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Your Last update: October 20, 1999. Original material (excluding quoted material) © 1997, 1998, & 1999 Mark Simonson. Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or its parent company, J2 Communications. Click here for the real thing. |
October 1999
"Hi. I'm Jill St. John. And I am so thrilled to be a guest hostess of this, the very first National Lampoon Radio Hour, I can hardly talk." Those words--read by Michael O'Donoghue, sounding exactly like Michael O'Donoghue and nothing like Jill St. John--began the 59-week run of one of the funniest and most provocative radio shows of all time. Through the efforts of dilligent Radio Hour afficianado Dave Meredith and myself, Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is proud to bring you, at last, bit-by-bit listings of National Lampoon Radio Hour from show number 1, broadcast on November 17, 1973, to the last show, broadcast on December 28, 1974. A year in the making, this is the most significant addition to my site in quite a while, and is probably the only resource of its kind available to the public.
Late
last Spring, I was contacted by Shary
Flenniken, creator of the popular and long-running Funny Pages strip
"Trots and Bonnie." Ms. Flenniken contributed to the National
Lampoon as a freelancer through most of its history (though she joined
the staff for several years in the around 1980 as an editor). She is alive
and well, and has been living in Seattle since the late '80s in the house
she grew up in. Lately, she has been a contributor to Mad magazine.
A friend pointed her Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site and she finds
it hard to believe anyone's still interested in this stuff. (She says
that it seems like the only fans of National Lampoon left are guys
in prison!) Anyway, the big news for Trots and Bonnie fans is that Ms.
Flenniken has graciously given me permission to run a couple of her strips.
I chose two from the early years that I think are classic examples. Just
follow the links on Shary's page.
As you may have noticed, this is the first new News page since March. This is partly because I have been busy putting together the new Radio Hour pages. But, it's also because I'm starting to lose interest in maintaining this site. (I am now doing web design full-time in my day job and doing the same in my free time doesn't seem quite so diverting anymore.) Rather than pull the plug, the site is officially going into low maintainance mode until further notice. I will continue to post new ads on the Classifieds page, but please be patient if you write me with questions for the Answers page. These can be very time-consuming, so I will only answer the ones I know off the top of my head and only when it's convenient. I will post News pages less frequently--maybe two or three per year. The bottom line is, the site will remain up indefinitely, though it may not change as often as it used to. --MS
National
Lampoon gets an internet account. Go to www.NationalLampoon.com
and you will see what they call a "teaser." It requires Macromedia's
Flash plug-in and lasts a couple of minutes. It's too early to tell, but
it looks like they're working on something. Only time will tell. (Just
to be clear, Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated
with the owners of National Lampoon or their new website or vice
versa.)
There is a Vaughan Bode site! A reader passed along this link to Da Vaughan Bode Site. Bode was known to National Lampoon fans for his Cheech Wizard comic strip which featured the eponymous ill-tempered hatted wizard and numerous lizards and nymphettes. Bode was only 34 when he died of accidental strangulation in 1975.
B.K. Taylor Update. An acquaintance of his has informed me that B.K. Taylor has a deal with a major television company. No more details, other than the fact that he lives in Michigan, used to be an advertising storyboard artist and is a very, very funny guy.
Be Sure to Check Out the Classifieds Page. Many visitors have placed (free) buy/sell/trade ads on the Classifieds page and more are being added every week or so. Check it out!