Boxoffice > The Business of Movies > Steve Simels

Those Fabulous Nineties!

posted June 26, 2008 7:19 AM

The sad death of comic genius George Carlin this week actually put me off my feed for a couple of days -- let's face it, the world is going to be a much less amusing place now that Carlin's not around -- but it also got me thinking about his movie career. It was, in fact, a pretty respectable one; Carlin appeared in a surprising (to me) number of films over the years, although he was clearly one of those performers that Hollywood really didn't know what to do with. His greatest role, for my money, is as hepster Cardinal Ignatius Glick in Kevin Smith's refreshingly blasphemous Dogma (1999). He's probably best known, however, as hepster guitar-playing guru Rufus ("Be excellent to yourselves!") in the 1989 stoner time travel comedy Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and it's 1992 sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

Now, despite the fact that the success of those led, ultimately, to such pop culture moments of shame as the performances of Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Trilogy ("Whoa!"), I am, in fact, a large fan of both those films; in fact, I have been known to maintain that the first boasts the greatest line in the history of American cinema.

I refer, of course, to "You killed Ted, you medieval dickweed!"

That said, however, while researching Carlin's filmography, I was stunned to learn that he had lent his voice (along with co-stars Reeves and Alex Winter) to a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon version that actually ran on CBS in 1991-2. Frankly, I have no memory of this whatsoever, but here's a clip of the title sequence that proves it actually existed.

Some of our younger readers, of course, may recall this show fondly; if so, I apologize for my cluelessness and hope they'll share some reminiscences with us in Comments below. I will, however, bet you dollars to the proverbial donuts that none of them recalls the following esthetic crime against nature:

Yes, my friends (as John McCain would say, although I bet he never saw it either) that's the opening from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures: The Live Action TV Series, which apparently ran for seven episodes on Fox (where else?) in 1992. Reasonably amusing comedian Rick Overton took over the Carlin role; the titles characters were played by Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy, who presumably are toiling (metaphorically) at a car wash somewhere. (Actually, that's a little unkind. For more on the stellar career of Richards look no further than his fabulous website; for more on Kennedy, including his triumphs on VH1's Tori Spelling vehicle So NoTORIous, check here.)

Coming tomorrow: Everything you always wanted to know about the short-lived Animal House spin-off sit-com Delta House but were afraid to ask!

13 Comments

Noam Sane said:

Dogma sucked ass.

June 26, 2008 8:56 AM

leiniz leibkins said:

Dogma was wonderful. Tori Spelling sucks ass.

June 26, 2008 9:42 AM

ProfWombat said:

Loved 'Dogma', which I watched on the advice of my 16 yo daughter. Not so much stoner comedy in general. It's self-indulgent and boring, in the end, rather than challenging, which is what Carlin, and Bruce before him, were all about.

June 26, 2008 11:58 AM

CovetedNoPrizeWinner said:

I heard an old Carlin skit on the radio yesterday...
"Premature withdrawal would not be manly. You need to leave it in until the job is done."

Carlin will be remembered as excellent.

June 26, 2008 12:27 PM

Trey said:

I found Dogma to be wonderfully irreverent and funny. It was also on point about many issues facing Christianity in my book. I loved the Buddy Christ.

His voice work on Thomas the Tank Engine was well done and done straight. Just that is a blessing to millions of kids.

What did he do in Americathon, all I recall about that movie was Elvis Costello and the President being hot for some s&m Vietnamise singer.

Trey

June 26, 2008 2:40 PM

flory said:

So, finally...this place lets me leave a comment.

I am highly distressed I didn't know about the HBO retrospective in time to record it last night.

June 26, 2008 4:15 PM

NYMary said:

I am astounded. The Bill & Ted cartoon is in the same aesthetic category as My Dad, The Rock Star (created by Gene Simmons), or possibly the ill-advised Clerks cartoon. But it's a step above that one where Rick Springfield did magic!

June 26, 2008 4:28 PM

NYMary said:

June 26, 2008 4:29 PM

The Kenosha Kid said:

Thank you for leaving out that awful sitcom he did in the late 80's/early 90's.

June 26, 2008 8:40 PM

Jack K., The Grumpy Forester said:

...it wasn't the movies, obviously, but I believe that Carlin's star turn as the narrator for "Thomas the Tank Engine" and his appearances as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station deserve recognition for his contribution to those fabulous '90's. Keneau Reeves could never have pulled off that kind of action...

I tell my now-teenaged children that the voice that they heard during those early childhood years was George Carlin; they look at me like owls....

June 26, 2008 8:55 PM

dave™© said:

Dear God, I actually watched "Delta House".

Josh Mostel as "Blotto" was truly cringe-inducing...

June 27, 2008 3:08 AM

DB said:

One of the biggest cosmic disconnects in my life came when I had small children and Ringo Starr was replaced on Shining Time Station by George Carlin.

There, playing the six-inch high conductor on a kiddie show is the guy who got me through puberty with fart jokes ("Two guys in an elevator. One guy farts. Everybody knows who did it."), sex jokes and the infamous Seven Words.

I always expected -- and secretly hoped -- that the Shining Time Station Carlin would one day say, "Fuck you, kiddies. There's no God and these trains are just fucking toys. Go steal some cash from your folks and have a good time with it."

Betcha it's in the outtakes....

June 27, 2008 1:14 PM

Anonymous said:

Ah, I cited "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" in the time travel Listomania.

Glad to see you share my good taste.

June 28, 2008 10:51 AM