Oh, wait, I know why you don’t remember it: because it only ran for 13 episodes in the summer of 2009 before ABC axed it.

Thankfully, however, the fine folks at Shout Factory have come through for “Goode Family” fans in the same way they’ve come through for fans of so many other too-quickly-canceled series over the years, offering up a complete-series set which features all of the episodes, including audio commentary from executive producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky on several of them, as well as deleted scenes and premises for unproduced episodes. Even better, the aforementioned Mr. Altschuler was kind enough to spend a few minutes on the phone with Bullz-Eye to discuss the series, not to mention some of the other projects he’s worked on over the course of his career.

John Altschuler: So, Will, what can I do you for?

Bullz-Eye: Well, sir, I do this TV column for Bullz-Eye, I’ve more or less got carte blanche to cover what I want, and, dammit, I want to cover the DVD release of The Goode Family: The Complete Series.

JA: [Laughs.] Well, great…I hope!

BE: It is absolutely great. I was a fan for the all-too-few episodes that aired, so it’s been nice not only to revisit the series as a whole but also to listen to the commentaries that you and Dave recorded for the set.

JA: Excellent, excellent. Well, I can’t stand the sound of my own voice, personally, but I hope it wasn’t too bad for you.

BE: No, no, not painful at all.

JA: Well, good!

BE: So to begin at the beginning, as it were, you and Dave actually knew each other well before you first met up with Mike Judge on “King of the Hill.”

JA: That’s right. Dave Krinsky and I go back to…we went to the University of North Carolina together and moved out to L.A…wow, back in ’87! And we just did movies and TV for, y’know, forever, and got hired on “King of the Hill” in its first season, and that’s how we met Mike Judge.

BE: When you guys went out there, did you have a vision for what you wanted to write? Did you have a specific hankering to work in animation?

JA: We never considered it in our lives. We actually wanted to do features, and…back then it was such a different world. An agency would not represent you if you wanted to do TV and movies. And we wanted to do both, but since nobody would rep that, we were doing features. And then just on a fluke, this woman named Carolyn Strauss at HBO…she was great. Well, obviously, I liked her because she read our movie script, and she said, “Would you guys consider working on a TV show?” And we said, “Yeah!” And she showed us this show called “The High Life.” It was black and white, set in the ‘60s, but it was this guy Adam Resnick who was doing it, so we said, “We’ll do that!” She said, “Will you move to New York?” “Yeah!” “In three days?” Sure!” [Laughs.]

So that’s how we got into TV. And that show didn’t do well, but people liked it. Y’know, it was a good show, and people respected it, so it allowed us to have really our choice of working on television shows…and we liked it. I mean, the thing about TV is that you have a little bit more control over the medium, and you do a lot of them, so you can learn more, whereas you make so few movies that you can’t really learn anything, so you can’t really get better. Now, oddly enough, because the world’s changed, Dave and I are able to do animated TV, live-action TV, live-action movies…everything. Which is pretty great for us.

BE: When you got to “King of the Hill,” was there any sort of learning curve for working in animation?

JA: Yes, but…what’s interesting is that the writing wasn’t that different, because it was a very real show. You know, a lot of reviewers even said that it was the most realistic show on TV. And being from North Carolina, it just sort of fit in our wheelhouse. So the writing itself wasn’t so different, but when we started producing…animation is an incredibly intricate, long process that really takes about 10 years to get a handle on. There’s just all of these different stages and processes, with designs going here and then going to Korea and then coming back…it’s just this never-ending loop. But the writing was actually not that different.

BE: I must tell you that, were it not for “King of the Hill,” no one would know that I once spent three months working for A&B Propane in Chesapeake, Virginia. But the show has provided me with a certain pride in being able to say, “You know, I once sold propane and propane accessories…”

JA: [Laughs.] Yay! Our work is done!

BE: When “King of the Hill” was finally shuffled off into oblivion by Fox, who apparently finally realized that it was still on schedule…

JA: Yes, and they were upset that we were still making money. [Laughs.] I’m never going to understand the workings of that. We were a great show, and they just kept trying to cancel us. But we just kept hanging on until they finally succeeded in canceling us. It was, like, “What’s the deal? Is the problem that we’re too good and we make you too much money?”

I don’t think they ever understood why it was funny. It’s, like, with “Family Guy,” even though they canceled that, too, at least they go, “Oh, we know why it’s funny!” Even though they don’t. They think, “It’s ‘cause it’s crude!” But “King of the Hill” makes no sense to them. It’s not replicable in their minds. It’s, like, “Well, that show’s not funny. It’s boring!” That’s all I can figure out, anyway.

BE: Well, I loved it, anyway. In fact, I’m in the Television Critics Association, so I was in attendance for that table read that you did for the 200^th episode.

JA: Oh, so you’ve heard me blather on before! [Laughs.] Well, good.

BE: So what was the timeline as far as the end of “King of the Hill” and the beginning of “The Goode Family”?  

JA: Well, Dave and I had done the screenplay for “Blades of Glory” while we were doing “King of the Hill,” so what happened was… [Hesitates.] I’m trying to remember the exact timing, but…oh, of course we were still doing “King of the Hill” when we did “The Goode Family,” because Fox was very angry at us. [Laughs.]

BE: My apologies. I had convinced myself that “The Goode Family” was actually after “King of the Hill.”

JA: Hey, trust me, with this brain of mine combined with my general lack of sleep last night, I’m familiar with confusion. But, no, we did the season of “The Goode Family” concurrent with doing “King of the Hill.”

BE: You must’ve been pretty exhausted, then.

JA: You know, it wasn’t bad, because the timing of it…we only did the pilot and the 12 episodes of “The Goode Family,” and…Dave and I were really efficient. [Laughs.] And we were so ahead with “King of the Hill.” We had just great personnel – this woman Garland Testa was helping – so “King of the Hill” was going really fairly well, so we could concentrate. So we had a lot going on, but…it’s strange. I don’t know if you know this feeling where…well, like you just said, you cover what you want to cover for your column, so you cover a lot of things, I bet, which means you’re not bored and you’re not angry, because you’re sort of in control of what you’re doing. But when you’re on someone else’s clock and someone else’s dime, that’s devastating. When it’s your show, though, it’s kind of energizing. If that makes sense.

