A Footnote, But A Good One ...

Not spending a great deal of time on the computer, due to our current situation, I did catch a link on Twitter, that pointed to Robert Quigley, over on Mediaite, and his "Mediaite Presents: 35 Great SNL News Spoofs".

This, I assume, was in expectation of the season opener for 'Saturday Night Live', coming on Saturday (last).

Okay, reasonable, and I start scrolling down the post, stopping at one of our all-time favorites - Dana Carvey's fall-on-the-floor, side-splitting, take-off on Tom Brokaw, pre-recording death announcements for President Gerald Ford.

We posted that a few times ("Little Russ Gone ..." and "The Brilliance of Tom Brokaw") as it never fails to thoroughly entertain us.

Hats Off to Quigley, for taking the time to compile all those videos, all the copy-and-pasting, formatting his post, lots-and-lots of work.

A note about it is that Carvey's spoof of Brokaw was originally recorded, but not aired, for his own, short-lived ABC show;

Season 1, Episode 8 - The Dana Carvey Show

Sketches Included:
*Charles Gordin on celebrity talk shows
*Bill Clinton on the crisis around the world
*Bob Dole undercover
*Germans Who Say Things That Come Out Wrong
*the Stupid Prankster's biggest mistake of all
*NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw on the death of President Gerald Ford
*Mark Twain starring Stomp
*This Week with David Brinkley

(Another interesting tidbit is that Robert Smigels' hysterical "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" débuted on Carvey's show)

Anyways ...

Here's the bit, again.

The Dana Carvey Show - Episode 8B - Minisode

Little Russ Gone ...

My, My, My ...

Timmy Russert has shuffled off to that big, beloved, bilious Buffalo in the sky.

I will, in all likelihood, do a Garlic Obit on this later, tomorrow, or at some point, however, we have to get this down now.

I had been working when the first NYT News Alert dropped in (Fri 6/13/2008 3:29 PM), with the startling news - "Tim Russert Is Dead of a Heart Attack, His Family Says".

WOW!

Talk about it being Friday the 13th!

Since I had the television on, and tuned to MSNBC, I whipped around and they had some flood story on, then David Shuster came back and they went off into a political story (or vice versa) ...

Strange, I thought, that they weren't breaking with the news.

It must have been another 3+ minutes before the blaring graphics and fanfare of "Breaking News" filled the screen, and, while expecting Shuster to level with the news, low-and-behold, it was none other than retired anchorman, Tom Brokaw.

And I immediately began laughing, hysterically.

No, not at the news of Timmy passing away, but rather of the old Saturday Night Live skit, with Dana Carvey impersonating Brokaw, taping, one-after-another, breaking news notices on the death of President Gerald Ford (he hadn't passed away yet).

Unbelievably sublime ... And, hysterical

And here it is;




Links

It's wall-to-wall tributes on the television, as well as out on the World Wide Web.

Will Bunch/Attytood: Tim Russert, 1950-2008

Wonkette: A Video Tribute To Tim Russert, Dead Today At 58

Greg Sargent/TPM - Report: Tim Russert Has Passed Away

Chris Cillizza: On Tim Russert

Andrew Sullivan: Big Russ's Son II

Mediabistro - Death of Tim Russert: CNN and FNC Report

Howard Kurtz and William Branigin: NBC's Tim Russert Dies at 58; Host of 'Meet the Press' Stricken While at Office

Skippy the bush kangaroo: tim russert dead, news lives on