Fernwood 2 Night 1977 Created by Norman Lear as a spin off of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The show ran 65 episodes that aired Monday to Friday for 13 weeks. In 1978 the show had Barth move to the fictional southern California town of Alta Coma and renamed America 2-Night. It aired for 65 episodes and then was cancelled.
Martin Mull is Barth Gimble, twin brother to the late Garth Gimble. Barth's got a talk show on TV in Fernwood. Fred Willard plays Jerry Hubbard, Barth's sidekick on the show. Frank De Vol plays Barth's bandleader on the show, Happy Kyne, he's head of the Mirth Makers. There was an odd mix of guests each week, both on the show and in real life. Some you might recognize: Tommy Tedesco, Kenneth Mars, Bill Kirchenbauer, Jim Varney, Fannie Flagg and Dabney Coleman.
I thought it was funny when it was new and again when it aired in on Nick at Nite in the early 90s. I had copies on VHS but they were pretty poor. There's a nearly complete set of the show on the Internet Archive that aren't anything to be proud off but they are watchable and the audio seems fine on the 3 that I looked at in the episode 1 to 22 lot. There's plenty of gags and funny situations. I've been sad that it hasn't had a legit DVD release. You can get bootlegs out there. There's a link to the files on the IA above.
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