BE: It does, thanks to you putting it into my frame of reference. [Laughs.] Okay, so it’s fair to say that “The Goode Family” wasn’t exactly on for a lengthy period of time, but was there ever anything that had to be changed because ABC said, “Sorry, you can’t do that”?

JA: You know, it’s interesting, because ABC were actually really good partners creatively. With all the problems of when we were aired and how we were aired and picking shows to pair us with that we were not a great fit, they were very good with us creatively. The only thing we would run into were things like…we had the character of Charlie, who the gruff, Archie Bunker-ish character, except milder, say something like, “Let’s go down to the Asian place, those guys really know their way around a pig.” And it’d be, like, “How is this a Standards note?” And they’d go, “Well, you’re implying that all Asians like pork.” And I’m, like, “They do!” [Laughs.] “What do you want me to say? You go find me an Asian that doesn’t like pork that isn’t Buddhist…and even the Buddhists like pork!” So that was sort of frustrating.

And then one time we did an episode where the neo-Nazis adopt a highway, and at one point…what happened was that the main Standards guy was out of town, and we got these Standards notes that were just unbelievable. They wanted to shut us down! They even cited the word “sturm und drang,” which is just an uproar, because they thought it was some sort of slur! At one point, I was, like, “Okay, are you afraid we’re going to offend the neo-Nazis? Because I can’t figure out what the hell is going on!” And to be fair, when the normal guy got back…see, the stuff that Dave and Mike I do, we have absolutely no interest in offending people. We just don’t. But we like dealing with interesting stuff that nobody else deals with. So when you’re first working with us, it’s, like, “Oh, my God, you can’t do that, you can’t do that,” but then when you see how we handle it…

Like, when you pitch, “We’re going to do a show about class warfare in the lesbian community,” they’re horrified. But then they see it, and…the lesbians loved our show! [Laughs.] Basically, they see that we don’t do hatchet jobs. In fact, some people said that one reason maybe why the show didn’t catch on was that we didn’t do a hatchet job, that we sort of made the Goode family likeable when maybe we would’ve been better off just going the other direction. But that’s just not what we do. Look at “King of the Hill.” We’re just not into ridicule.

BE: And like “King of the Hill,” “The Goode Family” may have been a little exaggerated at times, but for the most part you tried to paint character as realistically as possible.

JA: Yeah, exactly. And, oh, my God, you come out here to California, my friend, and I’ll show you that things might seem a little bit ridiculous on that show, but we actually had to tone down reality to put it on that show. [Laughs.]

BE: To look at the IMDb page for “The Goode Family,” you kind of see that the show’s biggest problem was that people had such diverse opinions about it. The first user review calls it “the best show ever,” while the “Did You Know?” section leads off by noting that the show was canceled after a single season because of poor ratings and poor critical reception.

JA: Yeah, but, y’know, we actually got great reviews. For the most part, anyway. I mean stunningly good reviews. The bad reviews that we got…it’s pretty interesting and actually makes sense, but we got scathing reviews from The New York Times, NPR, and The San Francisco Chronicle. And it’s like a fucking joke, because they’re literally, like, “Oh, my God, how can you make fun of global warming?” But to be honest, we were pretty freaking happy, because we got a lot of great reviews. The sad thing, though, was that the reviews tended to say, “Watch it while you can.” [Laughs.] I remember one case…it was a good review, but the guy said, “The show’s fantastic, but it will not make it past the first season. If it was on Fox, it’d last for eight seasons, but on ABC, it’s gonna be gone.”

So there were a lot of reviews like that, and…it’s interesting, and we’ll never know if it was the wrong place, the wrong time, if the show wasn’t hard-hitting enough. We loved it, though, and when people watch it, when people actually see it, they seem to really respond to it. “That was great!” And all we can do is say, “Well, we thought so.” So who knows why it didn’t take off?

BE: Before the show premiered, did you consider the fact that, because it was being so politically correct to an absurd degree, it might take time to find an audience?

JA: You know, what’s interesting is…I thought it would connect, even though we knew it was weird going on ABC. We were really worried when we were put with “Wipe Out.” It was, like, “Oh, boy, this doesn’t seem like our audience.” This one comedian said, “You know the people you made your show about…? People really hate those people. They really don’t want to hang out with them.” And we were, like, “Okay…” [Laughs.] It was interesting, though, that the lefty blogosphere types really liked the show. Lesbians, even wacko environmentalists, they sort of understood that, yes, we were making fun of them, but it wasn’t ugly making-fun. But the ABC audience for a family game show was decidedly different.

BE: How long ago did you start working on the DVD set? Was it right after the show went off the air, or did it only come about because Shout Factory asked about doing one?

JA: Well, this was very frustrating, actually. The DVD set happened because of the tenacity of this guy named Glenn Lucas, but what was frustrating was that…I don’t know, I guess we kind of fell between eras, sort of. It wasn’t actually before Hulu, but it was before Hulu had a lot of deals set up. You couldn’t get “The Goode Family” anywhere. You couldn’t stream it, you couldn’t buy downloads…it just wasn’t available! But basically Shout Factory just loved the show, and this guy Glenn Lucas made the deal for us. It was a tough deal, because a lot of times with Hollywood, if there’s not a lot of money involved, companies will just say, “Eh, let it go.” And not “let it go, go ahead and do it,” but, “nah, we’d rather not.” So it took a few years, but we did it, and…it just makes me happy. Because, y’know, we’ve just put so much work into the underground-comic look of the show that I just think is so beautiful. And, I mean, where else do you get to see a vegan dog running around eating all of the other pets in the neighborhood? [Laughs.] Well, I think it’s fun, anyway…

BE: Shout Factory invariably does a great job with their reissues.

JA: Oh, they’re a top-flight company. They’re just good at what they do, and they’re solid citizens. We’re going to keep working with them.

BE: If only you could get them to put out the rest of the “King of the Hill” seasons…

JA: Oh, God, they want to.

BE: Do they, really?

JA: They do! They’ve been trying, but…I guess it’s just not going to happen.

