Comedies From Sports and Canada
Courtesy of the New York Times
October 19, 1988
by John J. O'Connor
No doubt about it. Home Box Office is making the most of
comedy, encompassing everything from straightforward stand-up
routines to elaborate sketches. Tonight, HBO cable-channel
subscribers can jump from a pack of troglodytic football
players, unabashedly vulgar and uproarious, to five
delightfully inventive young men from Toronto who, in the Monty
Python tradition, spend a good deal of their comedy time in
drag. In between the two shows, incidentally, at 11 P.M., can
be found the Robert Townsend film "Hollywood Shuffle."
The football squad comes on at 10 P.M., as "First and
10," directed by Stan Lathan, grunts and groans its way through
still another season on HBO. Created by Karl Kleinshmidtt, the
series made its debut in the fall of 1985, taking the
California Bulls from training camp to the end of the season in
January. Back then, the team owner was a woman, played by
Delta Burke, who left for the CBS series "Designing Women."
O.J. Simpson played T.D. Parker, the coach. Mr. Simpson
is still around, but now he's the general manager, trying
desperately to keep his grossly overgrown adolescents in line
and to rebuild a team image that has been tattered by, among
other things, a drug scandal.
So far this season, the Bulls, trying to stave off
acquisition by a conservative image-conscious corporation, have
decided to purchas the team themselves through a leveraged buy
out. This leaves the new owners arguing over who geets the
best parking spaces and how much to raise the price of hot
dogs.
Will Mad Dog, Doc, Bubba, Jethro and the gang be able to
discipline themselves long enough to become successful
entrepeneurs? Of course not. But they do manage to make a
profit out of their goofy antics.
Beneath the raucous veneer, "First and 10" provides what
is probably one of the most accurate depictions of the football
business that you are likely to find on television these days.
If you can't laugh, you're likely to weep.
Later, at 12:25 A.M., the Toronto contingent can be found
in an "On Location" special called "The Kids in the Hall."
That's the name of the group. Actually, the five members are
not kids; they are in their mid-to-late 20's. But they have
reached back for the name to a period before they were born,
back to the old Jack Benny radio show.
Evidently, young writers would stand in the hall a pitch
jokes to Benny as he entered the studio. Some gags would be
bought on the spot. Benny began talking amiably about "the
kids in the hall." These Canadian kids are Dave Foley, Bruce
McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson.
They drift in and out of situations and characters that,
at first glance seem perfectly normal, then slowly turn
bizarre. The show's last sketch, for instance, has the fresh-
faced performers talking warmly about their friend Reg. "God,
could he skate," says one. "Hair always perfect," says
another, adding. "I can't believe he's dead." The point of
the piece slowly becomes clear. With undiminished warmth, one
of the friends confides, "You get to know a guy pretty quick
when you watch him beg for mercy."
In another addball vignette, young Rusty arrives home to
find his mother entertaining the elderly Mrs. Wilson. Drawn to
older women, Rusty makes his move, pointing out how "the light
really brings out the blue in your hair." While mom goes for a
tray of martinis, Mrs. Wilson warns the persistent Rusty: "I'm
not a plaything; I'm a senior, and you've got to learn the
difference.
The executive producer of "The Kids in the Hall" is Lorne
Michaels, himself a Canadian and the creator of "Saturday Night
Live." With Robert Boyd as director and Joe Forristal as
producer, Mr. Michaels and HBO brought the Kids in the Hall to
New York to prepare and hone their material in clubs.
The effort paid off. Here is some of the freshest and
most disarming material the comedy scene has been able to claim
in a long while.
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