Apparently Saturday Night Live had a 40-year birthday party for itself. Show business folk like giving themselves praise and awards. They have the sneaking suspicion no one else would, I imagine. I didn’t watch it. The show was kinda funny 40 years ago. Since then, not so much. You can only be subversive once. After that, you’re bound to become hidebound. The last person to be truly subversive on the show was fired for it, a very long time ago. I knew him a very little.
The, ahem, paper of record didn’t even mention him when maundering on about all the dead alums, so I will. I wrote about him ten years ago. Suicide, like true subversion, is a trick you can only pull once. Farewell, Captain Packard.
5 Responses
Visiting my brother-in-law Sunday, he had VH-1 on, playing bits from every year of SNL.
I don't remember Charlie at all, and I don't remember seeing your remembrance of him, likely because I hadn't discovered you then.
Have never seen the show. Tend to pack it in much earlier. Used to catch Johnny Carson's monologue every once in a while when located in the Central Time zone. When I still watched that kind of TV I rarely finished Bonanza. Oh well.
I have no "cable" or what not so we watch MASH on METV over the air waves at 7:00pm every once in a while and a couple times a year we get a RedBox DVD for movie night. We have a DVD player for the grandchildren's cartoons (Jetsons, Veggie Tales, Richard Scary's Busy Town Mysteries with Lowly Worm and Huckle Cat, etc). So why do I know that Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm star in Richard Scary's Busy Town Mysteries? It's a mystery…
Any guy that likes accordions can't be all bad.
Good story, though like some other readers I was not a regular viewer of SNL. Though I recall seeing one skit about the Claudine Longet Memorial Ski Run.I agree w chasmatic about accordions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Longet
I remember him, but would not have ever if you hadn't brought him up. I like characters like that. His You Tube videos are hidden behind a firewall, too.
Dude was a true artist.