A substacker writes: We lost the great Martin Mull a year ago on June 27th.

[BootinUp]

I cobbled these words together a couple of days after his passing…

The Mixtape
Fernwood, Goodnight
Remembering the great Martin Mull.
Michael Elliott
Jun 29, 2024

Before Larry Sanders, there was Barth Gimble.

My dad and I watched the irreverent Fernwood 2 Night whenever it aired. It was my introduction to how far and deep comedy could go into its subject. Fernwood was a parody of a local TV show in a small made-up town in Ohio, hosted by Barth Gimble (Mull) and his cluelessly sincere sidekick, Jerry Hubbard, played by the always hilarious Fred Willard.

From the brilliant mind of Norman Lear, Mull’s character was the twin brother of Garth from Lear’s soap opera parody, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. He moves back to Fernwood in the wake of his brother’s untimely death (from being impaled on an artificial Christmas tree) and ends up hosting this late-night show. Guests included local citizens with the occasional big name who happened to be reluctantly in the area that evening. In that respect, the show also acted as my introduction to Tom Waits…

continued
https://www.michael-elliott.com/p/fernwood-goodnight

[hlthe2b]

1. He was great... maybe the ONLY reason to ignore the disgusting Rosanne and watch those reruns of her show

He was great on it and many others.

[Tom Dyer]

2. Mary Hartman was genius television.

[Skittles]

3. a simple yes or no

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. Classic

So many quotable lines in that movie.