BE: That sucks.

JA: Yeah. And it’s really frustrating because, like Mike Judge points out, Fox stopped putting them out just as the show had a resurgence and started getting really good again. [Laughs.] And he wants those out on DVD, but they’re not.

BE: Well, at least they’re available for online screening. That’s something.

JA: Something, yes. But it’s still frustrating.

BE: Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask about a few other things very quickly, the first being the script for “Blades of Glory.” Given that you and Dave came out with the intent of working on features, that must’ve been great to get that big-screen break at last.

JA: Oh, it was great. And it was interesting, because Dave and I were brought on, and we did the script, and it got put right into production. It was, like, “Wow, when does that happen?” [Laughs.] It was a very fun project, because the initial idea was not ours. The script was, but the initial idea wasn’t. We just stepped in, and we were, like, “Okay, let’s take this and treat it incredibly seriously, where everything with these skaters is life or death, and take it completely over the top.” It’s been incredibly satisfying, because people just love that movie. I mean, I can’t even tell you the range of people. There’s this judge who’s very high up in the ranks, and his favorite movie is “Blades of Glory,” and I met a woman at a party who said, “You know, we bought that movie  for my dad because it’s the only thing that makes him laugh!” So it’s beyond gratifying. And it opened up a lot of doors for us. So we’re very proud of it.

BE: So what’s the status of “Silicon Valley,” the live-action pilot you guys are doing with Mike for HBO?

JA: We’re working on that as we speak. Literally. We’re starting to cast that, and Mike Judge is going to direct it, which I think is great. We love it. We think it’s a show that needs to be made, because…my brother is an electrical engineer, my brother-in-law is an electrical engineer, Mike Judge was an engineer, and the one thing we’ve noticed is that nobody gets these guys right. I mean, “The Big Bang Theory” is fine, but that’s not who these people are, and it’s such an interesting, vibrant world where everything’s happening. So it was, like, “Oh, let’s go make fun of that!” [Laughs.]

BE: Finally, I feel as though it’s my responsibility to get status updates on everything currently attributed to you on IMDb.

JA: [Laughs.] Well, “The Jetsons” is…that’s funny, we were just talking about that recently. Who knows what’s going to happen with that? But “The Giants of Groil” definitely isn’t going to happen. And “Woody Woodpecker,” man, that’s gonna be a long, long, long process. Like, we just started, and animated movies…by the time you say, “Oh, we’re rolling,” it’s four years later. But we’re doing this project, “Brigadier Gerard,” that has Steve Carell attached to star and Jay Roach to direct. It’s hard making movies these days, though. It’s tough. Good thing you’re in TV, my friend!

First of all, if you’re worried that they might have smartened up some over the course of the past 14 years, let me assure you that, based on the advance trailer for their new season, there is little doubt that they’re as dumb as ever. Secondly, since I know you’re wondering, yes, the Great Cornholio does still need T.P. for his bunghole.

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge during this summer’s TCA tour, and we talked about his decision to bring the boys back, what’s changed in their absence, and which recurring characters we can expect to see during the course of these upcoming episodes.

Bullz-Eye: So why bring back Beavis and Butthead – with the caveat that I’m very, very excited that you’re doing so – rather than move forward with a new, original property?

Mike Judge: Well, you know, actually, if you put it that way… [Laughs.] Look, I still like experimenting around and trying different characters, which I’ve done without ever showing it to people, but I’ve also been involved with development on new animated shows, some that never saw the light of day or that people are talking about. I always kind of look at all this stuff, and I’ll think of why it’s not working and what does work, and in the back of my mind, I’m always going, “You know, I actually had a great couple of characters that were working pretty good that I think would still be fun to do.” And I think they’re still fairly unique. I’d like to think so, anyway, just in the way they look and sound. But, I mean, the bottom line is that I really like doing it. And King of the Hill was done, I’d just done a live-action movie and didn’t want to do that again anytime soon, and…it just seemed like it would be fun.

BE: So did you go to MTV, or did MTV pitch you the idea of bringing them back?

MJ: Oh, they came to me. That was the other thing. That’s what really instigated it. My manager called and said, “Hey, man, I just got a call. What would you think about doing new episodes?” And I think he really expected me to say “no,” because I say “no” to a lot of stuff. [Laughs.] But I started thinking about it, and I just thought…I mean, they’d been wanting to do another movie for a long time, but there’s something about doing 24 episodes of a TV show that, even though it’s more screen time than a movie, it seems like less pressure and more fun. At least in this case, anyway. Also, I think Beavis and Butthead…they started on TV, and I like it as a TV show.

BE: I was going to ask you if you had to get back into the right mindset to write the show again, but prepping for Beavis and Butthead would seem to involve more of a lack of a mindset.

MJ: [Laughs.] Well, David Felton, who used to work on the show and wrote a few episodes, said it pretty well once. He said, “You go to that place in your mind where thoughts begin…and then you stay there.” Which is really… [Starts to laugh.] I mean, there is a mindset. It’s harder to write than it looks. But it can be really fun to write. Some writing, you feel like you put a whole bunch in and you get 80% of what you put in, or less. And with this, sometimes I feel like you get more than what you put in. Like, you get to a point where it’s…more downhill. And I mean that in a good way. I feel like Beavis and Butthead kind of carry you through stuff better than some characters, maybe, as far as writing goes.

BE: In regards to writing the show being easier or harder than one might think, I’d actually figure that it would be rather challenging to write a smart dumb show.

MJ: Yeah, that’s true. I remember when I was writing the Beavis and Butthead movie (Beavis and Butthead Do America), and…I hadn’t really written a movie before, so I was going through and, like, realizing that…when you have dumb characters, it’s kind of hard. Things have to happen to them and by accident, because Beavis and Butthead, they’re not characters who can say… [Adopts evil-genius voice] “I have a plan. Let’s go execute the plan.” So it’s kind of hard to do it. I remember looking at…there’s a Cheech and Chong movie – I’ve seen ‘em all, but it was one that played while I was working in a movie theater, tearing tickets: Things Are Tough All Over – and I kind of went into it thinking, “Well, this’ll be good,” but I was kind of humbled by it, because I was, like, “Wow, this movie’s really well put together. That montage makes sense. I’ve got to really figure this out!” So, yeah, it is a little more tough, but…I also feel like, at least for me, anyway, slightly more rewarding than some stuff I’ve done, because when you get it right… [Hesitates.] It’s hard to describe, but I feel like it just bursts out. It pops more than some stuff, maybe. So it’s pretty fun to do it again.

