the show’s history dating back to a little movie directed by John Landis that captures America’s fascination with a time that was simpler -- before the Vietnam War, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.
The setting was 1962.
The film was National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Produced on a budget reportedly less than $3 million in 1978, Animal House became a pop culture icon, conquered the box office dragon, and secured John Belushi’s rightful place as a box office attraction.
He was the first SNL cast member to truly break through the television-film barrier.
Belushi was also a good dramatic actor. The romantic comedy Continental Divide pits Belushi’s hardened, cynical, Chicago newspaper columnist Ernie Souchak against Blair Brown’s environmentally aware eagle researcher Nell Porter.
Belushi died in 1981 from a drug overdose at the age of 33. His premature death prevented us from knowing the true depths of his acting talents.
But Belushi’s breakthrough role as Bluto in Animal House set a trend that continues today.
From Eddie Murphy to Mike Myers.
From Dan Aykroyd to Tina Fey.
From Bill Murray to Will Ferrell.
The Taking of Pelham 123
October 13, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
The remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 opened in theaters this past summer. The film stars three actors who got their big breaks on the small screen.
Denzel Washington.
In Pelham, Washington plays Walter Garber, a New York City civil servant who becomes the link of communication to hostage takers on a subway train.
Washington was part of the terrific ensemble cast of St. Elsewhere. In this 1980’s NBC drama set in a Boston hospital, Washington plays the Yale-educated Dr. Phillip Chandler.
His breakthrough movie was Glory, a 1989 film set during the Civil War. Washington earned on Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
John Travolta.
In Pelham, Travolta plays Ryder, the leader of the hostage takers.
Travolta exploded onto America’s consciousness as dim-witted, girl-crazy, and self-involved high school student Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back, Kotter.
Kotter premiered in 1975. In the space of three years, Travolta’s career became hotter than a supernova. On the silver screen, he starred in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever and 1978’s Grease.
For the most part, notoriety subsided during the 1980’s. Travolta signaled his comeback in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994.
James Gandolfini.
In Pelham, Gandolfini plays the Mayor of New York City. If managed properly, the hostage crisis can be good for the politics business. Or very bad.
After highly significant roles on Broadway and supporting roles in films, Gandolfini got the role for which he will forever be identified.
Henry Winkler has Fonzie.
Alan Alda has Hawkeye.
And James Gandolfini has Tony Soprano, the main character in The Sopranos.
Gandolfini’s emotions as the New Jersey mafia don range from the tender to the explosive. He reveals a touching side when talking about or interacting with animals, like his racehorse, Pie-Oh-My.
There is a flip side. Disloyalty, betrayal, and disrespect trigger rage, violence, and an underlying fear of a weakened position in the Soprano mob family.
In 1973, Morton Freedgood wrote the novel The Taking of Pelham 123 under the pseudonym John Godey.
A year later, the story hit the big screen for the first time with Walter Matthau as Garber, Robert Shaw as Ryder, and Lee Wallace as the mayor.
The film accurately captures the aura of violence, fear, and despair surrounding New York City in the 1970’s. Riots. Crime. Financial turmoil. They all contributed to the pressure.
The feeling permeates the film. Walter Matthau’s Garber is in the middle -- a civil servant trying to do his job. On this particular day, it is an ordinary job under extraordinary circumstances. Matthau perfectly fits the role of the rumpled Garber.
The ending of this version of Pelham is an excellent example of a setup and payoff. Something occurs early in the story that recurs at the end.
Hector Elizondo and Earl Hindman play two of the hostage takers. Elizondo later starred in Chicago Hope and played supporting roles in a deep roster of films that include The Flamingo Kid, The Princess Diaries, and Pretty Woman.
Hindman’s face is not recognizable from his signature role -- Wilson, the neighbor on Home Improvement. The running gag on the show was the hiding of Wilson’s face behind the backyard fence and other objects.
Jerry Stiller plays a policeman working with Matthau. Maybe the hostage crisis was a source of sorts for Frank Costanza’s anger.
david@davidkrell.com
The remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 opened in theaters this past summer. The film stars three actors who got their big breaks on the small screen.
Denzel Washington.
In Pelham, Washington plays Walter Garber, a New York City civil servant who becomes the link of communication to hostage takers on a subway train.
Washington was part of the terrific ensemble cast of St. Elsewhere. In this 1980’s NBC drama set in a Boston hospital, Washington plays the Yale-educated Dr. Phillip Chandler.
