More Splitsider and a 'Plan 9' alignment chart

Rick Moranis as David Brinkley on SCTV Network 90.

Splitsider continues to be a place where I can work through my long-gestating comedic obsessions. Case in point: my latest piece for the site, which is about comedian Rick Moranis. The article contrasts his work on SCTV with the film roles he played from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s before retiring. I got the idea when I started rewatching old SCTV skits and noticing two important things: (1) Rick Moranis is one hell of a sketch performer. (2) The kinds of characters he played on TV weren't often -- or even usually -- the nerdy nice guys he played in movies. That picture up there, for instance, is from a brilliant monologue he did as real-life ABC newsman David Brinkley. Anyway, I hope my article makes at least one or two people check out Moranis' pre-movie sketch work.

Also, I've noticed that my "Manos" The Hands of Fate alignment chart is the biggest traffic-generating item I've had on this blog since Ed Wood Wednesdays went on permanent/indefinite hiatus back in June. Thank you to all of who have read it and shared it. At the risk of running this thing into the ground, I've decided to respond with another alignment chart, this time based on Ed Wood's most famous movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space. At best, this will be the smoke that lingers after a kitchen fire, but I hope some Wood-heads enjoy it nonetheless.

Also: I don't want to promise anything immediately, but there are some serious plans underway to bring Ed Wood Wednesdays back in the near future! But not in the form you may be expecting. No further spoilers. Anyway, here's the Plan 9 chart. Hope you enjoy.

Can your heart stand the shocking facts about the Plan 9 from Outer Space alignment chart?

(perfunctory blog post) PLAY IT AGAIN, BOB!

Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) and Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) talk comedy in Play it Again, Bob.

While I am wallowing in NaNoWriMo hell, I thought I'd put a little something new on the blog today. And by new, I mean three decades old. It's a sketch from SCTV entitled "Play It Again, Bob," and I think it's an all-time comedy masterpiece. It's a parody of Play It Again, Sam the play (and later film) in which Woody Allen's nebbishy character receives romantic advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, his idol. In this skit, the real-life Allen (played by Rick Moranis) wants to collaborate on a film with one of his comedic idols, Bob Hope (played by Dave Thomas). It quickly develops that Woody and Bob are not compatible, and the skit documents their clash of wills. I can't say enough good things about "Play It Again, Bob." The performances by Thomas and Moranis are eerily good, and the writing is spot-on. It's weird to think that these two jokers are also the McKenzie Brothers of Strange Brew fame. Be on the lookout for a nice supporting turn by Joe Flaherty as Bing Crosby.




Current NaNoWriMo word count: 863. Not good.