The Saturday Night Live digital shorts created by the Lonely Island fellas have helped draw some new attention to the series, but they're certainly not the first previously-filmed inserts to be included on the late night comedy show. In fact, the commercial parodies that have been a part of the show since the beginning have almost always been pre-taped.
Below, I've placed two videos from Saturday Night Live in the '70s. The first is a classic "Mr. Bill" episode, and the second is a video for the Barnes and Barnes novelty song "Fish Heads" ("eat them up, yum"). The "Fish Heads" video, according to Popwatch, was directed by Bill Paxton. Why Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video is always considered one of the best music videos of all time and "Fish Heads" never even gets recognition is beyond me. I find it quite charming and provocative, actually. Plus, no one can argue that fish heads "are never seen drinking Cappacino in Italian restaurants With Oriental women."
Oh yeah, and one half of Barnes and Barnes just happened to be actor Bill Mumy of Lost in Space (and a few classic Twilight Zone episodes).
Yes, back in those carefree days all we needed was Play-Doh and dead fish for our comedy. Enjoy:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-19-2007 @ 12:41PM
Tess Capra said...
Also of note: Child actor Bill Mumy is one half of Barnes and Barnes.
Reply
5-19-2007 @ 12:45PM
Tess Capra said...
Oops! I'd swear that Mumy paragraph wasn't there originally!
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5-19-2007 @ 12:47PM
Kevin Little said...
We're the non "live" Saturday Night Live skits really bothering fols.
http://www.ebizmba.com
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5-19-2007 @ 1:32PM
Buns and Chou Chou said...
we sound like mr. bill and had him in mind when we started up a year ago:
http://www.rabbitbites.com/archive/alecbaldwin.html
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5-20-2007 @ 12:05AM
John said...
"Plus, no one can argue that fish heads "are never seen drinking Cappacino in Italian restaurants With Oriental women.""
... Yeaahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Sorry, I can never stand to see the 'Yeah' hanging. =)
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5-20-2007 @ 9:48PM
Seth said...
My favorite old school SNL short was just this bizarre short piece with a guy in a gas mask or something running around an abandoned drive-in theatre.
No intro, no explanation.
I've always considered it the standard bearer of the difference between the early seasons and everything that came after.
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5-23-2007 @ 7:25PM
Nick said...
Does anyone by any chance remember the old Pizza Hut commercials with the talking slice of pizza?
Somehow this reminded me of that.
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5-23-2007 @ 7:42PM
Adam from TV Squad said...
Nick: those commercials were created by Walter Williams, who is also the creator and voice of Mr. Bill.
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