BE: I’ve seen some clips, so I know that some of the classic characters who’ll be returning, but can you speak more specifically to who we can count on seeing?

MJ: I think most of ‘em. We’ve got…well, it’s not in the initial clips – or, at least, I don’t think it is – but Todd is back, the guy who used to kick their ass and drive a muscle car. The hippie teacher is back.

BE: [Crossing fingers.] Stewart, Stewart, Stewart, Stewart, Stewart…

MJ: [Laughs.] Stewart is back, yes. There’s actually at least three episodes with Stewart in them, and then there’s…let’s see, there’s the ROTC buzz-cut coach, the principal. There’s even some random, incidental characters that we’ve brought back. We always had…whenever there was a doctor, it was usually the same guy, and we’ve brought him back. There was a substitute teacher who was in one episode back in the day. He’s back….and, oddly enough, what he’s wearing still makes sense. [Laughs.]

BE: Speaking of wardrobe, and not to be too Stewart-centric, but…is Stewart still sporting his Winger t-shirt?

MJ: Yeah.

BE: Awesome.

MJ: In fact, we actually went to Kip Winger himself, and…he was actually pretty cool about it, I have to say. He was a good sport. Because for some reason, we had to get clearance this time. [Laughs.] And he was happy to do it.

BE: So is that the biggest change about Beavis and Butthead since its original run, then? That you have to get more clearances than you used to?

MJ: [Laughs.] Well, there’s computers and cell phones everywhere now, too. But it’s definitely more clearances, that’s for sure.

As it turns out, there’s another key difference between today’s Beavis and Butthead and the episodes from back in the day: since MTV is barely showing videos anymore, the boys have now taken to offering their commentary on the network’s reality shows, including 16 and Pregnant and, of course, the ubiquitous Jersey Shore.

“Van (Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music Group) actually called me and said, ‘Hey, you should watch Jersey Shore and have them talk over it,” said Judge, during the TCA panel for Beavis and Butthead. “I was a little skeptical at first because we had tried The Real World back in the day, and for some reason it didn’t click. I don’t know why, but at some point, I watched a lot of Jersey Shore. Now I’m hooked on it. It really clicked. It was just pay dirt, actually.”

After the B&B-centric portion of our conversation wound down, I couldn’t resist concluding the conversation by throwing Judge a few one-off questions about various other projects he’s worked on over the years, and, at the very end, I also attempted a quick pick of his brain on the matter of what his future big-screen plans might be.

“I was lucky up to that point. You know, I had Beavis and Butthead the series, then the Beavis and Butthead movie, and then King of the Hill…I think everybody was expecting this big hit, and it just didn’t do well at the box office. I mean, it didn’t cost a lot of money, so it wasn’t a disaster, but in the eyes of the media, it was, like, a big bomb. And that was a little rough to take, especially because I had fought so hard for the cast, I fought so hard for the music…’cause every decision on that movie, everybody was telling me, ‘You’re making a mistake.’ And then the thing didn’t do well, so it was, like, ‘Yeah, see, you made mistakes. Learn from ‘em!’ And then over time, to be vindicated…very slowly… [Laughs.] …over two or three years, was a really great feeling. Of course, most of the people that said I made all the wrong decisions forgot that they had ever said that. [Laughs.] I didn’t get a really nice “I told you so” moment. But, anyway, it’s still really great.”

“You know, in the past couple of years…I get people talking to me about it all the time now, so, yeah, it is the same path (as Office Space), actually. But that one was maybe even more brutal, because that was a very…actually, the studio was very supportive for the most part. Through shooting. It was only in post-production that they got really down on it. In post, and during the special effects, they were, like, ‘Oh, my God…’ They panicked. You know, ‘This thing is weird!’ But they were way behind it. We had a test screening where, like, half the effects weren’t in the movie. I mean, there were scenes that were, like, the Washington Monument with all the jet skis and all that stuff, things that eventually got a laugh, they were literally just a piece of paper, a drawing that was blown up. You couldn’t even see what it was, anyway. Or, like, all the Costco stuff was just green-screen, with people walking, and you didn’t know what you were looking at, really. So we had a test screening that didn’t go well, and…it was a hard movie to market, but at some point, they just kind of ditched it. So that was rough.

“Terry Crews was so great. I wasn’t even imagining someone like him for that role. He came in and just stole it. I mean, he read for it, and I was, like, “Oh, my God, this is so great!” But somebody just texted me a couple of weeks ago a ‘Camacho for President’ bumper sticker…and it had his whole name underneath. [Laughs] Actually, Luke Wilson came up with a bunch of those. He came up on the day we were shooting – and, I mean, there were a lot of things in the script where people had products in their name or whatever – but Luke just kind of tossed that up, and everything he did in that one take is on this bumper sticker. So, yeah, that was great.”

“That hasn’t come up in awhile. A long time ago, they talked about making a King of the Hill movie, but that hasn’t come recently. I’ve never thought about it, really. I mean, to me, King of the Hill is more like The Andy Griffith Show. A Simpsons movie I understand. Obviously, I understand a Beavis and Butthead movie. [Laughs.] But King of the Hill…? I have a hard time wrapping my head around it as a movie. It just seems like it belongs more on TV.”

“It’s hard to say (why The Goode Family didn’t take off). I mean, I was busy doing Extract at the time, and I kind of…I wasn’t as involved as I normally am. But I thought it was a good concept. I thought the writing was great. I think maybe some of the…I don’t know, somehow it just didn’t click, the whole thing. But that happens. I mean, I guess…I’m always going into things thinking, ‘It’s not going to do well,’ anyway. [Laughs.] So I’d say I was more surprised that the other stuff did do well. In the end, I think it just didn’t work. What can you do?”

