Fernwood 2 Night
 |
| Fernwood 2 Night | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Norman Lear |
| Starring | Martin Mull Fred Willard Frank De Vol Tommy Tedesco |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 0:30 (per episode) |
| Production company | T.A.T. Communications Company |
| Original release | |
| Network | first-run syndication |
| Release | July 4 – September 30, 1977 |
Fernwood 2 Night (or Fernwood Tonight) is a comedic television program that was broadcast weeknights from July 1977 to September 1977. It was created by Norman Lear and produced by Alan Thicke as a spin-off/summer replacement for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. It was 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 the Mirth Makers", with Frank De Vol as the dour bandleader and Tommy Tedesco as a guitarist.
Fernwood 2 Night was satirical in tone and set in the fictional small town of Fernwood, Ohio, like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, in which Barth Gimble was a recurring supporting character. The show parodied actual late-night talk shows and the sort of fare one might expect from locally produced small-town midwestern American television programming.
After one summer season of Fernwood 2 Night, the producers revamped the show in 1978 as America 2-Night. In this second version, the show relocated to Southern California (specifically, the fictional city of "Alta Coma") and was broadcast nationally on the fictional UBS Network. The change to a Southern California setting made it more plausible for real-life celebrities to appear on the program as themselves.
In 2001, Mull and Willard reprised their roles in a stage appearance and retrospective at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The pair also worked together in other projects, appearing together in the final seasons of Roseanne as a gay couple.[citation needed]
Reruns of Fernwood/America 2-Night were broadcast on Nick at Nite from 1990 to 1993 and TV Land in 2002 as part of their "TV Land Kitschen" block, also hosted by Mull and Willard.
Recurring characters
- Merle Jeeter (Dabney Coleman), Fernwood's somewhat shifty, self-promoting mayor.
- William W.D. 'Bud' Prize (Kenneth Mars), Fernwood's "Ambassador at Large" from the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor's supposed energy expert. Prize invariably arrived wearing his elaborate "chinodontic" headgear which was designed to correct his underbite.
- Tony Rolletti (Bill Kirchenbauer), an enthusiastic, if only marginally talented, lounge singer.
- Susan Cloud (Susan Elliot), the spaced-out owner of the Butterfly Deli, a local health food restaurant.
- Virgil Simms (Jim Varney), the local mechanic who offered automotive advice.
- Garth Gimble Sr. (Robert Williams), Barth's father, who was also the cheerfully incompetent studio security guard. Almost always seen with his lethargic dog Louie.
- Lou Moffat (Lou Felder), a "consumer affairs expert" who always ended up plugging products distributed by Gimbleco Enterprises.
- Debbie Dunbar (Kathy McCullen), Fernwood's controversial "Spanking Girl."
- Lillian Dunbar (Bobbie Tremain), Debbie's outraged mother.
- Dr. Richard Osgood/Van Moot (Craig Richard Nelson) Physician and research scientist who discovered that leisure suits cause cancer.
See also
References
External links
- 1977 American television series debuts
- 1977 American television series endings
- 1970s American satirical television series
- 1970s American sitcoms
- First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
- Television series by Sony Pictures Television
- American television spin-offs
- Television shows set in Ohio
- Television series created by Norman Lear