Word: comic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...show that changed television. When it made its debut in October 1975, Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher were still the definition of hip TV comedy. NBC's new late- night series burst onto that scene with a countercultural whoop. It brought to TV, for the first time, the comic sensibility of the '60s generation: anti- Establishment, idol-smashing, media savvy. The show seemed to break new ground almost weekly: pushing the boundaries of permissible language and subject matter, rejuvenating political satire, breaking the "fourth wall" to make fun of the TV medium itself. It helped launch or boost...
...season together. Only one of them -- the silky, moonfaced Jon Lovitz, creator of the pathological-liar character -- seems to capture the old spirit: like Belushi or Aykroyd or Radner, he gets laughs by simply showing up onstage. Still, there's plenty of talent on hand: Dana Carvey, a pixieish comic with devilish impressions of George Bush and Jimmy Stewart; Victoria Jackson, a ditsily appealing blond; and the sparkling, versatile Jan Hooks. If none seem destined for stardom, they have at least been together long enough to get comfortable...
...those days, SNL writers would sometimes reject comic ideas with the put- down "That's Carol Burnett." It was their code language for material that was too broad, too mainstream. Saturday Night Live may not quite have become the Carol Burnett Show of the '80s, but complacency has crept in. Perhaps it was inevitable. TV anniversaries, after all, serve another important function. They remind us that shows grow...
Jeffrey Montgomery, 25, a California entrepreneur, is often compared with Richie Rich, the towheaded, chubby-cheeked comic-book character. They both have wealthy fathers: Montgomery's is James Montgomery, chief executive of Great Western, a financial-services company. And Jeffrey is just as precocious as Richie. Last month young Montgomery paid $6 million to buy Harvey Publications, which owns the rights to Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey and other characters...
That same week, a History and Literature senior turned in a thesis on "Batman and Changes in Comic-Book Storytelling"; and I read Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers for tutorial...