His breakthrough movie was Glory, a 1989 film set during the Civil War. Washington earned on Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
John Travolta.
In Pelham, Travolta plays Ryder, the leader of the hostage takers.
Travolta exploded onto America’s consciousness as dim-witted, girl-crazy, and self-involved high school student Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back, Kotter.
Kotter premiered in 1975. In the space of three years, Travolta’s career became hotter than a supernova. On the silver screen, he starred in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever and 1978’s Grease.
For the most part, notoriety subsided during the 1980’s. Travolta signaled his comeback in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994.
James Gandolfini.
In Pelham, Gandolfini plays the Mayor of New York City. If managed properly, the hostage crisis can be good for the politics business. Or very bad.
After highly significant roles on Broadway and supporting roles in films, Gandolfini got the role for which he will forever be identified.
Henry Winkler has Fonzie.
Alan Alda has Hawkeye.
And James Gandolfini has Tony Soprano, the main character in The Sopranos.
Gandolfini’s emotions as the New Jersey mafia don range from the tender to the explosive. He reveals a touching side when talking about or interacting with animals, like his racehorse, Pie-Oh-My.
There is a flip side. Disloyalty, betrayal, and disrespect trigger rage, violence, and an underlying fear of a weakened position in the Soprano mob family.
In 1973, Morton Freedgood wrote the novel The Taking of Pelham 123 under the pseudonym John Godey.
A year later, the story hit the big screen for the first time with Walter Matthau as Garber, Robert Shaw as Ryder, and Lee Wallace as the mayor.
The film accurately captures the aura of violence, fear, and despair surrounding New York City in the 1970’s. Riots. Crime. Financial turmoil. They all contributed to the pressure.
The feeling permeates the film. Walter Matthau’s Garber is in the middle -- a civil servant trying to do his job. On this particular day, it is an ordinary job under extraordinary circumstances. Matthau perfectly fits the role of the rumpled Garber.
The ending of this version of Pelham is an excellent example of a setup and payoff. Something occurs early in the story that recurs at the end.
Hector Elizondo and Earl Hindman play two of the hostage takers. Elizondo later starred in Chicago Hope and played supporting roles in a deep roster of films that include The Flamingo Kid, The Princess Diaries, and Pretty Woman.
Hindman’s face is not recognizable from his signature role -- Wilson, the neighbor on Home Improvement. The running gag on the show was the hiding of Wilson’s face behind the backyard fence and other objects.
Jerry Stiller plays a policeman working with Matthau. Maybe the hostage crisis was a source of sorts for Frank Costanza’s anger.
Baa Baa Black Sheep
September 30, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
After the United States pulled out of the Vietnam War in 1975, a war-weary country looked back to a simpler time for war heroes.
The Flying Misfits was a television pilot based on Baa Baa Black Sheep, the autobiography of World War II Marine pilot ace Greg “Pappy” Boyington.
Bruce Gamble wrote two authoritative books about Boyington and his pilots -- Black Sheep Squadron and Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington.
Gamble’s comprehensive research details the story of the real-life heroes of the VMF 214 squadron.
Known as the ‘black sheep,’ these pilots were the champions of the World War II Pacific Theatre.
In one chapter, Gamble nicely explains the genesis of The Flying Misfits and the subsequent television series Baa Baa Black Sheep, also known as Black Sheep Squadron.
Frank Price was the head of Universal Television in 1975.
He commissioned Stephen J. Cannell to write the script for Flying Misfits.
The tv auteur behind The A-Team, Hardcastle & McCormick, and The Rockford Files admitted that he took some pretty good liberties.
NBC aired The Flying Misfits in 1976 and picked up the series loosely based on Boyington and the VMF 214 pilots.
The liberties that Cannell mentioned are evident and sometimes necessary in writing a television series based on real people and real events.
Indeed, the premise of the show seems like The Dirty Dozen meets World War II Marine pilots.
In fact, pilots of VMF 214 were not misfits or screwballs.
They were fine pilots with sharp senses, killer instincts, and rare skills.
Their ability to confront, engage, and defeat the Japanese in the Pacific Theater was a key element to the Allies victory in World War II.
But the creative powers looked at the bigger picture -- the relationships, respect, and regard between Boyington and his men.
In Black Sheep One, Gamble quotes Robert Conrad, the tough guy actor who portrays Boyington.