“After each film I’ve done, I tell myself I’m never going to do it again. But…I probably will. I hope. I mean, if somebody lets me. [Laughs.] I wouldn’t mind. I don’t have any plans to write anything anytime soon, but there’s some other stuff. There are some books that I’ve read that I’ve thought about adapting. I think if I have a good story, I can write the rest of it really well. The story part’s the hardest for me. The rest of the process is easy.”

Almost.

Join us now as we take a look back through the mists of time and investigate the 17 motion pictures which made the jump from “SNL” sketch to feature film, in a little piece we like to call…

Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979)

Starring: Michael O’Donoghue
Based on: O’Donoghue’s “Mr. Mike” sketches.
Premise: Rather than use Mr. Mike to teach grueling lessons in life, as was the tendency on “SNL,” O’Donoghue used the character in an ostensible tribute to the 1962 documentary “Mondo Cane,” having her serve as the link between a mixture of strange vignettes (some comedic, some strictly eccentric for eccentricity’s sake), found footage, and performances by some decidedly non-commercial musical artists. “Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video” was originally intended to be a television special that would air on Saturday night when “SNL” was scheduled to be in reruns, but after NBC got skittish about some of the content, New Line Cinema bought the rights and gave it a very brief theatrical run before eventually releasing it onto home video, where it developed a cult following.
Reasons to watch: If you’re a fan of the late 1970s punk and new wave scene, the performances by Klaus Nomi and Root Boy Slim are pretty awesome (Sid Vicious’s performance of “My Way” would be, too, if they hadn’t been refused the right to include the audio), as are Dan Aykroyd’s contributions to the film, both as himself (he shows off his webbed toes) and as the man behind the Mainland Church of the Perfect Wave, where the parishioners worship at the altar of a portrait of Jack Lord. In fact, pretty much any of the bits with “SNL” folks are worth seeing, but the best is a sequence where Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Debbie Harry, Wendie Malick, and others discuss the merits of creepy men.
Reasons to avoid: The Not Ready for Prime Time Players only appear for a few minutes of the film’s run time. Otherwise, it’s pure, unbridled O’Donoghue, which makes the whole production an acquired taste that will strike the average viewer as being far more odd and disconcerting than funny.

Gilda Live (1980)

Starring: Gilda Radner, Don Novello, Paul Shaffer
Based on: Radner’s most memorable characters, including Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, Candy Slice, Judy Miller, Lisa Loopner, Rhonda Weiss, and more.
Premise: Radner had a relatively successful run on Broadway with her one-woman show, “Gilda Radner: Live from New York,” so it seemed like a reasonable enough plan to film the proceedings – with Mike Nichols at the helm, no less – and release it into theaters.
Reasons to watch: Anyone who lived through the ‘70s knows what a wonderful performer Radner was, but her post-“SNL” work didn’t do her talent justice. “Gilda Live” sent mixed messages at the time, showing both an interest in taking the spotlight but a reticence to step into something completely new, but looking at it now, it serves as an excellent introduction to Radner’s abilities as a comedienne, an actress, and even as a singer. (The songs are great, by the way.) Plus, you get to spend a few minutes here and there with Father Guido Sarducci, who’s always a stitch.
Reasons to avoid: Unless you’re a diehard Radner fan who’s been waiting to hear her using language she couldn’t use on network TV, there’s nothing here that’s significantly funnier than what you can already watch on the “SNL: Best of Gilda Radner” DVD that came out a few years back.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Freeman, Henry Gibson, Teve Lawrence, Twiggy, Frank Oz, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin
Based on: the duo’s blues-singing alter egos, who performed several times on the show.
Premise: Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively) go on a “mission from God” to pay the back taxes on the orphanage in which they were raised. They decide to get the band back together and put on a benefit concert, while dodging the police, neo-Nazis, and the Good Ol’ Boys, a country band that they impersonated for quick cash.
Reasons to watch: Um, because it’s awesome…? Not only is the movie stacked with R&B giants (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, James Brown, and roughly a dozen others), it contains some side-splittingly funny scenes (the nun and the ruler, a Hell-hath-no-fury Carrie Fisher) and the greatest car chase in movie history. Or at the very least, the greatest car crash in movie history.
Reasons to avoid: There is no reason to avoid this movie, unless you have an aversion to profanity and classic R&B.

Bob Roberts (1992)

Starring: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Murray, Gore Vidal, Rebecca Jenkins, Harry Lennix, Robert Stanton, Kelly Willis, Tom Atkins, David Strathairn, James Spader
Based on: a short segment Robbins did for “SNL” when he hosted the show in 1986.
Premise: A mockumentary about a Conservative Senatorial candidate who also happens to be a folk singer, the film follows Bob Roberts through the race to the Senate as he is perpetually trailed by reporter Bugs Raplin, a man on a mission to reveal Roberts as a fraud.
Reasons to watch: Fans of the Bob Dylan documentary “Don’t Look Back” will have fun trying to pick out the similarities between the films, while political junkies will enjoy examining the characters and playing “Spot the Real-Life Inspiration,” but this is a biting satire filled with a lot of laughs…and a lot of great songs, too.
Reasons to avoid: If you don’t see anything funny about politics to begin with, then “Bob Roberts” will probably just piss you off.

Mr. Saturday Night (1992)

Starring: Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Julie Warner, Helen Hunt, Mary Mara, Jerry Orbach, Ron Silver, Sage Allen, Jason Marsden
Based on: the character of Buddy Young, Jr., the Las Vegas lounge comedian created by Crystal during his stint at “SNL.”
Premise: The life-story of a once famous, mean-spirited comic from the heyday of old-school lounge comedy, following him through all of his highs and lows.
Reasons to watch: This film very rarely appears on lists of “SNL movies.” That’s not only because Billy Crystal’s schmaltzy-but-vicious comedian character only appeared a few times on the show, but also because it’s not really a comedy. It was, in fact, Crystal’s first stab at film directing in the wake of his massive success with 1989′s “When Harry Met Sally” and 1991′s “City Slickers” and was an out-and-out attempt at being taken seriously as a major filmmaker. Written by Crystal with longtime writing cohorts Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, “Mr. Saturday Night” certainly gets points for boldness in allowing Buddy to mostly be a genuine bastard who, as often as not, deserves his bad luck. It also features a memorable, justly Oscar-nominated, performance by David Paymer as Young’s long-suffering brother, as well as turns by three other terrific actors: Jerry Ohrbach, Ron Silver, and Helen Hunt.
Reasons to avoid: Unfortunately, Crystal’s artistic reach exceeds his grasp here. Playing down humor in favor of an attempt at a moving character study, he instead makes a rather sentimental but strangely bitter comic drama that left critics cool and audiences confused. Also, Crystal’s old-age make-up is a less-than-convincing distraction. For some reason, the aging process proved more believable on the prematurely bald David Paymer.

