they were having a hard time. and then came the man that saved the show, eddie murphy. there was buzz about him, so you tuned in. and there was this kind of explosion of talent in front of your eyes. it really kind of rejuvenated the show. i am gumby, dammit! you don t talk to me that way! after awhile, the show regained its status and its clout and became even more of an institution than it had been. hey, bob. hey, peters. looks great today. listen, if you re unhappy with my work, tell me now! you re through, you hear me, through! you ll never work in this town again! don t leave me hanging by a thread. let me know where i stand! we were a little worried at first because we had a new cast. but everyone loves us. you guys have been so nice to us during our stay. isn t that special. i am hans. and i am franz. and we just want to pump you up. a lot of things they could do on saturday night live they couldn t do on a sitcom.
was aware of the fact that it was a situation comedy. it highlighted the cliches in funny ways. are you looking into the camera? yeah. no, i didn t don t look into the camera. i didn t. don t. you don t come in here and look into the camera. i didn t. i ll bop you. i will. if i see a tape of this show and “pee-wee s playhouse” on cbs, a so-called saturday morning kids show that adults could watch and wink at each other as they were watching it, is very clever. good morning. what s today s secret word? the secret word is good! it was a show certainly for kids, and it was for stoned baby boomers who were totally wasted on saturday morning and watched
going to alienate people, and he didn t care. he wanted his thumbprint out there, and that s the most important thing. it s time for small-town news. paul excuse me, paul? do you have any accompanying music here for small-town news? paul shaffer, ladies and gentlemen. the show making fun of itself and turning itself inside-out that way was something kind of new. i mean, don t we look like guys you d see hanging around together? absolutely. would you like to hang around with me? nope. i ll say it again, this is the stupidest show i thought that i would never want to do this show with you. now why? because you thought i was a [ bleep ]? there is one rule i keep trying to abide by, and unfortunately, i only get to it about 12% of the time. and that is, it s only television. we re not doing cancer research. if the 40-year-odd history of commercial broadcasting has taught us one thing, there s nothing sacred about television.
today is our last show on the air. monday, las vegas [ booing ] have these people been frisked? it was a dismal failure in terms of the ratings, but not in terms of introducing us to letterman. david, thank you for being with us tonight. thank you very much for having me, i appreciate it. in spite of all this nonsense that goes around in the background, stay with it, don t give up. stay with us here in new york. dave is back in new york. you re going to host a late-night television program that premieres monday night. what are critics likely to say tuesday morning? i don t much care because i found a way to deal with that, pills and whiskey. david, you re on. oh, i m on? i m sorry. proceed. i m enjoying listening to you snort. they gave him the late night show after the tonight show. and at the time, people thought who s going to watch television at 12:30 at night? who s up? i ll tell you who s up.
taken one step further. to see more tv, producers had to come up with new and different ways to give them television. don t be stupid! get over here! i told you not to be stupid. what cops did was, it took away the script and just brought the camerapeople and the crews on location to try and catch actual things happening. cocaine. possession of a stolen firearm, no less. what else are you going to do?