Almost forgot to bring this up before I go to bed, courtesy of the Weird One himself via Twitter! I never saw the original airing because it was on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow show which I think came on at 11:30 PM (Central) by then since Johnny Carson had shortened The Tonight Show to an hour. My parents rarely let me stay up past 10 PM on a school night and even if I did see this, I wouldn’t have a clue who Al was. We didn’t have easy access to Dr. Demento in Springfield, IL. Somehow though, I’m pretty certain I would’ve been an instant fan. Parodies and Al’s energy were a couple things I liked. Being a kid, parodies were always up my alley. When I was growing up, we all know the ones set to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Jingle Bells.” Plus I’d seen a comedy troupe on HBO doing their own to “My Sharona” in which they yelled “Rice a Roni!”
Way to go Al! A hero to millions on so many levels and to think, this was going to be an early step to dozens of other great things!