Fridays was the name of ABC's weekly late-night live comedy show, which aired on Friday nights from 1980 to 1982. The show was originally 70 minutes long before being expanded to 90 minutes. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... See also: 1979 in television, other events of 1980, 1981 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1980-81 American network television schedule. ... See also: 1981 in television, other events of 1982, 1983 in television and the list of years in television. ...

The program was ABC's attempt to cash in on the success of NBC's popular Saturday Night Live. Like SNL, each week, Fridays featured music acts and, in the second season, celebrity guest hosts, as well as fake newscasts and spoofs of television shows and commercials. The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late night 90-minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast by NBC nearly every Saturday night since its debut on October 11, 1975. ...

The cast included Mark Blankfield, Maryedith Burrell, Melanie Chartoff, Larry David, Darrow Igus, Brandis Kemp, Bruce Mahler, Michael Richards, and John Roarke. Writer Rich Hall appeared in some segments on the series, but was not a regular cast member. Head writer/producer Jack Burns occasionally appeared. Melanie Chartoff (born December 15, 1948 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an actress best known for her voice role in Rugrats, and for her comedic work on the ABC series Fridays from 1980-1982, and on the early 90s Fox sitcom Parker Lewis Cant Lose. ... Larry David (born July 2, 1947) is an Emmy-winning American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and film director born and raised in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York. ... This article should belong in one or more categories. ... Michael A. Richards (born July 24, 1949 in Culver City, California) is an American actor, three-time Emmy Award winner, Freemason[2][3] writer, producer, and comedian, best known for playing Cosmo Kramer on the television show Seinfeld. ... Rich Hall (born 1954 in Waxhaw, North Carolina) is an American comedian and writer. ... Jack Burns (born November 15, 1933) is an American comedian. ...

Background

Blankfield and Kemp (who were husband and wife) were recruited from Low Moan Spectacular, a comedy group which had briefly been considered as a ready-made cast for the series. Mahler—a gifted pianist and violinist—made several bizarre appearances on TV before joining the Fridays cast, including performances on The Gong Show and Fernwood 2Nite. Igus had co-starred in an obscure CBS series called Roll Out, and had also appeared in the motion picture Car Wash. Chartoff had been a cast member on the soap opera Search For Tomorrow in 1976, and had also appeared in 1978's American Hot Wax. Burrell had been a member of a well-known L.A. comedy improv group, The Groundlings, which had also launched the careers of Paul Reubens, Robin Williams, and Phil Hartman, to name a few. For his part, Roarke had performed comedy in Boston. Larry David—who specialized in angry characters—was discovered at Catch a Rising Star in New York City. Michael Richards was discovered similarly at The Improv in Los Angeles. The Gong Show was a television variety show spoof that was broadcast on NBC and in first-run syndication in the United States from 1976 until 1980. ... Fernwood 2Nite (or Fernwood 2Night) was a comedic television program created by Norman Lear as a spin-off from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. ... Roll Out was a failed sitcom that aired Friday evenings on CBS during the 1973-1974 television season. ... Typical American multi-bay car wash, with an automatic touchless bay at the far left and manual bays on the right. ... Search for Tomorrow was a soap opera which started airing on Monday, September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS, its original broadcaster, on Friday, March 26, 1982, with NBC picking it up on the following Monday, March 29, 1982. ... American Hot Wax is a 1978 biopic film telling the story of disc jockey Alan Freed who was instrumental in introducing and popularizing rock n roll in the 1950s. ... The Groundlings is an improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin to produce sketches and improvised scenes. ... Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman at the 1988 Academy Awards. ... For other people named Robin Williams, see Robin Williams (disambiguation). ... Phil Hartman (Birthname: Philip Edward Hartmann) (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was an Emmy-winning Canadian-born American graphic artist, writer, actor, voice artist, and comedian. ... Catch a Rising Star is a chain of comedy clubs, founded in New York City in 1972. ... Nickname: Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... The Improv is a comedy club at 8162 Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California. ...

