I remember watching the NBC broadcast debut of "The Rutles: All You Need is Cash," during the spring of 1978. Even though it was highly promoted that week, and featured cameos by Lorne Michaels and nearly every member of the red-hot Not Ready for Prime Time Players, ratings for the special were abysmal, possibly even the very bottom of the Nielsen list. People I talked to had absolutely no idea what to make of it at all. Go figure. This wonderful piece, which grows better with further perspective on the 60's (and Beatlemania), paved the way for fake documentary genre pioneers, "Zelig," and "Spinal Tap," and fortunately found an audience through home video. Even though "The Rutles" is very much an Eric Idle project, it is often overlooked that this film was largely directed by Gary Weis, who was responsible for the wonderful, ground-breaking short films that appeared on the early episodes of "Saturday Night Live." Hats off to Neil Innes, whose songs and arrangements were absolutely dead-on, not just musically, but technically correct in every detail as they evolved through the Beatles chronology.
