My wife and I just finished watching the PBS American Masters special about Woody Allen that aired a couple of weeks ago. At 3.5 hours, documentarian Robert Weide took his time exploring Allen’s life and career, including dozens of interviews, film clips, and behind-the-scenes stories on many of Woody’s movies and the process of making them.
In the section on “Love and Death,” there’s a discussion of how Allen was essentially doing an imitation of Bob Hope, whose film work he so admired. My mind immediately flashed to this parody from SCTV, circa 1980. It aired on NBC when the network picked up the third season of the show and aired it late on Friday nights in a 90-minute time slot. That gave them plenty of time to do an extended bit like this, in which Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas do spot-on impersonations of Allen and Hope, with Joe Flaherty in a cameo as Bing Crosby. The premise starts a la Allen’s “Play It Again Sam” and winds its way through several sharp scenes showcasing the differences and similarities in their comedic styles…