Since you mentioned American President being reviewed by Hammond’s Clinton, should be noted that due to it being written by Aaron Sorkin it is pretty much a…not so much “proto” but it does have some of the seeds in terms of basic characters involved for what becomes The West Wing.
See what I said last time. You remember the “My old theory that Germans love David Hasselhoff” running gag because it had an endgame with The Hoff saying that Germans love him.
There really wasn’t a “comedic end point” with “…Or so the Germans would have us believe!”, “…You guessed it, Frank Stallone!”, etc So that’s why they end up more on the tedious side of Norm’s subversive way of “news reading bits comedy”
I would also say Time Lord due to the show going through a regeneration process. Or Strategery in honor of Will and the strategy used to refortify the cast and writers room this year
So this season should be fun to discuss…hey buddy, do me a favor and get off the shed, thanks…forgot about some of the newcomers being on there entirely, or that early…hey GET OFF THE SHED…certainly a year that got the show back on track heading into the end of the century GET OFF THE SHED OR I’M GONNA RIP THE SHED APART WITH YOU ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is completely off topic, but I owe a huge THANK YOU to Scot for plugging Elvis Costello's Trust album in his other podcast. Just got it on vinyl and it is astonishingly good. I had never heard New Lace Sleeves (which is a shame because I'm a sucker for great hi-hat work) or any of those other tunes, and I'm certainly glad I got a chance to listen to them.
Has there ever been more of a strict, exclusive impressionist cast member than Hammond? Maybe Piscopo came close to that at times but he still played plenty of fictional characters. Hammond did a few non-impressionist parts but none of them were ever particularly successful. The show certainly got plenty of mileage out of his impression chops, and good for them and him. Most of his impressions were great, but his inability to do anything else made Hammond a "high floor, low ceiling" kind of cast member.
Piscopo was involved in far more sketches. Hammond plays a few parts (like in a very good "surprise party" sketch we didn't get a chance to mention), but seems largely indifferent to those roles. There's absolute value to what he does, but he's one-dimensional in much the same way Miller was or some future WU hosts will be.
Surprised that Baldwin as a governor sketch wasn’t listed as a prescient pick due to the whole Rust tragedy :(
Since you mentioned American President being reviewed by Hammond’s Clinton, should be noted that due to it being written by Aaron Sorkin it is pretty much a…not so much “proto” but it does have some of the seeds in terms of basic characters involved for what becomes The West Wing.
See what I said last time. You remember the “My old theory that Germans love David Hasselhoff” running gag because it had an endgame with The Hoff saying that Germans love him.
There really wasn’t a “comedic end point” with “…Or so the Germans would have us believe!”, “…You guessed it, Frank Stallone!”, etc So that’s why they end up more on the tedious side of Norm’s subversive way of “news reading bits comedy”
Good points.
I would also say Time Lord due to the show going through a regeneration process. Or Strategery in honor of Will and the strategy used to refortify the cast and writers room this year
So this season should be fun to discuss…hey buddy, do me a favor and get off the shed, thanks…forgot about some of the newcomers being on there entirely, or that early…hey GET OFF THE SHED…certainly a year that got the show back on track heading into the end of the century GET OFF THE SHED OR I’M GONNA RIP THE SHED APART WITH YOU ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is completely off topic, but I owe a huge THANK YOU to Scot for plugging Elvis Costello's Trust album in his other podcast. Just got it on vinyl and it is astonishingly good. I had never heard New Lace Sleeves (which is a shame because I'm a sucker for great hi-hat work) or any of those other tunes, and I'm certainly glad I got a chance to listen to them.
It's his best album, as you now know, which contains the greatest Attractions performance put to vinyl. Glad you found it!
Has there ever been more of a strict, exclusive impressionist cast member than Hammond? Maybe Piscopo came close to that at times but he still played plenty of fictional characters. Hammond did a few non-impressionist parts but none of them were ever particularly successful. The show certainly got plenty of mileage out of his impression chops, and good for them and him. Most of his impressions were great, but his inability to do anything else made Hammond a "high floor, low ceiling" kind of cast member.
Piscopo was involved in far more sketches. Hammond plays a few parts (like in a very good "surprise party" sketch we didn't get a chance to mention), but seems largely indifferent to those roles. There's absolute value to what he does, but he's one-dimensional in much the same way Miller was or some future WU hosts will be.