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captainsblog..and I will have my own theme music and it will take place in Washington D.C., and no plots- just girls. And guys doing nice simple things against Nazis and Fifth Columnists- and no Jewish writers, either!
Those words- written, of course, by a room full of Jewish writers- were written for one of the legendary voices and minds behind the 1970s comedy group Firesign Theater. Peter Bergman died in his longtime home town of Los Angeles yesterday at the age of 72:
When the Library of Congress placed “Don’t Crush That Dwarf” in its National Recording Registry in 2005, The Los Angeles Times described Firesign Theater as “the Beatles of comedy.”
Yeah, I'm with that. The group was a formative influence on my sense of humor and even feelings about life, from the 70s on. I was introduced to "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger" at a church youth group, of all places, where we spent a lot more time studying Firesign and Python than we ever did the Bible. One of our older guys could recite the album side-long bit verbatim, and before long, so could I. Still can. To this day, my little-used main AOL screenname is a variant on Nick Danger, Third Eye. And at least weekly, Eleanor or I will quote the opening lines while reacting to the animals' moochiness at feeding time:
Relentlessly! Ruthlessly(“I wonder where Ruth is”)! Doggedly (woof woof)! Toward his weekly meeting with the unknown....
The schtick never made the translation to television, although they have plenty of IMDB credits. It didn't need to. It was so deeply rooted in the words, and in not only breaking but destroying the fourth wall, that pictures of four balding hippies would only have ruined it. I can honestly say that, until checking this morning, I didn't know which characters Peter Bergman played. He was, it turned out, the aforementioned Lieutenant Bradshaw, always the foil to Nick's knuckles and know-how, who never got his spin-off. His real life also inspired another of the legendary characters from their older, and even surrealer, bit about Porgy and Mudhead at Morescience High:
Mr. Bergman got a taste of radio work when he was in high school, according to a biography on Firesign Theater’s official Web site. But he lost his job as an announcer on the school radio system, it said, “after his unauthorized announcement that the Chinese Communists had taken over the school and that a ‘mandatory voluntary assembly was to take place immediately.’ Russell Rupp, the school principal, promptly relieved Peter of his announcing gig. Rupp was the inspiration for the Principal Poop character on ‘Don’t Crush That Dwarf.’ ”
I don't think Peter's going to take death too hard. Likely, he's going to cut the soles off his shoes, sit in a heavenly tree and learn to play the flute!
Those words- written, of course, by a room full of Jewish writers- were written for one of the legendary voices and minds behind the 1970s comedy group Firesign Theater. Peter Bergman died in his longtime home town of Los Angeles yesterday at the age of 72:
When the Library of Congress placed “Don’t Crush That Dwarf” in its National Recording Registry in 2005, The Los Angeles Times described Firesign Theater as “the Beatles of comedy.”
Yeah, I'm with that. The group was a formative influence on my sense of humor and even feelings about life, from the 70s on. I was introduced to "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger" at a church youth group, of all places, where we spent a lot more time studying Firesign and Python than we ever did the Bible. One of our older guys could recite the album side-long bit verbatim, and before long, so could I. Still can. To this day, my little-used main AOL screenname is a variant on Nick Danger, Third Eye. And at least weekly, Eleanor or I will quote the opening lines while reacting to the animals' moochiness at feeding time:
Relentlessly! Ruthlessly(“I wonder where Ruth is”)! Doggedly (woof woof)! Toward his weekly meeting with the unknown....
The schtick never made the translation to television, although they have plenty of IMDB credits. It didn't need to. It was so deeply rooted in the words, and in not only breaking but destroying the fourth wall, that pictures of four balding hippies would only have ruined it. I can honestly say that, until checking this morning, I didn't know which characters Peter Bergman played. He was, it turned out, the aforementioned Lieutenant Bradshaw, always the foil to Nick's knuckles and know-how, who never got his spin-off. His real life also inspired another of the legendary characters from their older, and even surrealer, bit about Porgy and Mudhead at Morescience High:
Mr. Bergman got a taste of radio work when he was in high school, according to a biography on Firesign Theater’s official Web site. But he lost his job as an announcer on the school radio system, it said, “after his unauthorized announcement that the Chinese Communists had taken over the school and that a ‘mandatory voluntary assembly was to take place immediately.’ Russell Rupp, the school principal, promptly relieved Peter of his announcing gig. Rupp was the inspiration for the Principal Poop character on ‘Don’t Crush That Dwarf.’ ”
I don't think Peter's going to take death too hard. Likely, he's going to cut the soles off his shoes, sit in a heavenly tree and learn to play the flute!