His feeling about the show was that if the producers wanted to embellish it, if they wanted to Hollywood it, that was fine with him. Poignant moments between the commanding officer and his pilots were important to him. How his character related and played that part. Esprit de corps was very important to him. Anything that was fictionalized didn’t bother Boyington.
Inspired by the success of Charlie’s Angels, Price looked for sex appeal to attract more viewers. Four nurses known as Pappy’s Lambs became fixtures in the show’s later episodes.
Baa Baa Black Sheep left the airwaves in 1978. But the show about masters of the air laid the groundwork for a tremendous television legacy.
John Larroquette plays Lt. Bob Anderson. He later won several Emmys as Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding on Night Court.
Larry Manetti plays Lt. Bobby Boyle. He later moved to a Hawaii setting as Rick Wright -- friend, confidante, and information feeder to Thomas Magnum, Hawaii’s favorite private investigator, on Magnum, p.i.
And Donald Bellisario, a former Marine Corps sergeant, wrote and produced for Baa Baa Black Sheep. He became one of television’s most successful creators -- Magnum, p.i., JAG, Airwolf, NCIS, and Quantum Leap.
It might not have been true to detail.
It might not have been exact to history.
And it might not always have been recognizable to the actual participants and witnesses.
But Baa Baa Black Sheep deserves recognition as a show that honored the spirit of the Marine Corps.
david@davidkrell.com
After the United States pulled out of the Vietnam War in 1975, a war-weary country looked back to a simpler time for war heroes.
The Flying Misfits was a television pilot based on Baa Baa Black Sheep, the autobiography of World War II Marine pilot ace Greg “Pappy” Boyington.
Bruce Gamble wrote two authoritative books about Boyington and his pilots -- Black Sheep Squadron and Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington.
Gamble’s comprehensive research details the story of the real-life heroes of the VMF 214 squadron.
Known as the ‘black sheep,’ these pilots were the champions of the World War II Pacific Theatre.
In one chapter, Gamble nicely explains the genesis of The Flying Misfits and the subsequent television series Baa Baa Black Sheep, also known as Black Sheep Squadron.
Frank Price was the head of Universal Television in 1975.
He commissioned Stephen J. Cannell to write the script for Flying Misfits.
The tv auteur behind The A-Team, Hardcastle & McCormick, and The Rockford Files admitted that he took some pretty good liberties.
NBC aired The Flying Misfits in 1976 and picked up the series loosely based on Boyington and the VMF 214 pilots.
The liberties that Cannell mentioned are evident and sometimes necessary in writing a television series based on real people and real events.
Indeed, the premise of the show seems like The Dirty Dozen meets World War II Marine pilots.
In fact, pilots of VMF 214 were not misfits or screwballs.
They were fine pilots with sharp senses, killer instincts, and rare skills.
Their ability to confront, engage, and defeat the Japanese in the Pacific Theater was a key element to the Allies victory in World War II.
But the creative powers looked at the bigger picture -- the relationships, respect, and regard between Boyington and his men.
In Black Sheep One, Gamble quotes Robert Conrad, the tough guy actor who portrays Boyington.
His feeling about the show was that if the producers wanted to embellish it, if they wanted to Hollywood it, that was fine with him. Poignant moments between the commanding officer and his pilots were important to him. How his character related and played that part. Esprit de corps was very important to him. Anything that was fictionalized didn’t bother Boyington.
Inspired by the success of Charlie’s Angels, Price looked for sex appeal to attract more viewers. Four nurses known as Pappy’s Lambs became fixtures in the show’s later episodes.
Baa Baa Black Sheep left the airwaves in 1978. But the show about masters of the air laid the groundwork for a tremendous television legacy.
John Larroquette plays Lt. Bob Anderson. He later won several Emmys as Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding on Night Court.
Larry Manetti plays Lt. Bobby Boyle. He later moved to a Hawaii setting as Rick Wright -- friend, confidante, and information feeder to Thomas Magnum, Hawaii’s favorite private investigator, on Magnum, p.i.
And Donald Bellisario, a former Marine Corps sergeant, wrote and produced for Baa Baa Black Sheep. He became one of television’s most successful creators -- Magnum, p.i., JAG, Airwolf, NCIS, and Quantum Leap.
It might not have been true to detail.
It might not have been exact to history.
And it might not always have been recognizable to the actual participants and witnesses.
But Baa Baa Black Sheep deserves recognition as a show that honored the spirit of the Marine Corps.