{"id":2351,"date":"2010-11-19T06:08:28","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T13:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rynosoft.com\/blog\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2010-11-18T23:47:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T06:47:30","slug":"sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rynosoft.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll","title":{"rendered":"Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you were a teen in the 80s like me then you probably remember the short-lived sketch comedy series, Fridays<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, on ABC. Although it only lasted two seasons, it left an indelible impression on my young brain.<\/p>\n

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Sadly, a DVD release of those two seasons is reportedly held up by Michael Richards. Luckily, YouTube has most of their great sketches including the ones I’ve included below the fold:
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I had completely forgotten about The Rasta Gourmet but as soon as he asked “Watching TV? No no no no!” in the video below, I totally remembered it:<\/p>\n

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Considerably less difficult to remember was “Battle Boy” with Michael Richards:<\/p>\n

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And who can forget the crazed pharmacist and “just take a pill”?<\/p>\n

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I enjoyed the comedy but the real reason I watched Fridays was for the music. After I saw the following performance, I purchased every single Stray Cats record I could get my hands on, including British imports.
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Although my pursuit of Stray Cats albums eventually led me down the punk path, I totally hated these guys when I saw them on Fridays – my first exposure to them. Eventually, I would realize they had just made one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time.
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I specifically remember turning to my friend, Dave, and commenting on how bad they were. His reply was, “it’s like they’re each playing their own song.” I have no doubt my favorite band at the moment was Queen and my second favorite was The Beatles. There was not yet room in my world for The Clash.<\/p>\n

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I don’t remember seeing this sketch but evidently Melanie Chartoff got a chipped tooth from the first punch:<\/p>\n

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This video definitely illustrates the stylistic differences with Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n

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I’ll close with what has been described as the greatest sketch in Fridays<\/em> history. It was subsequently banned and edited from rebroadcasts:
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I specifically remember turning to my friend, Dave, and commenting on how bad they were. His reply was, “it’s like they’re each playing their own song.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,13,6,14,5,11],"tags":[667,1457,155,1455,138,1559,1456,1458,24],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explanation","category-favorite-things","category-music","category-pictures","category-tales","category-video","tag-80s","tag-clash","tag-comedy","tag-fridays","tag-history","tag-music","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-stray-cats","tag-television"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t