Wayne’s World (1992)

Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brian Doyle-Murray, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael DeLuise, Lee Tergesen, Kurt Fuller, Colleen Camp, Donna Dixon
Based on: the “Wayne’s World” sketches, about two guys from Aurora, Illinois, who film a cable access show in their basement.
Premise: Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) think they’ve hit the big time when sleazy producer Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) buys their show, only to discover that it’s been gutted of all its personality. Garth accuses Wayne of selling out, while Wayne is jealous of Benjamin and is convinced that he is only interested in stealing Wayne’s girlfriend Cassandra (Tia Carrere).
Reasons to watch: It’s one of the few “SNL”-related projects that doesn’t have the phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ joined at its hip. Myers, with help from “That ‘70s Show” creators Bonnie and Terry Turner, wrote a script that’s both sweet and faithful to its characters’ naivety. Oh, and there’s this scene set to the tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that you may have heard about.
Reasons to avoid: As rocker babes go, Tia Carrere is, well, a heck of a babe.

Coneheads (1993)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Michelle Burke, David Spade, Michael McKean, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Jason Alexander, Lisa Jane Persky
Based on: the “Coneheads” sketches, which first debuted in 1977, making this the longest-gestating “SNL” film to date.
Premise: Beldar and Prymatt Conehead (Aykroyd and Curtin) are just another immigrant couple from the planet Remulak out to make their fortune in this very new world while avoiding their actual job, which involves destroying it. Their daughter, Connie (Michelle Burke), is growing up as typical teenage earthling and straining against the quaint traditional customs of her people. There are also some small problems caused by INS officials wondering if “Donald R. and Mary Margaret DeCicco” really are from, you guessed it, France.
Reasons to watch: The Coneheads are arguably the most sweetly silly recurring characters in the history of SNL and it’s just great to see them in any form. Crucially, the most reliable running gags from the bit make a return here, including the truly alien mating and dining habits of the Remulakians (“consume mast quantities”), their robotic speech patterns, and fact that hardly anyone seems to notice the Coneheads have actual cone heads. It also benefits from an extraordinary supporting cast featuring numerous SNL veterans and assorted comedy geniuses, including Phil Hartman, Michael McKean, and original Connie Conehead Laraine Newman. Written by Aykroyd with SNL veteran scribe Tom Davis and the team of Bonnie and Terry Turner, who’d shortly go on to create the not entirely dissimilar TV series, “3rd Rock from the Sun,” there’s a bit of social commentary on the apparently eternal American controversy over immigration here. Much more important, a good portion of the jokes actually work.
Reasons to avoid: More of the jokes kinda don’t work, actually, and the direction by video veteran Steve Barron isn’t anything to be excited about. To be honest, this film may be best suited to catching in small chunks on cable, perhaps while folding clothes or recovering from a minor illness or hangover.

Wayne’s World 2 (1993)

Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, Tia Carrere, Chris Farley, Ralph Brown, James Hong, Lee Tergesen
Based on: the characters from the original “Wayne’s World” film.
Premise: After meeting Aerosmith backstage at one of their shows, Wayne has a vision where a naked Indian tells him that he needs to organize a massive music festival. Cassandra is out of town working on her debut album, and her producer (Christopher Walken) persuades her into leaving Wayne behind. Garth meets a beautiful older woman (Kim Basinger), though her interest in Garth is less than honorable.
Reasons to watch: While the movie isn’t a complete loss, it is more or less the same as the first, three endings and all. Perhaps sensing this, they stunt-casted the bejeezus out of it, and one of those cameos literally saves the movie when a gas station employee, who only has one scene but a powerful one, is replaced by Charlton Heston, who proceeds to make Wayne cry with his performance. The poorly dubbed martial arts battle between Cassandra’s father and Wayne was also way ahead of the curve in terms of the influence of Asian cinema in America.
Reasons to avoid: The movie is a lot like a “Family Guy” episode: a thin story fleshed out by cut-aways to this or that riff on another pop culture phenomenon, in this case “The Doors,” “The Graduate” and “Thelma & Louise,” to name but a few. Dana Carvey had left “SNL” by the time the movie opened, and the sense of ‘too little, too late’ is hard to shake.

It’s Pat (1994)

Starring: Julia Sweeney, Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, Kathy Griffin, Julie Hayden, Beverly Leech, Kathy Najimy
Based on: the “Pat” sketches, which revolved around a sexually-ambiguous character and others’ attempts to determine her gender.
Premise: Pat Riley (Sweeney) is constantly moving from job to job, looking for a definitive walk of life but failing at every turn. Enter Chris (Foley), who’s just as gender-indeterminate as Pat. The two fall in love…don’t ask who wears the pants in that relationship…but things begin to fall apart when Pat still fails at every attempt at finding a new career. Meanwhile, Pat’s neighbor Kyle (Rocket), is on a quest to figure out whether Pat’s male or female. But will he succeed…?!?
Reasons to watch: I believe it’s universally accepted that the only real reasons to watch “It’s Pat” are to see the segments of the film which feature Camille Paglia and Ween, but there’s also a certain percentage of the population who has watched it in a desperate attempt to pick out any lines which may have come from the pen of Quentin Tarantino. (He reportedly went over the script – uncredited, naturally – as a favor to Sweeney.) Additionally, “Kids in the Hall” fans may feel obliged to check it out because of Foley’s participation. But they really shouldn’t.
Reasons to avoid: Nathan Rabin of The Onion A.V. Club described the film as “simultaneously intriguing and repulsive, a would-be cult curio not even the most indulgent cult could love.” Is that enough of a reason for you?

