May 28, 2016
Writer: Hugh Wilson
Director: Will MacKenzie
Original Air Date: December 31, 1979
The date is New Year's Eve, 1979 and it is less than four hours to the beginning of a whole new decade! A new president is about to take office, who will change the direction of American politics for generations to come. A decade of political turbulence and economic upheaval are coming to a close and the promise of prosperity and computers lay ahead and Hugh Wilson has one question for you...
Do you believe in God?
Why would he ask that, of his characters and of you, in the audience? As Johnny walks around the station asking everyone that same question, you can't help but try to ask it of yourself. It's an odd question because it's not asking for an empirical truth - he doesn't ask "Is there a God?" Wilson, through Johnny, is asking you at home for what is in your heart.
An answer is not provided because the answer is personal to you. Did Johnny hear a voice? Well, he believes he heard something and that belief is enough to effect him. Whether is was an actually voice he heard is irrelevant.
Each character in the station of course has their own opinion of God. Not surprisingly, Bailey takes a philosophical and intellectual approach, name checking theories she has studied in books but when pushed for her own opinion, she literally checks out for lunch. Les believes an authority figure from his childhood would have spoken to God, but not someone like Johnny. Andy is concerned about Johnny's mental state without really examining the spiritual questions.
I'm surprised Hugh Wilson doesn't explore Venus' feelings about God more - if anything, Venus is more of a jerk in this episode than we've ever seen him. He steals Andy's chair, makes loud noises and pretends to be a voice all so he can get something to eat. This does not match with the spiritual, cosmos-embracing guy we know.
It's the Big Guy who turns out to have the most thoughtful response to THE Big Guy. I've read that the religious elements of Mr. Carlson's personality were based on Gordon Jump's real life - that he really did go to church every week and teach Sunday School. Jump had given interviews in which he openly spoke about his faith. He doesn't recoil to Johnny's tale of speaking with God, or openly mock him like Herb does, but he doesn't embrace it either. He simply talks rationally and calmly about what Johnny experienced. It's another touching "Father-Son" moment for Carlson.
As rational as he is in that final scene, it's the scene in Carlson's office in which Jump is at his best. Some tremendous physical comedy, starting with the window blind, the pull, the drawer and finally the window that has Carlson slow-burn his way through a solid two minutes. The audience laugh builds through the entire scene (the way only "live before a studio audience" can sound) and softens what could have been a very hard topic.
Speaking of physical comedy, watch how much mileage Howard Hesseman gets out of a stalk of limp celery. What starts as one simple "nothing in my fridge" joke roles out for nearly three minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if it was created by Hesseman on the spot - it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would have been in the script.
Wilson may have been saying to audience at the end of the seventies, that we may not know about God, but we know about comedy, and we're going to need as much comedy in the eighties as we can get.
Roy