Differences Between Fridays and SNL

The humor of the show differed from Saturday Night Live as much as it included stronger drug humor, stronger sex humor, stronger political satire and sketches that were more dramatic than comedic.

Fridays did not have a guest host during its entire first season, though it did feature musical acts. During the second season the show began featuring guest hosts (the first was SNL's first host, George Carlin). There were some odd host/musical act combinations. The episode which aired on January 16, 1981 featured Shelley Winters as the guest host and The Plasmatics as the musical guests. George Dennis Carlin (born May 12, 1937 in New York, New York) [1] is a Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and author. ... January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Winters in Cry of the City (1948) Shelley Winters (August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress. ... The Plasmatics were an American punk band, formed by Yale graduate and radical anti-artist Rod Swenson, around the late Wendy O. Williams. ...

The selections of musical guests were more adventurous, as the show featured many punk and new wave artists (see the "Memorable musical guests" section below). The production values for musical segments were higher, using colored concert style lighting, as opposed to SNL's flat white illumination. Fridays was the name of ABCs weekly late-night live comedy show, which aired on Friday nights from 1980 to 1982. ...

Recurring sketches and characters

• "Drugs 'R' Us" - "The Crazed Pharmacist"--Blankfield as a strung-out pharmacist who (sometimes accidentally) uses the products in his pharmacy to get high (drinking the liquid contents of a pregnancy test, taking strange pills that he thinks is aspirin, and sniffing glue that he mistakes for nasal decongestant) and thinks his weird customers are hallucinations caused by the drugs he takes. Catchphrases: "I can handle it!" and "Take a pill!"
• "Nat E. Dred" - Darrow Igus plays a Rastafarian chef who prepares—and smokes—food items heavily dosed with ganja. Catchphrase: "Is it turmeric? No no NO no, gimme ganja! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!". Similar skits included "Rasta-Claus".
• "Battle Boy" - Michael Richards as a hyperkinetic young boy who stages elaborate war scenarios in his backyard with toy soldiers, mutilates his sister's dolls and gets yelled at by his lazy mother.
• "Dick" - Michael Richards as an overzealous would-be ladies' man.
• "Pitkinville, Montana" - Rich Hall narrates footage of a fictional small town of tiny model people, usually at the mercy of household implements such as an electric hair dryer simulating a hurricane.
• "Latin DJ" - Bruce Mahler fills time between records by reading radio commercials entirely in mock Spanish. Catchphrase: "La musica, la musica de los Talking Heads..."
• "The Three Stooges" - Bruce Mahler, Larry David and John Roarke portray Moe, Larry and Curly as drug-addicted troublemakers. Reportedly these sketches were halted when Moe Howard's family threatened to sue.
• "Live and Be Well (also known as Matzoi)" - Bruce Mahler and Larry David as two particularly earnest rabbis co-hosting a TV show. Mahler's "Rabbi Glickman" character on Seinfeld was a reprise of his character.
• "Howdy Doody" - A running gag on Fridays was that Howdy Doody was such a huge star that he could always jump the line ahead of anyone at restaurants and nightclubs, no matter how famous they were (Frank Sinatra, for instance). Kramer's "Right this way, Mr. Doody" line in an early Seinfeld episode was Michael Richards' tribute to this now-obscure running gag.
• "Pastor James Babbit" - Mark Blankfield portrays a pulpit-bound preacher intending a meaningful sermon, but whose twisted perceptions and obvious repressed insecurities would lead to paranoid ranting and the divulgence of personal references of humiliation.
• "Dancing Chickens" - Bruce Mahler would play piano accompaniment to a raw chicken stuck on his hand and wearing little black plastic shoes. The sketch always ended with the chicken in a pot of boiling water next to the piano.
• "The Golden Boys" - Larry David and Mark Blankfield would play two egotistical, posturing wrestlers, presaging SNL's "Hans and Franz". Catch Phrase: "We're young, we're goodlooking and we'll be there!"
• "The Brotherhood of Men Who Hum Between Words" - A monastic order with the odd habit of humming between every word. Later skits had brothers who only hummed between every third or fourth word, and at least one who refused to hum at all (he was considered to be Reformed).

