In my admittedly warped opinion, this is about as good as situation comedy gets. Al wants to become famous in the world of shoes, and Kelly's assignment from the Larry Storch School of Acting is to shoot a movie. The two combine their lack of skills and make a movie about shoes. They misspell the title, which comes out "SHEOS." The movie is shown at the Hammond, Indiana, Film Festival before an audience of egghead film buffs, plus a hissing and booing Marcy.
The film is only three minutes long, and it stinks to high heaven. "Sheos" is in cheap black and white and tells the story of the things that animals have put on their feet since emerging from the primordial ooze (a tiny plastic swimming pool in the Bundy's back yard). Al's narration informs us that the cave men tried various kinds of foot gear, and we see his feet walking on sticks, on Teflon frying pans, and on plastic inflatable women. A cut to a parody of Michelangelo's "Creation" from the Sistine Chapel, showing Al as God, passing on to Kelly's outstretched hand a woman's shoe. The narration tells us that no one knows what will happen next because we're all waiting for the next shoe to drop. A shot of Al on his lounge chair. He utters the word "Rosebud," then dies and a shoe drops from his hand to the lawn. The screen cuts to "FIN". The audience goes wild.
Al and Kelly win a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and shoot another movie, "A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman," which has some equally hilarious moments but a description of which is precluded by considerations of space.
You can't help wondering how much of the humor in this episode is going to get past the coveted younger audience. They don't get to see Kelly's belly button, for instance. And many of the laughs hang on access to what used to be a shared cultural data base. I guess you don't have to recognize the parody of Michelangelo's painting, but you lose half the humor if you don't. And you don't have to know Richard Strauss composed the theme song, but unless you've seen "2001: A Space Odyssey," you miss half the humor. (Lots of kids don't watch "old movies", and Kubrik's "2001" came out in 1968, before they were born.) When "FIN" appears on the screen, how many kids will think "fish"?
And then there's "Rosebud."
The film is only three minutes long, and it stinks to high heaven. "Sheos" is in cheap black and white and tells the story of the things that animals have put on their feet since emerging from the primordial ooze (a tiny plastic swimming pool in the Bundy's back yard). Al's narration informs us that the cave men tried various kinds of foot gear, and we see his feet walking on sticks, on Teflon frying pans, and on plastic inflatable women. A cut to a parody of Michelangelo's "Creation" from the Sistine Chapel, showing Al as God, passing on to Kelly's outstretched hand a woman's shoe. The narration tells us that no one knows what will happen next because we're all waiting for the next shoe to drop. A shot of Al on his lounge chair. He utters the word "Rosebud," then dies and a shoe drops from his hand to the lawn. The screen cuts to "FIN". The audience goes wild.
Al and Kelly win a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and shoot another movie, "A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman," which has some equally hilarious moments but a description of which is precluded by considerations of space.
You can't help wondering how much of the humor in this episode is going to get past the coveted younger audience. They don't get to see Kelly's belly button, for instance. And many of the laughs hang on access to what used to be a shared cultural data base. I guess you don't have to recognize the parody of Michelangelo's painting, but you lose half the humor if you don't. And you don't have to know Richard Strauss composed the theme song, but unless you've seen "2001: A Space Odyssey," you miss half the humor. (Lots of kids don't watch "old movies", and Kubrik's "2001" came out in 1968, before they were born.) When "FIN" appears on the screen, how many kids will think "fish"?
And then there's "Rosebud."