Stuart Saves His Family (1994)

Starring: Al Franken, Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D’Onfrio, Shirley Knight, Harris Yulin, Lesley Boone, John Link Graney, Marjorie Lovett, Walt Robles, Erik Cord, Denver Mattson
Based on: the “Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley” sketches. (Well, technically, it’s based on Franken’s book, which expanded on the sketches, but the sketches came first.)
Premise: Caring nurturer, member of several 12-step programs, and fired cable access host Smalley must deal with his multiply dysfunctional family while struggling with his overeating, codependence, and the “stinkin’ thinkin’” that tells him he really might not be good enough or smart enough.
Reasons to watch: Written by and starring the current junior senator from Minnesota and directed by Harold Ramis (“Groundhog Day”), this broad comedy with very serious overtones is better than you might think for the same reason the SNL sketches work: it’s firmly grounded in reality. Franken is an open member of Al-Anon — a 12-step group for family members of addicts — and has proudly noted that “Stuart Saves his Family” is used in drug and alcohol treatment programs. That’s not to say you have to be immersed in the world of recovery to get the jokes, though it might help. One big plus is a solid supporting cast, including Laura San Giacomo as Stuart’s Al-Anon sponsor, Vincent D’Onofrio as his pothead brother, and Harris Yulin as his verbally abusive alcoholic father. Still, this is Franken’s show. As always, his sincerely nutty performance as the goodhearted but occasionally self-loathing T.V. personality with atrocious taste in sweaters and ambiguous sexual preferences is, by our lights, a creation of comic genius.
Reasons to avoid: Al Franken admits that his “wet dream” is that his political arch-enemy, Rush Limbaugh, was forced to watch “Stuart Saves His Family” during his time in rehab. Indeed, people who despise the senator for his devoutly liberal political activities, or who simply think he’s not funny, may consider it a punishment for past sins. Even if you are a fan, there’s a reason this woolly film failed badly at the box office and bombed with most critics. All in all, if you don’t find the Stuart Smalley sketches completely hilarious, you should probably stay away…unless, of course, you’re a right-wing radio host recovering from an Oxycontin binge.

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Joe Morton, J. Evan Bonifant, Nia Peeples, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Jonny Lang, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Sam Moore, Erykah Badu
Based on: the characters from the original “Blues Brothers” film.
Premise: Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) gets out of prison and, as he’s now suddenly a solo act, tries to find his place in the world. Inevitably, he ends up deciding to get the band back together, finding a new partner in the form of Mighty Mack (Goodman). There’s also a subplot involving a 10-year-old orphan, along with a somewhat nonsensical storyline about Elwood’s newly discovered semi-brother, Cab (Morton), who turns out to be a Commander in the Illinois State Police.
Reasons to watch: You would be hard pressed to come up with a more perfect…or more depressing…opening for the film, which plays off the opening of the original. This time, however, it’s Elwood Blues who’s finally getting out of prison, and when he steps outside the gates, there is no Jake to pick him up, leaving him to wait in vain for someone to pick him up. It seems no one ever told him that his brother died. Harsh, sure, but talk about your promising beginnings, and while the “we’re getting the band back together” plotline is unabashedly recycled from the first film, it’s still fun to see where the members of the Blues Brothers Band ended up. Lastly, you can’t have a “Blues Brothers” movie without some decent tunes, and Aretha belting out “Respect” certainly qualifies, as do Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett teaming up on “634-5789,” a number which now belongs to…sigh…a phone sex line.
Reasons to avoid: The film doesn’t come anywhere close to maintaining the promise of the opening. For one thing, the desire to make things more appealing to a younger demographic results in such travesties as shoehorning Jonny Lang into the aforementioned performance of “634-5789” and having Elwood cross paths with John Popper of Blues Traveler, who – shocker! – just happens to be a huge Blues Brothers fan. Ultimately, though, the film’s biggest problem is that no one in the cast can capably fill John Belushi’s shoes, which leaves Aykroyd floundering and the audience wanting to just go back and watch the original film instead.

A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Loni Anderson, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Dwayne Hickman, Chazz Palminteri, Colin Quinn, Gigi Rice, Elisa Donovan, Lochlyn Munro, Jennifer Coolidge, Richard Grieco
Based on: the “Roxbury Guys” sketches.
Premise: The Butabi brothers – Steve (Ferrell) and Doug (Kattan) – may sell fake plants at their father’s store by day, but when the sun goes down, they dance the night away at the hottest nightclubs in town…provided, of course, that they can get in. Their Holy Grail continues to be the famed Roxbury, but after a chance meeting with former “21 Jump Street” star Richard Grieco, Steve and Doug make it into the club, are introduced to the owner of the Roxbury, Mr. Zadir (Chazz Palminteri), who wants to hear their ideas for their own club. Unfortunately, they make an enemy of Zadir’s driver / bodyguard, Dooey (Colin Quinn), who keeps them away from his boss. Will they ever get the opportunity to pitch their idea, or will they be stuck working for their dad forever?
Reasons to watch: The chemistry between Ferrell and Kattan is solid, and it’s a rare attempt to see Ferrell taking the backseat and letting his co-star take the comedic reigns as often as not. It should come as no surprise that the dance sequences are well choreographed, but i’s also a very interesting ensemble cast, including Dwayne Hickman (“The Many Loves of Dobey Gillis”), Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”), and the aforementioned Mr. Grieco.
Reasons to avoid: If the above premise feels a little thin to hang an entire movie on, go with that feeling. Of all the sketches that could’ve been turned into feature-length films, this is one that invariably leaves people shaking their heads and wondering why they thought it had that kind of potential.

