NBC airing first episode of SNL as a Carlin tribute - VIDEO
Of the many achievements George Carlin had in his long career, one that gets underplayed a bit is that he was the guest host on the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live — then called NBC’s Saturday Night, thanks to Howard Cosell — in 1975. Not a bad choice, I’d have to say; since the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” were only a part of that first episode (there was a lot of music and odd Muppets about … the show took some time to find itself), they needed Carlin to carry a lot of the comedic load. And that he did, giving the audience a number of his best routines from that time period.
As a tribute to the recently-deceased comedy legend, NBC will air the entire premiere episode of SNL this Saturday night. For those who have never seen the premiere before (it’s on a DVD set of the complete first season), it’ll be interesting to see how different the first episode is from the SNL format they know and hate-love today. I’ll be DVRing it; will you?
To give you a taste, the opening monologue — an early version of Carlin’s classic “Baseball and Football” routine — is after the jump.
George Carlin dead at 71
Wow. I just got in from a very, very late flight from Denver, and the early-morning newscasts hit me with this wallop: my favorite comedian, George Carlin, passed away last night. On Sunday, he admitted himself into a local Santa Monica hospital, complaining of chest pains, and ended up dying that evening of heart failure. He was 71.
Carlin, of course, is most famous for the 1970s comedy routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV.” It was a bit which not only got radio stations that played it in trouble with the FCC, leading to landmark First Amendment and decency rulings by the Supreme Court, but he was also arrested in Milwaukee on indecency charges after doing the routine on stage there.
During a long and varied career, Carlin went from doing goofy, straight-arrow comedy bits like “The Hippy-Dippy Weatherman” on The Ed Sullivan Show to being the ultimate counterculture spokesman, giving his observations — big and small — about the world on stage and TV. He was one of the first comedians to do hour-long specials on HBO, and his last one, It’s Bad for Ya, was well-received when it aired earlier this year. He also had a self-titled FOX series for a couple of years in the Nineties. So his tie to TV is quite strong.
Sigh. I’m sure Carlin’s fans will have more to say later today and this week. He’ll be sorely missed.
HBO Running George Carlin Marathon Tribute
HBO has announced that they will be running encore presentations of George Carlin’s comedy specials in memory of the groundbreaking comedian. reader Oscar passes along word that 11of his comedy specials will be presented over two nights on HBO2:
Wednesday, June 25th
8:00pm George Carlin at USC (1977)
9:00pm George Carlin Again! (1978)
11:00pm Carlin at Carnegie (1983)
12:00am Carlin on Campus (1984)
1:00am Playin’ with Your Head (1986)
Thursday, June 26th
8:00pm What Am I Doing in New Jersey? (1988)
9:00pm Doin It Again (1990)
10:00pm Jammin in New York (1992)
11:00pm Back in Town (1996)
12:05am You Are All Diseased (1999)
1:00am It’s Bad For Ya (2008)
Death a Joking Matter for George and Jerry
Jerry Seinfeld is going multimedia to honor his favorite monster, George Carlin.
In a New York Times editorial today and an appearance on last night’s Larry King Live, Seinfeld recalled his final conversation with Carlin, which devolved into a riff on mortality.
“The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about,” Seinfeld writes in the Times. “I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.
“We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: ’I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.’ “
Carlin died of heart failure Sunday at age 71.
Speaking to King, Seinfeld called the conversation with Carlin “very bizarre,” adding, “When I got the news [of Carlin’s death], it really, really threw me.”
And like all the other showbiz luminaries who paid their respects to Carlin’s unique talents, Seinfeld had only the most reverent things to say about the late comic’s place in the pantheon.
“He was the total package of what a comedian’s skills should be,” Seinfeld told King. “He literally could train his eye on something very kind of mundane and regularhe could talk about couch pillows or he could take on, you know, abortion or politics or religion. So there was no subject that his mind was not able to dissect and make fun…
“And, you know, he was funny with his face and his body was funny. Everything about him was funny…I don’t think we’ll ever see someone who, in their lifetime, creates as much comedy as this man did. He’s absolutely one of the untouchable giants of stand-up comedy.”
Then, in another nod to just how stunned everyone who knew Carlin was upon news of his demise, Seinfeld admitted that he knew his friend suffered from heart problems.
But still, he asked, “Who dies at 70 anymore? It’s so old-fashioned.”
Seinfeld, who had Carlin appear in his 1998 HBO special I’m Telling You for the Last Time, writes in the Times that Carlin “was a monster” of comedy.
“You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways.
“Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, ’Carlin does it.’ I’ve heard it my whole career: ’Carlin does it,’ ’Carlin already did it,’ ’Carlin did it eight years ago.’ “
Indeed, a week before his death, Carlin was tapped for the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring his contributions to the art.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced that after conferring with and getting approval from Carlin’s family, it will still hold a ceremony in honor of the late comic, making him the first posthumous recipient of the Twain Prize. The ceremony will rely on tributes from colleagues and friends, and we’re guessing Seinfeld is on the invite list.
“I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell,” he writes at the end of his Times piece. “Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, ’Carlin already did it.’ “