Fernwood 2Nite

Fernwood 2Nite (or Fernwood 2Night) is a comedic television program created by Norman Lear as a spin-off from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Related Topics:
Comedic - Television program - Norman Lear - Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

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Fernwood 2Nite is a farcical talk show hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), complete with a stage band, Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers (featuring Frank De Vol as Happy, and Tommy Tedesco as one of the guitarists).

Related Topics:
Talk show - Martin Mull - Fred Willard - Tommy Tedesco - Guitarist

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Like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Fernwood 2Nite is set in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio. The show satirizes real talk shows as well as the sort of fare one might expect from locally-broadcast, small-town, midwestern American television programming. After one season of Fernwood, the producers reincarnated the show the following year as America 2-Night. In this second and final installment, we find that Barth and Jerry's local show—formerly aired on the fictional television network UBS—has found national syndication.

Related Topics:
Town - Ohio - Talk show - Midwestern American - America 2-Night - Television network - Syndication

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Norman Lear's brainchild about an offbeat talk show is not the only sitcom project orchestrated to span multiple, distinct television series in order to tell a story. In 1994, BBC Two aired Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge, another simulated talk show that, like Fernwood, presented a bumbling host in a talk show-based sitcom that its creators developed from an earlier project. In the case of Fernwood, the humble talk show finds success and a new format which appears in the following season's incarnation, America 2-Night. Contrast with Knowing Me, Knowing You, in which an ostentatious, multinational prime-time series fails miserably after six episodes, forcing its host into radio in the follow-up series, I'm Alan Partridge.

Related Topics:
Sitcom - 1994 - BBC Two - Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge - Prime-time - Episode - Radio - I'm Alan Partridge

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