A Cannabis sativa plant Look up marijuana in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Binomial name Curcuma longa Linnaeus Turmeric (Curcuma longa, also known as tumeric) is a spice commonly used in curries and other South Asian cooking. ... Talking Heads was an American rock band existing between 1974 and 1991, composed of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison. ... Moe Howard (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975) was the leader of the Three Stooges. ... A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in which the party commencing the action, the plaintiff, seeks a legal remedy. ... For the town in Italy, see Rabbi, Italy Rabbi (Sephardic Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; Ashkenazi Hebrew רֶבִּי rebbī or rebbə; and modern Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished (in... Howdy Doody was a childrens television program (with a decidedly frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that aired on NBC from 1947 through 1960. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and Academy Award-winning actor who many consider to be one of the finest male popular song vocalists of all time. ...

Memorable One-Shot Sketches

• "Diner of the Living Dead" - A couple (played by John Roarke and Maryedith Burrell) visits a diner run by and catering to zombies. The zombies are seen eating human body parts and killing a living human (played by Mark Blankfield) who screams for help in the diner's kitchen, as it's implied he is being cut up with a chainsaw (all the viewer sees of him is his terrified face and a greenish-black hand pull him away from the door window as chainsaw noises are heard). Because of the sketch's depiction of extreme violence, gore and cannibalism, an apology was made on the following week's show by Melanie Chartoff (who played a zombie waitress in the sketch). The sketch was so offensive that six ABC affiliates stopped airing "Fridays". ABC affiliates that didn't pull the show from their schedule (and episodes that aired on the cable channel USA in reruns) merely reaired the episode with the "Diner of the Living Dead" sketch removed.
• "The Ronny Horror Show" - A sprawling 17-minute send-up of the incoming Reagan Administration based on The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In the sketch, Ronald Reagan (played by John Roarke in Dr. Frank N. Furter drag) plans on creating the ultimate Republican, but inadvertently creates an angry black militant (played by Darrow Igus) instead. To this day many consider this sketch to have been the series' tour de force. Like "Diner of the Living Dead", this sketch was shown when it first came on and subsequently edited out in all reruns. Unlike "Diner of the Living Dead", "The Ronny Horror Show" was edited, not because of content, but because the producer of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" protested against the film being parodied without his permission.
• An emotional sketch in which a son (Richards) visits his father (Roarke) who protests that he "doesn't know him" and "has no son". The son, thinking this is alienation and the consequences of the generation gap, begs him to let him in and accept him for who he is until he realizes that he's in the wrong apartment. Richards claimed later that this sketch was edgy enough that it was placed last in the show.
• William Shatner appeared in a sketch where he plays a man who reacts violently to minor pain. The man takes his date (played by Brandis Kemp) out to a dance club and while there, Kemp steps on Shatner's foot and Shatner reacts so violently that he tosses Kemp onto the ground, causing her skirt to fly up and her thong underwear to be shown. When this sketch reran, the brief shot of Brandis Kemp on the ground with her thong exposed was edited out.

A participant in a Zombie Walk event in Calgary This article is about the undead. ... President Reagan, with his Cabinet and staff, in the Oval Office (February 4, 1981) Headed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989, the Reagan Administration was conservative, steadfastly anti-Communist and in favor of tax cuts and smaller government. ... The Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS) (first released in the United Kingdom on 14 August 1975) is a science fiction-comedy-horror musical film directed by Jim Sharman from a screenplay by Sharman and Richard OBrien. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... GOP redirects here. ... Tour de Force is the sixth studio album by southern rock band . ...

