January 10, 1981 - Ray Sharkey/Jack Bruce (6.6)

[TheLazenby]

I still wish to this day that Gail would've responded to the lady in the Debbie Harry episode that said "ha ha ha..." after every joke. For the record though, Charlie's abortion joke didn't get unanimous gasps... it was sort of a mix between laughter and shock.

I don't have the tape handy right now, but Adolph, would you review the Bill Murray episode? I'd be curious to see what you think...

[Adolph K Musselman]

I'll put it on my to-do list.

[TheLazenby]

I'm watching this episode again.... this marks the single most desperate attempt for a laugh this season.

The "Hum Job" PSA (which I'm actually not faulting for slipping 'hum job' past the censors, I thought THAT was funny) starts out with Gilbert talking about using an enema and clogging it. WHY? SERIOUSLY, WHY WAS THAT RELEVANT? No one laughs, someone just groans at the cheap 'shock joke'.

I've always liked the Stop A Nut ad, and included it on the list of material that would've been on my "Best of Charles Rocket" that was never completed. It's a great Seventies Rovco-type ad, complete with some unknown castmember (probably Gilbert) in a robot shoot blasting Ray in the face with... fire extinguisher spray? I dunno. Either way I thought it was clever enough.

[nightfly776]

I still wish to this day that Gail would've responded to the lady in the Debbie Harry episode that said "ha ha ha..." after every joke. For the record though, Charlie's abortion joke didn't get unanimous gasps... it was sort of a mix between laughter and shock.

I don't have the tape handy right now, but Adolph, would you review the Bill Murray episode? I'd be curious to see what you think...

After just watching this, I don't recall the "ha ha ha" happening more than after just one joke about Sinatra's mob connection, and it was just a single, solitary "ha". I watched it twice to see what you speak of here. Didn't happen.

[TheLazenby]

What's the source of your episode? It's possible that the "heckler" (if you want to call her that) was mixed out of a rerun at some point.

Actually, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one - let me check my episode and I'll get back to you here...

[TheLazenby]

"This was the officer that frisked Sinatra before he entered the courtroom." "Haaa..."

Wow, seems I was wrong! I could've sworn that happened! She pops up again after "Oops, I forgot about it!" (her nasal voice is easy to pick out), but it's nothing like I remembered.

I checked the Kellerman episode to see if I got the episode wrong... sounds like that lady has a friend! After "we should at least be entitled to 30,000 toasters", a guy way back in the audience, after the rest of the light reaction does down, goes "HA!"

I looked at Tilton's WU as well... poor Gail. "That means you'll get the wrong mail a day earlier. (a couple laughs) Okay..." Awww. (This is the same episode with the "Merry Christmas in Spanish" one.) Incidentally, I never actually noticed before that the woman in Charlie's joke shortly after that has her nipples exposed. Damn, this episode just packs it in, doesn't it?

[Casey Killingsworth]

I got my ioffer DVDs from this season in the mail over the weekend and for some strange reason, I got two different versions of this episode.One was the "short version" from some sort of Comedy Central "Eddie Murphy" years marathon and the other was the full 90 minute version which must have been taped from the original 1981 broadcast since the video quality is a lot weaker than the rest of the episodes and there is no logo in the corner or anything. Anyway, I might tack on a little mini-review of this episode later.

[TheLazenby]

Yes, that's why he put on both. The shorter version is better quality than the full version.

[Casey Killingsworth]

Yes, that's why he put on both. The shorter version is better quality than the full version.

Thanks. Can you or anyone else possibly confirm that the original 90 minute low quality version is form the original 1981 broadcast or a repeat from the course of that season?

Anyway, I haven't seen a helluva lot of Piscopo's Carter before buying these DVDs but I gotta say it is pretty accurate (even if it is COMPLETELY identical to Aykroyd's impression) Maybe I am underrating Piscopo as an impersonator...

Also, I thought it was pretty strange and awkward that they had to interrupt that sketch for the "Ringing in January 11th" bit and then go back at the end to show everybody form the bar celebrating...I understand it was probably just around midnight on the east coast, but still, that made no fucking sense...

I may post a mini review of this episode (and post my thoughts on Season 6 as a whole) later on...

[bjdwsm]

Has anyone downloaded the reupload of this from that organ site?

The low quality version is from the original broadcast because as far as I know, only Gould (3-Jan-81), Burstyn (31-Jan-81) and Carradine (28-Feb-81) got reruns.