Wikipedia

The National Lampoon Show

The National Lampoon Show, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1974–1976 stage show that helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis.[1][2] The company's stage successor to National Lampoon's Lemmings (1973), some skits from the show made their way into the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House.[3]

The National Lampoon Show
Written by
Directed by(touring) John Belushi
(Off-Broadway) Martin Charnin
Music byPaul Jacobs
Date premiered1975; 49 years ago (1975)
Place premieredNew Palladium Club (Off-Broadway)

The show was produced by Ivan Reitman.[2][4][1] It was mostly written improvisationally by its original cast[5] ("overlooked" by National Lampoon writer/editor Sean Kelly).[6]

The National Lampoon Show toured colleges in the U.S. in 1974, including Rider University, Slippery Rock University, and the University of Texas at Arlington, with those productions directed by cast member Belushi.[6][5] It opened Off-Broadway in New York City at the New Palladium Club on February 17, 1975, directed by Martin Charnin. The original Off-Broadway cast starred Belushi, Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray, Radner, and Ramis. It ran for 180 performances, closing in July 1975.[7] After closing in New York, it went on a second, nine-month-long, national tour.[5]

Shortly after the show closed in New York, Belushi and Radner joined the original cast of Saturday Night Live, with the Murray brothers soon joining the SNL cast as well.[8] Ramis, meanwhile, used some of the sketches from the show in the script of National Lampoon's first film production, Animal House, released in 1978.[9]

Description

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The National Lampoon Show was a satirical revue, mixing social and political satire. It was fueled by black comedy, frequently insulting and abusing the audience, with the cast openly expressing hatred for the crowd. The show was a mix of sadistic and masochistic elements, characterized by aggressive, juvenile, and controversial humor.

One skit was a parody of a television fundraiser in which Patty Hearst (played by Radner), dressed in SLA garb, asked viewers for money to pay for weaponry. (The skit ended with Hearst shooting her fiancé Steven Weed.)[10] Another skit involved Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis being a panelist on a celebrity game show who is so startled by the sound of a starting pistol that she ducks under her seat.[5] Songs included one about white-collar criminals living comfortably in prison and another being a manic celebration of New York City's mundane aspects (featuring Bill Murray).

Cast

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The cast included:

Later cast replacements:[13]

Production

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Writers

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The writers included:

Producers

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Directors

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Music

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Reception

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The New York Times gave the production a negative review, writing that the show "set new boundaries for impropriety. But... it does not match its bad taste with good humor." Comparing the show unfavorably to Lemmings (which it characterized as "half of a very funny evening"), it cited The National Lampoon Show as being half as clever. The reviewer felt that despite some standout performances, particularly by Belushi, the show fell short in execution, leaving a gap between its ambitious ideas and their comedic realization.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Spitznagel, Eric (July 6, 2017). "Summer of '78: Meatballs: An Oral History". Vanity Fair. (Reitman:) In 1975, I'd produced an Off-Broadway show called The National Lampoon Show, which starred John Belushi, Brian Doyle, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis. Here was this extraordinary all-star team, the likes of which I had never seen before.
  2. ^ a b "Meeting The Man Behind 'Meatballs'". 9News.com. June 15, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2024. (Reitman:) Bill worked with me before he worked on Saturday Night Live. I had a show off-Broadway called The National Lampoon Show that starred Bill Murray, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Brian-Doyle Murray, Joe Flaherty, and Harold Ramis.
  3. ^ Collis, Clark (February 14, 2022). "Ivan Reitman: An appreciation of the man who brought us Ghostbusters and so much more". Entertainment Weekly. Reitman also worked in the U.S., producing the off-Broadway The National Lampoon Show with a cast that included Murray, Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis. That experience led Reitman to pitch National Lampoon publisher Matty Simmons on a movie inspired by his satirical publication. 'I was a big fan of the Lampoon,' Reitman told EW in 1998. 'One day, I called up Matty Simmons and said, "Let's make movies." ... When Saturday Night Live started, Lorne Michaels picked up most of the cast [of The National Lampoon Show]. But Harold Ramis was sort of left off. I told Harold we should put a movie together using some of the skits from the Lampoon show.' (Ramis would co-write National Lampoon's Animal House with Doug Kenney and Chris Miller.)
  4. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (July 29, 2002). "Building Animal House". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d Tucker, Carll (July 28, 1975). "John Belushi: He Who Laughs First". The Village Voice.
  6. ^ a b c The National Lampoon Show. Playbill. 1975.
  7. ^ "244. Live Show Cast 1975 or 1976". Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site. June 22, 2010.
  8. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2003). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (8 ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 9780345455420.
  9. ^ Cronin, Brian (Aug 23, 2020). "Which Classic Bill Murray Comedy Was Originally a Cheech and Chong Vehicle?". CBR. The stage show, 'The National Lampoon Show,' was popular, but then a good chunk of the cast was signed away by fellow Canadian Lorne Michaels for his then-new TV series, Saturday Night Live (Gilda Radner and John Belushi to start and then Bill Murray a year later). One of the only people NOT signed away was Harold Ramis. So Reitman pitched Ramis on taking some of the sketches from the show and turning it into a movie.
  10. ^ "Show Business: The Lampoon Goes Hollywood". Time. Aug 14, 1978. Off-Broadway audiences recall The National Lampoon Show of 1975, in which Gilda Radner playing Patty Hearst machine-gunned Steven Weed.
  11. ^ Radner, Gilda (1989). It's Always Something. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 100–101. ISBN 9780671638689.
  12. ^ Karp, Josh (2006). A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. Chicago Review Press. p. 219. ISBN 1-55652-602-4.
  13. ^ Simmons, Matty (1994). If You Don't Buy This Book, We'll Kill This Dog!. Barricade Books. ISBN 978-1569800027.
  14. ^ a b Hotten, Jon. "Bat Out of Hell – The Story Behind the Album (page 2)". Classic Rock. Archived from the original on August 16, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
  15. ^ "Remembering Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman". YouTube.
  16. ^ "Charnin Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  17. ^ Gussow, Mel (March 3, 1975). "Stage: A New 'Lampoon': Audiences Hurrying to Be Insulted". The New York Times.
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