Musical guests

Although Saturday Night Live had featured a number of punk rock and New Wave acts in its first few seasons, Fridays took that ball and ran with it. Acts which appeared on Fridays include: Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

• Pat Benatar
• Gary U.S. Bonds
• The Boomtown Rats
• Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band the cast members danced 'Stars Fell on Alabama'
• The Busboys
• The Cars
• The Clash in their debut American TV performance
• Devo
• The Jam
• Jefferson Starship
• King Crimson
• KISS
• The Plasmatics
• The Pretenders
• Rockpile
• Sir Douglas Quintet - appeared on the show that featured Andy Kaufman
• The Stray Cats in their debut American TV performance
• FEAR

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Gary U.S. Bonds (born Gary Anderson, June 6, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and rock n roll singer. ... The Boomtown Rats (1975-1986) was a punk rock / New Wave group led by Bob Geldof. ... The Busboys were a rock group who enjoyed some popularity in the early 1980s. ... The Cars were a popular American New Wave band, fronted by Ric Ocasek, that emerged out of the early punk scene in the late 1970s. ... The Clash were an English rock band active from 1976 to 1986. ... Devo (pronounced DEE-vo or dee-VO, often spelled DEVO or DEV-O) is an American Rock group formed in Akron, Ohio in 1972. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement. ... King Crimson is an English musical group founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969. ... KISS are an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973. ... The Plasmatics were an American punk band, formed by Yale graduate and radical anti-artist Rod Swenson, around the late Wendy O. Williams. ... Pretenders album cover, 1980. ... Rockpile was a British rock group noted for strong rockabilly and power pop influences. ... Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... Stray Cats was formed by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer in the Long Island town of Massapequa, NY, in 1979. ... Fear is a basic emotional sensation and response system (feeling) initiated by an aversion to some perceived risk or threat. ...

The Andy Kaufman incident

The most memorable moment on the show was when comedian Andy Kaufman was hosting the show on February 20, 1981. During a sketch about couples at dinner sneaking away to the bathroom to smoke marijuana, Kaufman, who loved causing trouble on live TV, broke character and refused to read his lines. Richards got up from the table, grabbed the cue cards and threw them down on the table in front of Kaufman, who responded by throwing a glass of water on Richards. Some of the show's cast and crew members became angry and a small brawl broke out on stage. Since the show was broadcast live, home viewers were able to see most of these events transpire on their television screens until the network cut the cameras off. Kaufman returned the following week in a taped apology to home viewers. This incident was planned by Andy and meant as a prank. Some of the cast members were in on it, but none of them have ever admitted to them helping Andy in his prank. This incident was recreated in the 1999 film Man On The Moon. A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was a Jewish New York-born American entertainer. ... Live television refers to television broadcasts of events or performances on a delay of between zero and fifteen seconds, rather than from video recordings or film. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1999. ... Man on the Moon is a 1999 film based on the unusual life and career of comedian Andy Kaufman. ...

The end of Fridays

The series ended in 1982 following ABC's decision to expand Nightline to five nights a week, which forced Fridays to air at midnight instead of 11:30. By the end of its first season, Fridays was outperforming Saturday Night Live in the ratings (admittedly at a time when Saturday Night Live's ratings were at their nadir), the later timeslot hurt the show during its second season. One final attempt was made by ABC to save the show by putting it on in prime time. However, the one episode which was broadcast in prime time was scheduled against Dallas, which was then the #1 TV show in the country. The ratings for this prime time episode were dismal, broadcast on April 23, 1982, and it was the last of the series. See also: 1981 in television, other events of 1982, 1983 in television and the list of years in television. ... Nightline is a late-night hard news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. ... When TV viewers or entertainment professionals in the United States mention ratings they are generally reduferring to Nielsen Ratings, a system developed by Nielsen Media Research to determine the audience size and composition of television programming. ... Prime time is the block of programming on television during the middle of the evening. ... The Southfork Ranch, home of the Ewing family The original cast of Dallas. ... April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... See also: 1981 in television, other events of 1982, 1983 in television and the list of years in television. ...

