Vote for why you think it jumped
Never Jumped
Ego over quality
Shark Bytes
I barely remember this series, but I grew up watching Rich's specials and other appearances on HBO. His "Rich Little's Christmas Carol" was timelessly funny, but his "Robin Hood" was incredibly boring. His funniest moment by far was when it was his turn to play "Celebrity Santa Claus" at the White House back in the 80's. While being interviewed in full St. Nick regalia, Rich went into his Ronald Reagan impression and I almost hit the floor laughing. A real treat!
That isnt exactly fair now is it BH? I mean how funny can ANYONE be mimicking others for a living? Rich Little had minimal talent away from voices I grant you. I never saw this show, just his guest apperances, and he did some great voices and some not so good. His Dennis Weaver was amazing, as was his Mason, Edgar Buchanan, Kirk Douglas and others. He was good for 10 minutes on stage to make people smile. But nowadays, there arent any mimicks left and thats because there are almost no celebrities with distinct voices anymore. Back in the day, every single celebrity had that trait: a unique voice. Now, none do, so noone can make a living doing that anymore.
Sorry folks, Rich Little was never funny. As an impressionist he was supposedly the best around back in the 1970s, but the more you actually saw him the more you realized it was the mannerisms that he got down and not the voice. I could live with his modest talent, but he did not have topical humorous material to go with it. Sure, you may SOUND like James Mason, but James Mason reading he dictionary isn't funny. He also did not update his act. You can't impress anyone with John Wayne and Johnny Carson impressions anymore. Unless its your buddies at the RNC luncheon.
Ronald Reagan was funny in 1980, but he's STILL doing it today. And man did he bomb when he had to do that Washington correspondents dinner. Give me Bill Maher anyday.
Now, you want great impressionists? Frank Welker is dynamite. The late, great Frank Gorshin was dead on with his impressions, though there weren't a lot of them. SNL has had some good impressionistic talent and Darrell Hammond is one of them. The first time I saw his Phil Donahue I was amazed.
I saw a then little known Jim Carrey do visual impressions using his rubbery face on an early 80s "Tonight Show". Incredible. He did Leonid Brezhnev and he LOOKED LIKE BREZHNEV. Then, he simply said "James Dean". The stage went dark, Carrey turned around and mussed his hair. He waited a few moments for effect, then slowly turned around. You could hear an audible gasp from the audience. He had literally morphed into James Dean. He did a brief dramatic reading from "Giant" or "Rebel Without a Cause" and you couldn've heard a pin drop.
Sorry, Fred Travelina... you're strictly Rich Little Lite. Back to the lounge for you... or maybe an afternoon gig with Pat Robertson on his fraud network.
BH
Ronald Reagan was funny in 1980, but he's STILL doing it today. And man did he bomb when he had to do that Washington correspondents dinner. Give me Bill Maher anyday.
Now, you want great impressionists? Frank Welker is dynamite. The late, great Frank Gorshin was dead on with his impressions, though there weren't a lot of them. SNL has had some good impressionistic talent and Darrell Hammond is one of them. The first time I saw his Phil Donahue I was amazed.
I saw a then little known Jim Carrey do visual impressions using his rubbery face on an early 80s "Tonight Show". Incredible. He did Leonid Brezhnev and he LOOKED LIKE BREZHNEV. Then, he simply said "James Dean". The stage went dark, Carrey turned around and mussed his hair. He waited a few moments for effect, then slowly turned around. You could hear an audible gasp from the audience. He had literally morphed into James Dean. He did a brief dramatic reading from "Giant" or "Rebel Without a Cause" and you couldn've heard a pin drop.
Sorry, Fred Travelina... you're strictly Rich Little Lite. Back to the lounge for you... or maybe an afternoon gig with Pat Robertson on his fraud network.
BH
I was a real fan of Rich Little when he was an up and comer, but once he hit the big time his ego took over, and the quality of his act went down. No better example than when he got his own show. The material was of poor quality, and for some reason Rich's voices started having less quality (he was stretching his act by including voices that weren't even close, like Edith Bunker. I remember he used to state that Bob Hope was impossible to imitate, until Dave Thomas blew him out of the water.) Anyway, the first episode of his own show ended with Rich hugging a big dog, the symbolism being pointed out by all the critics.
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