Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, July 1
(THE GLOBE)
On October 11, 1975, a show debuted on NBC that would forever change the face of television. It represented a new vision in TV comedy, the current standards of which were defined by the more mainstream offerings of Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher. The brainchild of Canadian producer Lorne Michaels, the show comprised mainly anti-establishment, media-savvy sketch humor�much of which challenged the boundaries of what was then permissible for television. It was called Saturday Night Live, and it boasted a company of improv hellions, who staged a weekly comic insurrection against the censors. In forming his fringe ensemble cast, Michaels recruited comedians Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, and temperamental genius John Belushi. He rounded out the cast with two of his countryfolk, Gilda Radner, his first hire, and writer-performer Dan Aykroyd, who quickly became the voice most respected by players and writers alike.
Aykroyd had already made a name for himself in Canada as a stand-up comedian at various nightclubs in and around Ontario. He had previously attended a Catholic seminary (he was expelled) and, later, Carleton University in Ottawa, where he studied psychology, political science, and criminal sociology; he also used his time there to write comedy sketches. Aykroyd eventually joined the celebrated Second City Comedy improv troupe in Toronto, and otherwise began racking up writing, producing, and acting credits in a number of Canadian films and television programs. During that period, he made the acquaintance of a comedian from the States named John Belushi, who happened to be on a talent-scouting trip to Toronto on behalf of The National Lampoon Radio Hour. But Aykroyd and Belushi were bound for stardom beyond their wildest expectations when they crossed back over the border to join the iconoclastic and irreverent cast of Saturday Night Live.
During Aykroyd�s five-year tenure on S.N.L., his uncanny talent for mimicry and for creating memorable sketch personas became legendary. He revived political satire by delivering note-perfect impersonations of presidents Nixon and Carter (his Julia Child wasn�t too shabby, either); he spun his fascination with U.F.O.s into a popular series of skits about the Coneheads, an Earth-bound family of pointy-headed aliens hailing from the planet Remulak; with Steve Martin, he created the �wild and crazy� Czechoslovakian playboys, Jorge and Yortuck Festrunk; and he and John Belushi earned immortality as the Blues Brothers, Elwood and Joliet Jake, two cool cats who dressed in suits, shades, and lids, and emulated black bluesmen. Belushi and Aykroyd would go on to capitalize on the popularity of Jake and Elwood�s rousing S.N.L. rendition of �Soul Man� by reprising the characters in a 1980 film, The Blues Brothers (for which Aykroyd wrote the screenplay), and by recording two wildly successful albums (for which they staged a ten-city tour), Briefcase Full of Blues and Made in America.
It was by then abundantly clear to even the most disinterested observers that the S.N.L. players had crawled up from the underground to become Beautiful People in their own right, and with the call of stardom clamoring ever louder, it was no surprise that the original cast members had all departed for greater things by the end of the 1980 season. But Hollywood�s lure wasn�t the only culprit in the cast�s dissolution. Drug abuse during those formative years had grown into a divisive and undermining problem for all of the players, with the exception of Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner (Radner called the cocaine that disappeared up her colleagues� nostrils at an alarming rate �devil�s dandruff�). Even though Aykroyd and Belushi had forged an almost fraternal friendship, Aykroyd could never convince his cohort to pull himself together when his drug abuse began spiralling out of control. By 1980, Belushi decided he had outgrown the S.N.L. playpen, and he finally called it quits. Drugs would claim his life two years later.
Not long after Belushi�s departure form S.N.L., Aykroyd left the show to make movies. He soon became a familiar face in eighties comedies, starring in Doctor Detroit (1982), Trading Places (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), Spies Like Us (1985), and Dragnet (1987). Along the way, Aykroyd teamed up with some of S.N.L.�s more notable alumni�Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. In the late eighties, a fleshier teddy bear of an Aykroyd tackled his first straight dramatic role, in Driving Miss Daisy, earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination. He has since acquitted himself well in various character actor assignments and in ensemble casts, though his recent efforts in comedy have elicited little more than yawns. Aykroyd�s debut directorial effort, Nothing But Trouble (1991), failed miserably at the box office, and his feature film reprisal of the Coneheads (1993), which he also scripted, commanded only lukewarm response. Likewise, his ill-advised Blues Brothers sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, did little to entrance critics upon its 1998 release. Aykroyd returned to the small screen in April 1997 with Soul Man, a sitcom he both developed and starred in.
2 July 1850 - The gas mask was patented on this day. It was an invention of B.J. Lane of Cambridge, MA.
2 July 1921 - The first prize fight offering a million-dollar gate was broadcast on radio this night. Jack Dempsey knocked out George Carpentier in the fourth round of the bout in Jersey City, NJ.
3 July 1878 - John Wise of Lancaster, PA was the pilot for the maiden flight of a dirigible.
3 July 1986 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, considered by many to be the world�s greatest ballet dancer, became a U.S. citizen, in ceremonies at Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, on this day.
3 July 1962 - Tom Cruise (Mapother) (actor: Mission: Impossible, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Days of Thunder, Born on the Fourth of July, Cocktail, Top Gun, Rain Man, Color of Money, Taps, Interview with a Vampire)
4 July 1884 - Bullfighting was introduced in America this day. No, not in Texas or Arizona, but in Dodge City, KS. Made it easier for the toreadors to dodge those bulls, we guess...
4 July 1985 - A crowd, estimated at one million, gathered in Philadelphia to celebrate the 209th birthday of America�s independence this day. The Beach Boys were joined by Mr. T. on drums to really add some fireworks to the festivities. The Oak Ridge Boys, Joan Jett and Jimmy Page joined in the celebration (but wouldn�t let Mr. T. play drums...)
4 July 1928 - Gina Lollobrigida (actress: Trapeze, Belles de Nuit, Solomon and Sheba, Strange Bedfellows, Come September)
5 July 1951 - Dr. William Shockley announced that he had invented the junction transistor in Murray Hill, New Jersey this day.
From June 4 to July 3
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of the works of Bakhytbek Talkambayev.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of the works of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, V. Eifert, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Closed on Monday.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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