Post-Fridays careers for the cast

Richards, David and Chartoff today are the most active and successful ex-members of the cast.David would go on to help create Seinfeld, one of the most popular television shows in American history. Richards became one of the stars of that show with his performance as Cosmo Kramer. Other former Fridays cast members also turned up occasionally. Mahler made four appearances on the show as "Rabbi Glickman," Burrell appeared twice, as did Chartoff. In addition, former Fridays writers Larry Charles, Elaine Pope and Bruce Kirschbaum later became writers for Seinfeld. David now stars in the successful Curb Your Enthusiasm. This article is about the sitcom. ... Cosmo Kramer was the breakout character on the United States based television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by the actor Michael Richards. ... Larry Charles is an American television writer, director and producer. ... Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American sitcom starring Seinfeld writer, co-creator, and executive producer Larry David. ...

• Following the demise of Fridays Richards played small roles on TV and in movies, most notably in 1989's UHF. Following the end of Seinfeld (for which he won three Emmy Awards) Richards starred in a short-lived sitcom, 2000's The Michael Richards Show, in which he played detective Vic Nardozza. He is known to be a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason.

• Chartoff co-starred for three seasons in the early '90s TV series Parker Lewis Can't Lose and today is a very successful voice actor (best known for her work on Rugrats) and acting coach, also doing theatre and TV work.

• Roarke, a skilled impressionist and celebrity impersonator, is active as an entertainer at corporate functions, and occasionally works on TV and in the movies. Ironically, one of the characters who he impersonates is Richards' Kramer character on Seinfeld.

• Mahler retired from acting in 2001 to focus on his Florida-based production company and was an assistant production manager on Bruce Almighty and Freddy vs. Jason. Besides his work on Fridays and Seinfeld he is also widely known as Douglas Fackler in the Police Academy movies.

• Blankfield, Kemp, Burrell and Igus have continued appearing on TV and in movies in recent years, mostly in small roles.

// Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia for $20 million. ... UHF (also known as The Vidiot from UHF in Australia and parts of Europe, and Los Telelocos in Mexico) is a comedy film made in 1989. ... This article is about the sitcom. ... An Emmy Award. ... This is a list of television-related events in 2000. ... The Michael Richards Show was a short-lived sitcom that debuted on NBC in 2000. ... American Square & Compasses Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Parker Lewis Cant Lose - original FOX advertisement Parker Lewis Cant Lose is an early 1990s comedy television series that was strongly influenced by the film Ferris Buellers Day Off. ... A Rugrat may also be a pejorative term for a toddler. ... Bruce Almighty (2003) is a comedy movie directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark OKeefe and Steve Oedekerk. ... Freddy vs. ... Police Academy is a long-running series of comedy films, the first six of which were made in the 1980s. ...

DVD release and revival possibilities

No DVDs have been released yet from the series, reportedly because Richards was the only cast member who had the right to approve any home video releases from the series written into his contract. To date, he has not signed off on a DVD release, though some clips of Richards on Fridays appear on the Seinfeld Season Three DVD.

Episodes of Fridays edited to a sixty minute length appeared in syndication and on the USA Network later in the 1980s, but the series has not been aired since then. The USA Network is a popular American cable TV network with about 89 million household subscribers as of 2005. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

No reunion of the Fridays cast has ever occurred. The closest thing to a reunion to date was the 1998 series finale of Seinfeld in which Richards, Chartoff, Mahler and Burrell all appeared, and which David directed. This is a list of television-related events in 1998. ...

There have occasionally been vague rumors over the years that ABC has sometimes considered reviving the series with a new cast. However, this seems extremely unlikely given the success of Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Jimmy Kimmel Live is a late-night talk show in the United States created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast from the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. ...

External links

• Fridays at the Internet Movie Database
• Fridays TV Show: TV Party!
• Andy Kaufman Homepage -- Andy Hosts Fridays
• Fridays - Jump The Shark
• John Roarke's website