"Night Stand" (1995) TV series 1995-1998

User Rating:

9.1/10   

Writers:

Herbert C. Goss (six episodes)
Jennifer Heftler (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | unknown

Release Date:

7 February 1999 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Talk-Show

Plot:

Of all the talk shows, there's only one show that doesn't hesitate to take up such serious issues as teenage prostitution...

Plot Keywords:

Spoof | Mock Talk Show | Parody | Cult Favorite | Satire

Cast

Timothy Stack

...

Dick Dietrick (24 episodes, 1995-1997)

Also Known As:

"Night Stand with Dick Dietrick"
"Nightstand"

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Big Ticket Television

OH NO PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE!!!

In a time when television is so unwilling to make fun of itself along came this show. Well hey in a time when the only choices for comedy network television provided were shows like Friends and Caroline in the city along came this show. The show was a satire on television talk shows. The host was a parasitic nosy over the top clown in true imitation of Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake.

The man's name was Dick Dietrich. He was the goofiest looking talk show host and incredibly funny. He was perfect for this show. To name a few of the topics, there was the Arkansas trailer park murder case, black militant director Tupac Zemeckis arguing with a young attractive blond Ku Klux Klan recruiter, then there was the MENSA swimsuit competition, the show was great.

And the show struck more than a few raw nerves. For one thing in the episode with Tupac Zemeckis and the Klan recruiter, when the Ku Klux Klan recruiter was talking about their drive to recruit black members (something pretty bad itself) Dietrich asked her if she wanted a black member. Also in that same show Tupac Zemeckis and the KKK recruiter got into a game of twister, which ended in the two making out on the twister board.

Then there was the episode with the young black man that wanted to be white and the young white girl that wanted to be black. Then there was the political episode where and there were the endless array of attractive girls, trailer trash and leaching scheming boyfriends. Oh do I miss this show. My friend told me to watch this show one night and I cried laughing. I was on vacation in Florida at the time, it was one of the last shows and soon after I watched my first episode it was cancelled.

I did find the reruns of the show on E! And I fell in love with it. This incredibly offensive off the wall satire is a rarity on television these days and this was one of the funniest satires I have ever seen. Dick Dietrich was just so good. Timothy Stack has never been this funny since. He was perfect in this show. In the later episodes he did these little movies like his parody of a southern trash film in which he proclaimed 'what we have here is a failure to talk.' Then he did this parody of an infomercial talking about the Dietrich Method in which he told a woman he breasts looked larger than normal and she agreed to go out with him.

The political episode was my favorite. He wanted to be elected to a post with his apartment complex. He asked his opponent if he was in a homosexual relationship, his opponent replied, 'no have you?' And Dick Dietrich said 'yes but I didn't inhale.' This was incredible stuff. Then there were the incredible list of name puns and double entendres. There was a town mayor named Mayor Lansky, a warden named Warden Downey Jr., another mayor named Mayor Zedotes, an old rich man (modelled after a Sony executive) named Sumner Winterfall.

Then there were all of the double entendres, a thinly disguised imitation of Richard Simmons entered from the back and Dick Dietrich replied 'I always forget you like to enter from the rear.' After almost every one of his double entendres he would snap his fingers and say to his laughing audience 'OH NO PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE!' All of the guest stars were classic. There was the criminal that constantly proclaimed 'Hey I'm sick I need help.'

There was the magician the Astounding Andy who wasn't very good and someone would always say after a trick 'Why Andy that's astounding' and he would reply 'THANK YOU' his bad British accent was hilarious. My personal favorite was the well-spoken and quite Dr. Lonnie Linear, who had a quiet and very strange demeanour about him. I watched a number of the episodes while I was a senior in high school. My father and I watched them, we were addicted to the show, television has rarely been this good. The two fake show producers were Miller at first, and later the nerdy but hysterical Muller.

As an example of satire for an English assignment I recorded this episode, it was extra credit, my teacher refused to give me extra credit, not only did she refuse to give me credit I couldn't talk about it for the rest of the year. I went to a VERY conservative high school, what can I say? But a show like this which is o willing to make fun of television, and our cultural differences needs to be on the air. As a society we take ourselves too seriously. This show doesn't take anything seriously. There wasn't a subject this show wouldn't touch. We need this show today or something like it, this is a classic