Office Space (1999)

Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Ajay Nadu, Diedrich Bader, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Richard Riehle, Alexandra Wentworth, Joe Bays, John C. McGinley, Paul Wilson, Greg Pitts
Based on: the animated “Milton” shorts, created by Mike Judge and aired on “SNL” in the mid-1990s.
Premise: Peter Gibbons (Livingston) is a programmer at Initech, and he’s bored both at the office and in his romantic relationship. After an ill-begotten attempt at hypnotherapy with his fiancee, however, Peter finds himself locked into a state of total relaxation, which leads him to tell the truth at every opportunity. His co-workers Samir (Nadu) and Michael (Herman) are concerned at his change in personality, but they’re also a little envious of it, too. Less thrilled is their boss, Bill Lumberg (Cole), but a pair of visiting efficiency experts – played by McGinley and Wilson – are impressed by Peter’s frankness and promote him. Unfortunately, Samir and Michael end up being downsized, leading to a revenge plot against the company. Oh, hey, we forgot to talk about Milton (Root)…but, then, that stands to reason: no one ever remembers Milton.
Reasons to watch: It’s a full-fledged comedy classic, the kind where, should you happen upon it while you’re flipping channels, you’ll be stuck watching the rest of it. With a storyline you can relate to and dialogue you can’t help but quote back ad nauseum, it’s one of the best comedies of the 1990s, possibly of all time.
Reasons to avoid: Are there any? Even if you’ve never worked in a traditional office environment, you can still appreciate the concepts of an obnoxious boss and sketchy co-workers. Maybe the romantic angle of the film isn’t as compelling as it could be, but even then, you still get to look at Jennifer Aniston, so it’s hard to complain too much.

Superstar (1999)

Starring: Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Elaine Hendrix, Harland Williams, Mark McKinney, Glynis Johns, Jackson Blicker, Gerry Bamman, Emmy Laybourne, Jennifer Irwin, Tom Green, Chuck Campbell
Based on: the Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, about a hyperactive Catholic schoolgirl prone to mood swings.
Premise: Mary Katherine Gallagher (Shannon) longs to be a superstar, so that she might get the chance to kiss the elusive Sky Corrigan (Ferrell), and just to make sure she’s ready when the time comes, she practices on any inanimate object that’s handy…like, say, a tree. To try to get in Sky’s good graces, Mary decides to try out for the school talent show, against the wishes of her grandmother (Glynis Johns). Will Grandma come around? Will Mary finally get to kiss Sky?
Reasons to watch: There’s a reason why Molly Shannon has been likened to Gilda Radner on countless occasions: she’s a gifted physical comedienne, and she gets the opportunity to demonstrate her fearlessness on several occasions during the film. There are also quite a few funny jabs at Catholicism…but, then, if you’re Catholic, that probably wouldn’t be in the “pro” column.
Reasons to avoid: Mary Katherine is a strange, creepy character who isn’t nearly funny enough to sustain a film. Even an 81-minute run time filled with an excess of Catholic schoolgirl uniforms can’t make this worth watching.

The Ladies Man (2000)

Starring: Tim Meadows, Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, John Witherspoon, Jill Talley, Lee Evans, Will Ferrell, Sofia Milos, Eugene Levy, Ken Hudson Campbell, Kevin McDonald, Tamala Jones, Julianne Moore
Based on: the “Ladies Man” sketches, about the sex therapy call-in show hosted by Leon Phelps.
Premise: When Leon Phelps (Meadows) is fired from his radio talk show, his dedicated producer, Julie (Parsons), quits in protest, and the two go on a quest to find new jobs. At the same time, however, there grows a large group of disgruntled husbands and boyfriends whose significant others have fallen prey to Leon’s charms, if you take my meaning. Will Leon find a new job before he’s strung up for his crimes against fidelity? And how long will it take for him to realize that he and Julie would make a cute couple?
Reasons to watch: First and foremost, the film’s framing device involves Leon pouring his heart out to a kindly bartender played by the one and only Billy Dee Williams. Also, though they may be easy jokes, you still can’t help but laugh at gags like Leon’s place of residence (the Skank-tuary) and his decidedly retro fashion sense. And dig that classic R&B soundtrack. Mmmm-mmmm, that sure sounds sweet to me…
Reasons to avoid: It tends toward being just as lowbrow as you’d expect from a film about an amateur sex therapist, occasionally going even lower than that. And, seriously, how the hell did Julianne Moore end up in here? Bloopie the Clown, indeed.

Harold (2008)

Starring: Spencer Breslin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ally Sheedy, Stella Maeve, Nikki Blonsky, Rachel Dratch, Elizabeth Gillies, Nicola Peltz, Fred Willard
Based on: a one-off sketch about a teenage boy who suffers from early-onset male pattern baldness.
Premise: Harold (Spencer Breslin), the aforementioned teenage boy, has managed not only to survive in his hometown of Douglasville but, indeed, to thrive amongst the populace. Unfortunately, his mother (Ally Sheedy) has gotten a new job which necessitates a move to the city of Fredericksburg, and…well, let’s just say that the folks there aren’t nearly as used to the sight of a 14-year-old with the hairline (and temperament) of a man in his early 50s. Although he finds himself somewhat of an outcast in school, banished to the table in the lunchroom inhabited by nerds, fat kids, and foreign students, Harold finds that Fredericksburg’s unfamiliarity with his appearance can help him to win friends – at least temporarily, anyway – by buying them beer. With a little additional assistance from a kindly janitor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Harold attempts to take the school by storm and win the hearts of his classmates…and if that doesn’t work, then he can always try to win the upcoming go-kart race.
Reasons to watch: Sure, it’s ridiculous, but it’s sweet at heart, and the occasional knowing wink at the audience makes it go down more smoothly. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is actually pretty funny (sometimes you almost forget that he’s got it in him), and Elizabeth Gillies – now starring in Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” – will remind every guy of an ill-advised crush of their own: you know it’s never going to work out, but her complete cuteness shorts out your common sense.
Reasons to avoid: Like so many of the “SNL” films that have preceded it, the one-joke premise – he’s young, but he looks and acts like he’s old! – is pretty thin when stretched to the length of a feature film. There’s also the fact that, even with male-pattern baldness, only the dumbest person alive would think that Harold was a middle-aged man. While that might let out the convenience store cashier who sells him beer, there ain’t enough suspension of disbelief on the planet to accept that a doctor would ever reach the point of performing a prostate exam on him. No, not even one played by Fred Willard.