America 2-Night
America 2-Night is the continuation of the talk-show parody series Fernwood 2 Night, broadcast weeknights from April to July 1978. As on Fernwood, Martin Mull portrayed host Barth Gimble and Fred Willard appeared as sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard. Frank De Vol also returned as bandleader Happy Kyne.Premise
The setting of the show was moved from the fictional Fernwood, Ohio, to the fictional "Quad-City" area of Alta Coma, El Tijo, Alta Luna and the City of Merchandise in Southern California. According to Hubbard's announcement at the beginning of every show, Alta Coma was "the unfinished furniture capital of the world". This new Southern California setting made it more plausible for celebrities to appear on the show as themselves. Among the celebrities who appeared as guests are Charlton Heston,
Vincent Price, Carol Burnett, Burt Lancaster, Steve Allen, Milton Berle, Paul Lynde, Rita Moreno, Rob Reiner, Peter Frampton, Mark Hamill, Gary Coleman, Sherman Hemsley and Anne Murray. In the final episode, Mull and Willard guested as themselves.
The show was broadcast on the fictional UBS network, located on the UBS Broadcast Mall, whose logo featured an ear and whose slogan was "We put U before the BS".
In 2001, Martin Mull and Fred Willard reprised their roles in a stage appearance and retrospective at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.Repeats of Fernwood/America 2-Night were broadcast on Nick at Nite from 1990 to 1993, and TV Land in 2002.