Mr. T on Saturday Night Live

Mr. T appeared on Saturday Night Live twice. In fact, imdb lists his two different appearances in two different sections of his page. He appeared in one episode in a "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" skit as well as "Mr. and Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix" and then later co-hosted an episode along with Hulk Hogan to promote Wrestlemania I. Imdb lists his first appearance as "actor", they list his hosting of SNL as "self." I suppose that makes sense when you really think about it but it confused the heck out of me.

Mr. T's appearance on SNL is very typical stuff. There are a few things that stood out to me. I should mention that this is the Dick Ebersol era of SNL so it's the Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, etc. cast. So that's the flavor.

First off, Mr. T and Hulk Hogan do the opening "monologue" and it looks like the picture above. Mr. T has made a career out of being a large guy, he's not tall, he's 5'11'' but he's big. It's amazing to me how small he looks next to Hulk Hogan. That guy really is giant.

The monologue is basically a wrestling promo. The only thing that stood out to me is they make a joke about the Richard Belzer incident. Maybe it's just hindsight or the fact that I'm from a weaker, wimpier era, but that seemed to me to be poor taste.

So then it's the skits... Mr. T appears in 3 skits and in all of them he's just playing Mr. T. Seems like this would be a chance for the writers to get creative and have him play against type but then again, it's possible they proposed that and he refused. This is the era of Mr. T being as serious as a heart attack.

Mr. T appears in "Mr. and Mrs. T Bloody Mary Mix" - a fake commercial where Robin Duke (made-up to look like Mr. T) and Mr. T sell bloody mary mix. According to Robin Duke, her repetition of "I pity the fool" in this sketch is what made "I pity the fool" is what really injected it into the mainstream and caused it to become T's official catchphrase. Oh, she did that? Call me skeptical.

The most famous sketch from the episode, and also one of the most famous SNL clips in existence, is "Fernando's Hideaway." In case you don't recall, you've probably seen it in the clip shows. It's the one where Billy Crystal improvs in a Spanish accent and Hulk Hogan and Mr. T struggle to maintain character and not break up. As the most famous Mr. T highlight, it's ironic that all traces of it seem to be erased from the internet. NBC: they do whatever they can to not make money.

So that's about it.

Fun Fact: The funniest Hulk Hogan SNL sketch, in my opinion, is the one that didn't have Hulk Hogan.

100K Dominoes Set Up By Robot

 

Mr. T on Silver Spoons

 

I'm exploring the early works in Mr. T's oeuvre and it's all pretty much "of a piece." Mr. T plays the Mr. T persona and, even then, his acting is sometimes rough. But, unexpectedly, there is a sterling standout appearance and it's his episode of "Silver Spoons."

"Silver Spoons" was another show I really liked as a kid but don't have any idea how it holds up now. If you're unfamiliar, you need to know 3 things: 1) It's about a rich kid - so he has a rideable train in his house. So child-me was sold immediately. 2) Erin Gray is in the cast. And 3) I forgot the third thing after Erin Gray was mentioned. Maybe it was that this show was where Alfonso Ribeiro got his start. It might also have been that it has one of my favorite TV themes of all-time (is it yacht rock?). Call it 4.5 things.

In the episode, little Ricky is getting bullied at school so they hire Mr. T to be his bodyguard. He sits in an elementary school classroom, the teacher asks a question, Mr. T looks around, looks around the other way, no one knows the answer, he slowly raises his hand.

I was pleasantly surprised. If you're not averse to cheesy eighties sitcoms, this is actually genuinely funny. It's weird to say, but this is wittier and more subtle humor than both of Mr. T's appearances on Saturday Night Live. Check out the episode (S01E04) if you're into this sort of thing.

Trivia: In the episode, Mr. T confronts the bully "Ox" played by John P. Navin Jr. The two would meet again in very similar circumstances when Navin plays a gang member who Mr. T takes under his wing in the made for TV movie "The Toughest Man in the World."

The Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis Christmas Special

Yes, there is such a thing as "The Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis Christmas Special." Technically the title is "A Christmas Dream" but no one calls it that.

I have watched it and, having watched it, this would usually be where I would review it and describe how crazy-go-nuts it was. But I'm not going to do that - it's not worth it. It's really just a cash grab: a major network created a cheap Christmas special to fill up airtime. 

There's little production, little plot, it's just very cheaply made. It has none of the bizarreness of The Star Wars Holiday Special but it is similar in that it's another inexplicable variety special. So there's singing, ice skating, close-up magic (David Copperfield), a ventriloquist, and lots more singing. The "plot" that glues together the variety elements is that a little boy (Lewis) doesn't like Christmas and T is intervening to give him the Christmas Spirit. You can watch it here.

A few interesting things about Emmanuel Lewis. First off, according to Wikipedia, Lewis has no known condition that explains his lack of growth. That's weird. Also, when he was in his heyday on Webster he was in his teens, he wasn't a 5 year old boy like I had always assumed. For instance, as of this special (1984) he's 13 years old. Another tidbit that surprised me is that he's still alive but has disappeared from public except for one appearance. He shows up in a Lil John music video "Don't Give a F" around the 30 second mark.

GG - British Newsie

 

Japan Snack Reviews #3

 .... Aannnd we're back!

This is part of a Very Special Blog Series where we review random Korean and Japanese snacks. This time it's Japanese...

1.

Translated Name: "Takoyaki", or grilled octopus. Specifically teriyaki/corn flavored.

Additional Text: Texas Corn

Review:

When the packaging advertises "Octopus" flavor, I know to be worried. But these are actually ok. They're corn puffs, they're light, salty and savory. As stated on the package, they're supposed to taste like octopus/seaweed but whatever that is, it's just a light dusting and it's mixed with teriyaki. I would call these "not bad, but not good."

I wonder what they mean by "Texas Corn" - whether that's just a claim, whether that's a flavor or - I doubt it but - are they actually importing corn from Texas?

2.

Translated Name: N/A.

Review:

Walter and Jesse got together to do a cook, it appears. These have some Japanese text but it's faint and small and so I didn't have it translated.

The taste of these, whatever they are, is exactly as you'd expect. It's crystallized sugar, it tastes like rock candy. I like rock candy. I like these just fine.

3.

Translated Name: Unclear other than that it's strawberry flavored.

Review:

Yes, it's that famous Japanese icon Felix the Cat. Remember Felix from all the Japanese cartoons?

As far as packaging goes, this is an A+. I would like to take that wrapper and frame it (if it wasn't just a few square inches). I love that image.

As far as the candy, it's a very light and pink square. At first I assumed it was something like Hi-Chew but it turns out it's strawberry gum. It's lighter than we would have in America both in terms of density and taste. There's nothing great about the gum but it's good. You can't go wrong with strawberry gum.

4.

Translated Name: "Cola-flavored gum"

Review:

Speaking of packaging, this is another outstanding package and another thing I would frame if it wasn't so small. As it's cola-flavored, what they've cleverly done is combined the Coca-Cola and Pepsi logos into one.

Inside the fantastic package, are 4 small brown gumballs. They certainly taste like cola. People say that one of the things that differentiate Coke and Pepsi is that Pepsi has a pronounced citrus taste and it's that taste that's really emphasized in this gum. It's almost too much but I can tell why they would give it such a punch - the flavor starts wearing off immediately and it becomes pretty flavorless pretty fast. Not bad.

5.

Translated Name: N/A

Review:

The history of this candy must be that some aunt said "You're so cute, I could just eat you up" and immediately Japanese engineers went to work. This is the very definition of the phrase.

What does it taste like? Who cares with looks like that! Ok, I'll tell you. At first I expected a gummy candy but it's actually hard like a lollipop. It's like a lemon-flavored lollipop. And it's a good one. Looks great, tastes great.

And that's it.