Under the Radar: Melanie Chartoff

 

 OK, it's time for the third installment of my ongoing series about talented people, usually performers of some sort, who for whatever reasons never attained stardom. Except where Melanie Chartoff is concerned, I wonder if she didn't achieve some kind of stardom after all. I say that because I came across on eBay this autographed index card that sold about a week ago for just under $5. Ok, that's not a whole lot of money these days, but it does show that somebody is willing to shell out something just to bask in the afterglow of her celebrity. Of course, it could just be the afterglow of the fondly-remembered 1990's sitcom Seinfeld, and anybody who had any connection to it, even if, as in Chartoff's case, that connection amounts to a mere two episodes ("The Fire" and "The Finale".) I myself remember Chartoff from the early 1980s sketch comedy show Fridays. Like Goldie Hawn on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, she was the show's resident sex symbol, but, again like Hawn, she had the comic chops to transcend such symbolism. Unfortunately, you won't see those comic chops much on display in the following clip, as she, and just about everyone else in the scene (including a young Jon Favreau in clown's make-up) plays straight man to Jason Alexander's George Costanza:

George exhibits similar grace under pressure later on in the episode. I don't want to give anything away except to say it involves a toy pistol.

The comic stylings of Melanie Chartoff (whose birthday is today, incidentally) are more readily apparent in this clip (though it's not the only thing readily apparent):

Back in 1980, scatological humor was somewhat less commonplace on television than it is today, one reason you hear such loud whoops of laughter every time the word sex is mentioned in the above clip. Compared that to the mention of another word, pretentious. There the laughter is much more subdued, as if the audience weren't sure they got the joke. Of course, that's the whole point of the sketch, whether that television critic has figured it out or not.  

The cast of Fridays. Clockwise there's...um...where to begin...I'll start with the lanky guy in glasses with the Larry Fine-like hairdo. In fact, he's a Larry, too, though his last name's David. Next there's Mark Blankfield, Maryedith Burrell, Darrow Igus, Michael Richards, John Roarke, Brandis Kemp, Bruce Mahler, and in the center, Chartoff. Though I suppose there's only so many ways one can do a live late-night sketch comedy show geared toward an under-30 audience, Fridays was originally dismissed by most TV critics as a Saturday Night Live ripoff. That is, until SNL producer Lorne Michaels left the show (temporarily as it turned out), as did the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players (a more permanent departure.) A woman named Jean Doumanian took over and made such a mess of things that Saturday Night Live soon became a Saturday Night Live ripoff. Meanwhile, Fridays continued to improve, got better press as a result, and might have had a much longer run had ABC not decided to move the starting time a half-hour later to make room for a Friday edition of Nightline. Ratings dipped, and it was canceled after just three seasons. 

So what happened to its talented cast? For some, at least, Seinfeld. Larry David is best known these days for Curb Your Enthusiasm, but before that he was the co-creator, co-producer, and guiding light of Seinfeld. I'm sure some of you who were fans of the show about nothing took one look at the father in that Fridays sketch and shouted "Kramer!" Yes, the Saturday Night Live ripoff is where Larry David first met Michael Richards. Bruce Mahler played  the recurring character Rabbi Glickman,  Maryedith Burrell appeared as the proprietor of a non-fat yogert shop, and I've already told you about Chartoff. By the way, she's still a working actress, the voice of Didi Pickles on Rugrats.

All well and good, but I have a beef with Larry David. If he's going to have Melanie Chartoff on the show, why have her play it straight? Let her be funny. If nothing else, he could have at least have her say the word sex.