Shatner on Fridays (1981)

[mb22]

William Shatner guest starred on the ABC Saturday Night Live clone Fridays on September 25, 1981 (a month and a half before filming began on TWOK). Kim Carnes was the musical guest. The not so funny episode is on YouTube (some of Carnes' songs have been removed).

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[Maurice]

Fridays looks bad until you look at where SNL ended up once the original cast left. Fridays was arguably better, and improved as it went along, but was killed because ABC pushed it later to make room for Nightline and the ratings sagged.

 

[Tosk]

Wasn't Fridays was on during the period where Eddie Murphy was massively blowing up? That heat he had warmed the entire cast, even made people think that they liked Joe Piscopo.

 

[Maurice]

Wasn't Fridays was on during the period where Eddie Murphy was massively blowing up? That heat he had warmed the entire cast, even made people think that they liked Joe Piscopo.

Murphy was indeed the breakout but the show was a disaster in its 1980–81 season, in part because the writing suffered under 1-year producer Doumanian and much of the cast was not good. NBC also slashed the SNL budget by 65%, probably because an all new cast starts cheaper than one that's been there for years and got salary hikes.

Interesting article on the show:
‘Fridays’: The ‘SNL’ Ripoff That Nearly Surpassed the Original
By Dennis Perrin

 

[J.T.B.]

Wasn't Fridays was on during the period where Eddie Murphy was massively blowing up?

That started '81-'82 after Dick Ebersol took over for Doumanian. Arguably Ebersol took a cue from Fridays, putting an emphasis on recurring sketch characters that did a lot to establish Murphy with the public.

Fridays as I remember it also had a stronger association with New Wave music which was much talked about at the time, giving it more of a "next thing" feel than season 6 SNL. But this was all in a relatively short period.

That heat he had warmed the entire cast, even made people think that they liked Joe Piscopo.

I don't remember who, but somebody said "Eddie Murphy's success went to Joe Piscopo's head."

 

[Daddy Todd]

Fridays as I remember it also had a stronger association with New Wave music

Yeah, I remember seeing Stray Cats on an early-1982 rerun (just before the show got canned.) I immediately went out and bought their two UK albums at the local import store.

Fun times!

 

[1001001]

Yes I loved seeing The Cars on Fridays. Check out who’s introducing them!

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I watched that show through its entire run, but I have no memory of Shatner...

 

[J.T.B.]

Yeah, I remember seeing Stray Cats on an early-1982 rerun (just before the show got canned.) I immediately went out and bought their two UK albums at the local import store.

I definitely remember them. For me it was the Blasters, I thought they kicked ass. But no indy label stuff at my mall record store, it was a few years before I got my hands on that vinyl.