RIP Martin Mull (1 Viewer)

[El Caliente]

Martin Mull, Comic Actor in ‘Fernwood 2 Night,’ ‘Clue,’ ‘Arrested Development,’ Dies at 80

Martin Mull, the actor who started with 1970s TV series “Fernwood 2 Night” and went on to appear in "Arrested Development," and "Clue" died Thursday.

variety.com

 

[tenordas]

RIP to a very funny man.

I'll never forget him on Letterman describing what happened on the very first Fernwood Tonight episode. The audience wasn't told the premise, and he said it was a good five minutes or so into the show with absolutely nothing coming from the audience. Suddenly, he heard some guy say out loud, "Oh, it's supposed to be bad! They're making fun of talk shows!" At that point, everyone got it and within a minute were laughing out loud at their antics.

One of his early "hits". Pretty sure this pre-dates Fernwood Tonight.

 

[El Caliente]

He will always be Colonel Mustard to me.

 

[tenordas]

My favourite of his comic tunes:

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The dbag boss in Mr Mom
“Yeah, you gonna make it all, 220?”
“…Yeah 220, 221 whatever it takes”

 

[Sun Wukong]

RIP to master of disguise and private detective Gene Parmesan.

Dude had an insanely diverse career. I remember watching Fernwood 2 Nite reruns on Nick at Nite as a kid.

 

[sfidc3]

Ugh, this one hits hard, my first comedy album was Martin Mull Near Perfect....

 

[Madmarsha]

The dbag boss in Mr Mom
“Yeah, you gonna make it all, 220?”
“…Yeah 220, 221 whatever it takes”

That's what I remember him for!

 

[Madmarsha]

Oh, I forgot he was Roseanne's boss when she was a waitress and then eventually became co-owners in the diner!

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

 

[saintfan-n-alexla]

also the pharmacist on two and half men

 

[tenordas]

His character Barth Gimble that hosted "Fernwood Tonight" and "America Tonight" actually came from the dreadful sitcom "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" on which he played the same character.
So in some way, that horrid sitcom actually launched his career (if you've never seen it, consider yourself lucky and don't bother trying to hunt it down anywhere).
Fernwood Tonight/America Tonight was brilliant, though. I loved that show!

I'd bet he guest-appeared in at least 100 different sitcoms and cartoons over the last 40-50 years. A testament to how well he was known in the industry is how many times he appeared playing himself on different shows rather than as a random character (though obviously, most of the time it was as a random character).

 

[Optimus Prime]

I knew Martin Mull from his appearances on Roseanne and Arrested Development

I guess I'll put him in the same category as someone like Linda Ronstant - I casually knew who they were but they were much bigger, more popular, more influential than I thought

 

[bigdaddysaints]

A few years ago he was on a show called The Cool Kids with Vicki Lawrence, David Allen Grier and Leslie Jordan. They lived in a retirement home/community in Arizona. It was pretty funny, Only lasted 1 season tho, but i think it was a victim of the pandemic.