Welcome to another edition of our summer late-night TV concert series, Friday Night Live. Tonight, it's a rather unusual segment because there won't be any music.
The concert programs from the 70's I've highlighted on Friday Night Live, ABC's In Concert, NBC's Midnight Special, and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert starred performers in every musical category. On occasion, the shows would also take breaks from the music and feature stand up comics.
Tonight's guests on the Midnight Special are the late George Carlin and Gabe Kaplan.
CNN.com wrote in its article about George Carlin’s death this summer, “Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, in New York. He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade and joined the Air Force, where his misfit ways continued -- he received three courts-martial and several punishments.After leaving the military, he spent a few years in radio, where he met (Jack) Burns. In 1960, the pair left to pursue a comedy career in Los Angeles.Carlin went solo in 1962. For most of the decade, he was a conservative-looking presence: clean-shaven, attired in jacket and tie, making his amused observations to audiences on ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’But as the times changed, so did Carlin. He let his hair down, grew a beard and dressed in jeans and tie-dyed T-shirts. It was this Carlin who became a hit with college audiences in the early '70s.”
Carlin’s arrest at Summerfest for uttering those seven nasty words onstage made national news.
From the October 1, 1976 broadcast of The Midnight Special...
Our next guest is Gabe Kaplan. From tv.com:
“Back in high school Gabe was a hot-shot baseball player who could hit the ‘long ball.’ Convinced by his coaches and teammates that he was major league material, he packed up his Louisville Slugger and set out to break the major league home run record. After two years he couldn't even make a minor league roster, and it was soon clear to him that organized baseball disagreed with his coaches and concluded that he was high school material.
Disappointed, Gabe licked his wounds and got a job as a bellman at a resort hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey. This particular hotel featured stand-up comedians three times a week. After several months of watching, he kept thinking the same thought. I could do that too.
With some ‘borrowed’ comedy material, Gabe criss-crossed the country to perfect his timing and hone his performing skills. Long before the comedy-club explosion, he became a regular in small nightclubs, coffee houses, and the Playboy club circuit.
He started writing his own act, developing routines based mostly on his experiences growing up in Brooklyn. His big break came when he appeared on The Tonight Show in the early seventies. He was an instant hit and was soon appearing regularly on all the many talk and variety shows on television at the time. He even did an unprecedented stand-up performance on an Emmy Award telecast.
He then created a situation comedy based on his high school class and the characters that were there with him. Instead of being their contemporary he made his character the teacher and ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ was born. After six weeks, the show made its way into the top ten and remained there for most of its four season run on ABC.”
TV.com concludes, “While ‘Kotter’ was running, Gabe became involved in the financial markets and enjoyed matching wits with Messer, Dunn and Bradstreet. His investment strategies have been written about in several leading financial magazines. Gabe also gained notoriety as a world class poker player and gambler. He was a two-time champion of both The Super Bowl of Poker and the Commerce Club's Low Ball Tournament. He won the Knights of The Round Table Champion's Tournament the only time it was held in 1986. Although he's never won a World Series of Poker event, he has placed second and third several times.”
Also from 1976…
Good stuff.
That's it for this week.
Next week, we'll bring back the bands on Friday Night Live, promise.
Hey?
What happened to the peacock?
