Michael O’Donoghue – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Sheila mentioned this movie yesterday while talking about A Christmas Carol. I always wanted to write it up anyway so today is a good day and I thank Sheila for bringing it up. After this review…the name I would like you to remember over any other name is Michael O’Donoghue. He was the key to this movie and Saturday Night Live’s first years. O’Donoghue and Mitch Glazer were credited as the writers of this movie. O’Donoghue hated the finished film and he said that he and Glazer wrote a much better story than was shown. He was such a talented writer and died at an early age. He is not as remembered as much as he should have been.

He claimed that director Richard Donner ruined the film (using only about 40% of his script, eliminating subtler material going for big broad laughs, etc). The writer hated what Murray did with the movie’s final redemption speech. Despite co-writer Glazer imploring the actor to get over his nerves (Murray had been away from movies for four years) and just deliver the words as written, Murray went off on an emotional, big-actor-moment tirade. Glazer actually thought Murray was having a nervous breakdown. After Murray finished that scene…O’Donoghue remarked “What was that? The Jim Jones Hour?” O’Donoghue was a comedy trailblazer with National Lampoon and added dark humor to SNL. When I say dark humor…I mean very dark humor. So much so that Lorne Michaels eventually had to step in and stop O’Donaghue from going too far on SNL.

I do love this movie no matter what O’Donoghue thought. Not only Murray but so many actors and actresses did such a great job. You had Robert Mitchum, Carol Kane, Karen Allen, Michael Pollard, John Forsythe, David Johansen, Bobcat Goldthwait, and so many more. I’m a Bill Murray fan anyway and this movie he was terrific in. This movie is a different take on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and was released in 1988. It has become a cult classic. Christmas is not the same without this movie. I didn’t see it until the late 90s and I attempt to see it before every Christmas. I watch it alongside the glorious Alistair Sim version, for although they are poles apart, they both entertain for very different reasons.

Scrooged marked Bill Murray’s return to a lead role after a four-year hiatus following the success of Ghostbusters. The movie was a moderate hit but since then it has grown in popularity. I also love the closing song…Jackie DeShannon’s Put A Little Love In Your Heart to close it out.

The movie also has some great lines. After Frank Cross played a violent commercial for their version of Scrooge, Bobcat Goldthwait (Eliot Loudermilk) said the commercial looked like the Manson Family Christmas Special.

Frank Cross: Do you think I’m way off base here?
Elliot: Yes. You’re, well, you’re a tad off base, sir. That thing looked like The Manson Family Christmas Special!

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PLOT IMDB (Spoilers)

Frank Cross is the president of IBC Television, a network obsessed with ratings. Frank is a modern-day Scrooge: rude, selfish, and focused only on himself. On Christmas Eve, while preparing for a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol, he fires an employee, Eliot, for questioning his plans. Frank also pushes away his sweet ex-girlfriend, Claire, who still believes in kindness and helping others.

That night, Frank is visited by the ghost of his old boss, Lew Hayward, who warns him to change his ways or suffer terrible consequences. To drive the point home, Frank is told he will meet three ghosts:

The Ghost of Christmas Past: A loudmouthed cab driver who takes Frank back in time to see his lonely childhood and the moment he lost Claire because of his greed.
The Ghost of Christmas Present: A violent, glittery fairy who shows Frank how his selfishness is hurting others, including his assistant Grace and her son, Calvin, who hasn’t spoken since his father died.
The Ghost of Christmas Future: A terrifying, Grim Reaper-like figure who shows Frank what will happen if he doesn’t change—his death will be lonely, and everyone he knows will suffer.

Shaken by these visions, Frank has a change of heart. During the live broadcast, he takes over the show and delivers an emotional speech about love, generosity, and the true meaning of Christmas. He makes amends with Claire, Grace, and even Eliot, and ends the night singing with the cast and crew.

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Bill Murray: “We tore up the script so badly that we had parts all over the lawn, there was a lot I didn’t like. To remake the story, we took the romantic element and built that up a little more. The family scenes (which featured real-life siblings Joel and Brian Doyle Murray) were kind of off, so we worked on that.”

Bill Murray was asked if he had problems with director Richard Donner. He replied “Only a few. Every single minute of the day. That could have been a really, really great movie. The script was so good. There’s maybe one take in the final cut movie that is mine. We made it so fast, it was like doing a movie live. He kept telling me to do things louder, louder, louder. I think he was deaf.”

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I first posted this in 2018 and I had two readers at the time so I thought I would post it again. It started out as Saturday Night… Saturday Night Live title belonged to ABC for a show hosted by Howard Cosell who was out of his league. ABC let Saturday Night have the Live part after Cosell’s show was over.

Who was the best cast through the years? This is a question that is debated over and over again. The people arguing usually pick the cast they grew up with. I grew up with Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Personally, I always thought the original cast was the best and it wasn’t even close. John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase (though I liked his replacement better…Bill Murray), Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and my favorite overlooked cast member Laraine Newman.

Why do I like the original cast the most? They tried new things and went out on a limb. Some of the skits succeeded some didn’t but they were different from anything on TV at that time…and also at this time. That cast pushed the envelope to use a worn-out phrase but in this instance it is true. Lorne Michaels guided the show and even the musical guests were usually hip bands and artists unknown to the general public and some are legendary now.

No way would Michaels ever dream of that now…he usually gets whoever is the most popular to draw in the ratings. He could not do what he did in the 70s anymore because of ratings…and it is sad. Michaels also used the complete ensemble. It was not the Eddie Murphy and the Joe Piscopo show of the early eighties. It was about getting an unknown cast and building them and all of them having a shot…not a star-driven show that gave all the best bits to the stars.

A lot of the skits are now famous… Ackroyd’s Bassomatic, the Samurai, the uncomfortable but funny Word Association with Richard Pryor, The Mr. Bill Show, Weekend Update, Roseanne Rosannadanna, Land Shark, Bag of Glass, The Wild and Crazy Guys, the Coneheads, The Lounge Singer, Mr. Mike, The Blues Brothers and many more.

The writers for the show were not in the Carol Burnett comedy vein..they were not in the current SNL vein either. The style was more aggressive, especially with Michael O’Donoghue. He was a comedy trailblazer with National Lampoon and added dark humor to SNL. Other writers were Franken and Davis, Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel, Marilyn Miller, Anne Beatts, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller and also Ackroyd and Chase.

The two members that didn’t get as much publicity as the others were Newman and Morris and are not as well remembered today. Newman and Ackroyd were the best character actors on the show…they could play anyone. That cast tried to test all the limits. SNL has turned into just another comedy show through the years. The original group also did some serious skits along with comedy and trips into the bizarre (See Mr. Mike). …It separated the original from any other cast.

There were other great casts but none resonated like the original to me. It was also the timing of when they debuted…and look at the talent in that cast…

The host each week was usually under the radar actors, writers, musicians and sometimes athletes. You usually didn’t see A-list actors but if you did they were carefully chosen. The one big mistake was Milton Berle…how he got to host I don’t know but that is the only show of the first five years I will try to avoid… He was that bad.

I like the feel of the underground the first five years had but you can only be that for so long…popularity takes over. Those first 5 great years (the first four were great…the fifth good) set the foundation that holds to this day…just without the daring and danger…in other words, it has become vanilla like the rest of the world.

Cheers to the show that introduced Acapulco Gold to a television audience.

The Bassomatic…something you cannot explain with words.

The best Star Trek parody…