Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Main Program: B-
A spoof
of the ever-cult favorite Mondo Cane
film series, Michael O’Donoghue was trying to create a show that would rotate
with Saturday Night Live (one for
every three SNLs) and be a new kind
of comedy show that would stretch the surrealism, free form, eccentricity and
counterculture feel SNL and other such shows had pioneered with Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979), a pilot
he worked very hard to make. An
ambitious project, the amazing guest cast includes original SNL cast members
Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, plus Judy
Jackin, Teri Garr, Carrie Fisher, Deborah Harry, Joan Hackett, Margot Kidder,
Wendie Malick, Paul Shaffer (who supplied the amusing score) and the
singer/performance artist Klaus Nomi. So
what happened? NBC rejected it and
refused to show it!
Instead,
the show (despite being shot on low definition NTSC vide of the time) was
actually transferred to 35mm film and released nationwide in movie
theaters! This has been rarely done with
taped material, but the makers hoped they might have a hit. However, running 75 minutes and looking only
poor, the release flopped and without a major cable, satellite or home video
infrastructure to go through, faded away for a while. After some brief video releases, it would
fade away again, but it has finally found its way to DVD and in its native
format looking better than ever is a more important work that its reputation
would have you believe.
For
example, in one of the most interesting moments I remember well, a solo Sid
Vicious in a film clip singing his remake of the Paul Anka-penned, Frank
Sinatra hit “My Way” done in a new
arrangement so radical that for whatever reasons, they would not give the
rights to O’Donoghue and company to use the audio. We hear the music when he finishes singing
and after words across the screen explain why the audio is missing, but film fans
will note that the song appears in its entirety as the end-credits closing song
in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas.
Writers
O’Donoghue, Mitch Glazer, Emily Prager and Dick Wittenborn, all of whom also
show up in the various skits, were pushing TV’s limits even more than before
with the sexual, racial and political content, plus the highly absurd humor
only make it more of a gem. They were
working freely just before that time, opportunity and door would close so tight
on TV that it would regress in a way it still has never recovered from. I could see why NBC might censor some of the
shots, but why they did not just authorize a few more shows to see where they
group was going with this is one of the biggest mistakes in the network’s
history. Maybe they could have shown it
after an SNL broadcast. No skit show or
other such show since has been as daring and only the likes of Family Guy or even The Simpsons could be considered a successor of sorts, give or take
DEVO Music Videos.
As noted,
the 1.33 X 1 image was shot on analog videotape, though some of the older
footage is film. That this was actually put
into theaters is amusing and shows the limits of exhibition back then with no
cable or home video firmly established.
All in all, it is very off-beat down to its editing, but at least it did
not try to look like Saturday Night Live. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age, but
is pretty good considering and the combination has been transferred as well as
can be expected for its age. Extras include
excerpts from Saturday Night Live with
Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales
(1976 – 77), Bill Murray’s on-air eulogy for Michael O’Donoghue (1994) and a really
good audio commentary track by Co-Writer Mitch Glazer. Mr.
Mike’s Mondo Video is worth a good look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
