The writing team of and Jim Mulholland made a career out of writing for Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," David Letterman on "Late Show" and several Academy Awards ceremonies, but they also got to be bawdy at times, as writers of AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, BAD BOYS and the Sylvester Stallone comedy vehicle OSCAR. Their sense of knowing cynicism came across in several comedy specials, including THE SELLING OF VINCE D'ANGELO and 1993's Showtime special BASIC VALUES: SEX, SHOCK AND CENSORSHIP IN THE '90s, a one-shot starring Shelley Long as an investigative news reporter hosting a special on controversial media. It's basically just an excuse for off-color gags, but it's well-remembered by the few that saw it.
Fortunately, at least some of the clips from the show have made their way on to YouTube. Here's a tale of Jesus's Last Supper done as a riff on GOODFELLAS, featuring Paul Benedict as a Michael Medved-like movie critic:
A parody of the explosion of urban-set movies for black audiences from the early '90s, a few years before DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD:
Alex Winter as rapper Stinx on Ice, who has all sorts of suggestions on how to "Kill Your Teacher":
And best of all, a fake trailer for the horror pic THE GRANNY (with Dan Hedaya), two years before the Shannon Whirry film THE GRANNY made the concept a reality:
