According to Dangerous Minds, Fernwood 2Night shows are hard to come by. It's a shame, really, as this was one of the defining shows of 70s comedy, the sort of postmodern, everything so tongue-in-cheek that it was coming out their ear humor that followed the end of the straight vaudeville turns that we were so used to on television. At that time, a generation of old comics was passing, and a new generation was just beginning to come down the pike. Martin Mull was definitely part of that new generation; he always struck me as one of the funniest people around, no matter what he was doing. And this was the show that brought Fred Willard to the masses:
In a scene-stealing role that defined his entire career playing the clueless white guy—is there ANYONE more Caucasian that Fred Willard?—Willard portrays what is quite possibly the dumbest, most dense character in all of television history. I’ve always thought that Willard was a comedic genius—the obtuse angles of his observations, so off the cuff and spontaneous, so REAL—and he was never funnier than he is in this role.
The first clip in the article, with the race expert, shows Willard at his best. And I couldn't resist extracting the Tom Waits segment above; he's the perfect Fernwood guest. Anyhow, get the whole story, and more clips, at Fernwood 2Night: The Great Lost American Comedy.
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