Mr. Bill is a clay figurine star of a parody of children's movies shows created by Walter Williams in 1974. [1] [2] The Mr. Bill showing got its start on Saturday Night Live as a series of Super 8 films sent in response to the show's request for home movies during the first season. [3] Mr. Bill's first appearance occurred on the February 28, 1976 episode.[ citation needed ] After five submitted films, Williams became a full-time writer for the show in 1978 and wrote more than 20 sketches based on Mr. Bill.[ citation needed ]
Each Mr. Bill episode started innocently but quickly turned dangerous for Mr. Bill and his dog Spot. He would suffer various indignities inflicted by "Mr. Hands", [4] a man seen only as a pair of hands (originally performed by Vance DeGeneres). [5] Sometimes the abuse came from Sluggo, another clay character, which Mr. Hands usually jokingly brands as one of Mr. Bill's "best friends".[ citation needed ] A running gag in the sketches is whenever Sluggo would make his appearance, Mr. Bill would get worried and say, "He's gonna be mean to me!", to which Mr. Hands often gives him reassurance by responding with, "No!".[ citation needed ] The violence inevitably escalated, generally ending with Mr. Bill being crushed or dismembered while squealing "Ohhhh noooooooooooooo!" in a falsetto voice.[ citation needed ]
The concept for Mr. Hands came from Williams' observation that children's cartoons in the 1970s were so static, he expected the artist's hands to enter the screen at any moment and physically start moving the drawings around. [6]
Initial Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Mr. Bill were self-contained episodes with no direct continuity, with the earliest installments featuring higher-pitched character voices.[ citation needed ] After Walter Williams joined SNL's writing staff in 1978, Mr. Bill formally moved to New York at the start of the season. Later sketches saw Mr. Bill become aware of Mr. Hands and Sluggo's mistreatment, with the 1979–80 season harboring an extended story arc where Mr. Bill lost his home, sought psychiatric help, attempted to get Mr. Hands and Sluggo arrested, and was ultimately thrown into prison.
Williams left Saturday Night Live after that season, but Mr. Bill returned for a Christmas short film in December 1980, as well as the sixth-season finale, where guest Chevy Chase found Mr. Bill in a garbage can.[ citation needed ] The last Mr. Bill sketch on SNL aired early in the 1981–1982 season, where Mr. Bill moved to Los Angeles.[ citation needed ] After SNL, Mr. Bill has appeared on numerous other television programs and advertisements, including regular new sketches on the USA Network series Night Flight in the 1980s and the Fox Family Channel series Ohh Nooo! Mr. Bill Presents in the 1990s.[ citation needed ]
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The character's popularity spawned the 1986 live-action Showtime television film Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures , with Peter Scolari as Mr. Bill. [10]
A new Mr. Bill short film entitled Mr. Bill Goes To Washington premiered in theaters in 1993, preceding the movie Ernest Rides Again . The short, which sees Mr. Bill elected as President of the United States, was also featured on the Ernest Rides Again home video release.[ citation needed ]
Two new Mr. Bill home videos were released in the mid-1990s featuring new content, including 1996's "Ohh Nooo!!! It's Mr. Bill's 20th Anniversary", [11] and 1997 straight-to-video Ho Ho Noooooo!!! It's Mr. Bill's Christmas Special!, the latter featuring a guest appearance by former SNL contributor Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci.
Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian. She was one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980. In her routines on SNL, she specialized in parodies of television stereotypes, such as advice specialists and news anchors. In 1978, Radner won an Emmy Award for her performances on the show. She also portrayed those characters in her highly successful one-woman show on Broadway in 1979. Radner's SNL work established her as an iconic figure in the history of American comedy.
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Michael O'Donoghue was an American writer and performer.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an American late-night live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Michaels currently serves as the program's showrunner. The show's premiere was hosted by George Carlin on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody contemporary American culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that was usually based on political events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.
Saturday Night Live is an American sketch comedy series created and produced by Lorne Michaels for most of the show's run. The show has aired on NBC since 1975.
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Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures is a 1986 comedy television film written by Walter Williams and directed by Jim Drake. The film was based on the "Mr. Bill" skits from the television show Saturday Night Live. Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures premiered on the Showtime cable television network in the United States on September 11, 1986.
Taran Hourie Killam is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his brief stint on the Fox comedy series MADtv during its seventh season between 2001 and 2002, followed by his wider success as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2010 to 2016. He has also appeared in other television series such as Wild 'n Out, The Amanda Show, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and in the main cast of Single Parents. Killam is also known for his portrayal of a teen pop star in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. He voiced the title character on the PBS children's cartoon series Nature Cat.
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The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 18, 1976, and May 21, 1977, the second season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 7, 1978, and May 26, 1979, the fourth season of SNL.
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And Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures is a clunker Showtime special starring Peter Scolari as a real-life version of the ever-clobbered 10-inch clay character of long-ago Saturday Night Live fame.