Apparently there was a live show in 1991 where actors would re-enact episodes of "The Brady Bunch" and the cast included Andy Richter as Mike (the dad). Other cast members included Jane Lynch and Melanie Hutsell (who would go on to parody the same part on SNL.) Becky Thyre as Marcia is spot-on.
Quite a time capsule. Man, I wish I enjoyed anything as much as this audience loves this show. Does this support my theory that people in the past were much more joyous? My instincts tell me this is just an aberration.
You can watch a behind-the-scenes "making of" look at the show here.
After the Late Night episode which featured a full audience of kids, Conan solicits focus group feedback.
The child audience show was real, by the way. And it's funny to see a young Jim Gaffigan here. My sense is, this isn't the only time he appeared on the show pre-fame.
It was quite a mess, especially as the kids increasingly lost interest as the show wore on. But I always appreciated the stunt shows. When was the last time anyone did one? I don't know of any.
For the youtube re-release, the original music used has been replaced with new music. I think they should state that in the video description to alleviate confusion but they don't. At least you know that going in.
This is one of the pieces I was waiting for as it has special significance to me. This was the comedy remote that got me to start watching Conan*.
I was already a Letterman fan for years before this. I knew from the first episode of the "Late Show" I had watched that I loved the show. But because of Conan's bad press when he started, and basically just ignorance, I was under the impression that Conan "sucked" and that was the end of it.
In August of 1997**, I was on Summer vacation in between my sophomore and junior years in high school. I was off from school but still working part-time in my teen "first job" job. One night my friend Jake was staying over and we turned on Conan (I don't remember why, exactly). We tuned in as this piece was playing, we maybe didn't even see the whole thing and loved it.
In particular, it was the joke at the end. In describing the madness of the kids getting free ice cream, Andy says, "Somebody smashed Piggy's glasses too." That joke was like a nuclear bomb that exploded our brains. We couldn't stop quoting it and came to the conclusion that "Andy is awesome". From then on I'd start watching Late Night regularly, not for Conan, but to see Andy. And then eventually Conan grew on me as well.
Looking back, one of the things I was excited about was the wish fulfillment of having your own ice cream truck. It's funny how this remote is the Venn diagram overlap of adulthood and childhood.
* - This is the skit that got me to start watching Conan but it's not the first time I saw the show. The first time I saw Conan was during the "mustard set" era and it was an interview segment. I was sleeping over my friend's house and he insisted that Conan's laugh was fake - not just "put on" but that it seemed like a sound effect overdubbed later kind of "fake". I disagreed but if you watch early Conan interviews, that phenomenon can still be recreated. I'm afraid my first Conan segment/interview/episode has been completely lost to time as these things are the only things I remember about the experience.
** - This piece first aired August 21, 1997. But pinning "I remember exactly where I was when this first aired" can be extremely dangerous because of reruns. Especially with late night talk shows - the most memorable bits are the ones they re-air the most. I think my memory agrees with August enough that it just feels right. I think I can assume this was the day.
The only problem with this clip is how old it makes me feel. You see, there used to be this thing called "MTV" and it used to have music videos... and they used to give out awards for the music videos... and there was a thing called the "Real World" and then the bands themselves.... aaaa-AAHHH...
All I know, all I know is love will save the day...
Conan and Andy will star in the upcoming (?) game Halo 4. Fortunately, they brought a camera crew to film them virtually single-handedly crafting the game:
While others flew in a plane, Andy was forced to drive the entire journey from L.A. to New York. He brought along a camera crew to document the experience.
The video vividly relays the excitement mixed with the sleepy boredom, the adventure mixed with the mundanity of the giant undertaking. By the end, his experience of Philadelphia is to groggily force down a cheesesteak. I can't say I blame him. All in all though, I bet it would be pretty cool.
