Rich Little and Fred Mertz?

In "The Stakeout," Jerry's mother gives him a phone message from Elaine and he asks her how Elaine sounded on the phone. Jerry's mother replies, "Who am I, Rich Little?"

So who is Rich Little? He might be before my time - I was born in 1982. I've never heard of him.

Also...who is Fred Mertz? I think he was an old TV character but that's all I know. In one of Jerry's bits, he talks about knocking on a neighbor's door and asking them to keep it down. He says, "Who am I, Fred Mertz now? Am I a shusher? I used to be a shushee."

Thanks in advance.

Michael Alexander

Rich Little is one of the best voice impressionists I've ever seen. He could do ANY voice.

Fred Mertz was the landlord/neighbor of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo on "I
Love Lucy" (Remember Ricky, the TV Guide/mannequin guy?  "On Wednesday
you can watch 6 hours of Lucy.  There's "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show",
"Here's Lucy.")
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If Fred Mertz is a character from I Love Lucy, then there is another inconsistency. I recall an episode where Jerry tells a date that he's never once seen an episode of I Love Lucy. So how could he have referred to him if he's never seen the show? Then again, Jerry has been known to fib about what shows he's never seen (Melrose Place). Jeremy

Well, I've never seen an episode of Star Trek but I've heard of Captain Kirk.

Jeremy Kelley wrote in message ... If Fred Mertz is a character from I Love Lucy, then there is another inconsistency. I recall an episode where Jerry tells a date that he's never once seen an episode of I Love Lucy. So how could he have referred to him if he's never seen the show? Then again, Jerry has been known to fib about what shows he's never seen (Melrose Place). Jeremy

You disproved your own theory, Jeremy. Jerry had set a precedent concerning lying about his television viewing habits, so the "I Love Lucy" inconsistancy may not have been inconsistant at all.

Maybe there should be a new category. Abnormalities. Not *quite* provable inconsistancies, but close enough to be mentioned.

Like the Kruger/picture/10 years bit mentioned a few days ago, or the kramer/bath/shower bit.

Dave wrote:

And besides, Lucy is quite a famous show- it's definitely possible that Jerry knows who Fred Mertz is without needing to actually see an episode. Perhaps he's had friends or family members who love the show and constantly talk about it. And as someone pointed out, the Fred Mertz bit came from Jerry's stand-up monologues- presumably it's real Jerry who knows who Fred Mertz is rather than TV Jerry.

Dave wrote:

Too abstract for me. I can't keep all the little facts straight anyway. Gimme some food and death - I'll track those. :-)

Jeremy Kelley wrote in article ...

Not really, because the bit where Jerry refers to Fred Mertz is in the stand-up act that he used to do at the beginning and end of shows, where he's the "real" Jerry Seinfeld. I just saw that episode in syndication not too long ago.

-Jen

I stand corrected... didn't realize it was from his stand up. Jeremy

In article , "Ms. K" wrote:

I don't know about that. How do we know that this is the "real" Jerry at the beginning and ending monologues? There is no evidence that proves either way, with the exception of one episode that I can think of. This is the ending monologue to the "off the wagon" episode, where the character is actually in the audience and corrects him. This is obviously the TV Jerry doing the ending monologue to this episode. Beyond that, why do we think it's the real Jerry?

I don't think the stand-up routine in which Jerry states he's never seen I Love Lucy was ever part of the sitcom. It was part of his real life stand-up act.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*      Avoid cliches like the
plague.

[email] wrote:

I agree. I don't know why everyone is assuming that it's the real Jerry. As I've mentioned, many of the monologues tie in with events in the episode, such as Jerry saying in the monologue, "my friend is moving back in with his parents..." in the episode where George moves back in with his parents.

Jaclyn

In article , [email] wrote:

Another example is from The Boyfriend, where Jerry talks in his stand-up about his friend's schemes to stay on unemployment.

richforman

[email] wrote:

If I recall, there are only two episodes in which show characters appear in Jerry's stand-up routines. The incident you describe in "The Red Dot", and when Toby heckles him in "The Fire". As to the question of whether it's TV Jerry or real Jerry doing all those monologues, you're correct- it's a gray area. I'm amazed no one ever thought to ask Jerry about it. I think it's generally believed it's real Jerry doing the stand-up because Jerry Seinfeld is a real life stand-up comic, and a lot of the material comes directly from his actual act.

   I know I'm inclined to side that it's "Sitcom Jerry" doing the
stand-up, since that would back up my inconsistency theory, but it does
seem viable.  There are examples of Jerry doing stand-up that tie in
with his character on the show.  But are there any examples to prove
it's not his character?  I can't think of any at the moment.  It's true
we think of his stand-up being seperate from the show because he is a
comedian, but he plays one on TV as well, so can we really go by that?
                                                       Jeremy

It seems to me, in the episodes where Jerry's stand up material is
related to the plotlines in the show, that it's sort of a flashback
concept.  Jerry's standing there in the club and telling a joke, then we
flash back to the moments in his life where the inspiration for that
particular bit came from.  The only thing missing is that cool dissolve
they usually do to show flashbacks.
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In article ,

I've never seen Southpark, but I know who Cartman is. I've never seen NYPD Blue either but I know who detective Simone was. I Love Lucy was so big in its day you would probably have to have lived in a cave not to have known who Fred Mertz was.

   I concur with you that it isn't neccessary to watch a popular show to
hear what the characters names are.  However, in the post, it described
Jerry referring to Fred Mertz as being a "shusher."  It seems to me
that's quite a bit of detail to know for not ever having seen an
episode.  None the less, it is an invalid discussion since the comment
was made during a stand up routine and not the actual show.
                                                  Jeremy

Jeremy Kelley a �crit dans le message ... If Fred Mertz is a character from I Love Lucy, then there is another inconsistency. I recall an episode where Jerry tells a date that he's never once seen an episode of I Love Lucy. So how could he have referred to him if he's never seen the show? Then again, Jerry has been known to fib about what shows he's never seen (Melrose Place). Jeremy

I always thought that he was putting the girl on. There was something in his tone of voice that made me believe that he was just saying anything to her at that point because he wasn't to impressed with the fact that that she liked that Dockers commercial. He went on with something about being lactose intolerant ! I mean come on!! TV Jerry is Mr Breakfast Cereal and five minutes later they'd broken up anyhow. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think he'd seen the show before (as Tv Jerry).

Mo I'm back baby!!!

In the episode where he lied about Melrose Place, it was revealed. He might have been lying about the I Love Lucy comment, but that wasn't ever confirmed. I think therefore it still would be considered an inconsistency. Does anyone else think that the episode where it ends with Jerry and Elaine agreeing to have this, that, and the other, only to have it followed with an episode where they are back to being friends with no explaination is another inconsistency? Jeremy

Jeremy Kelley wrote:

I think the ending of that show- when the relationship has become very obviously strained, and Kramer comments that he liked them better when they were just friends- hinted that Jerry and Elaine would see that Kramer is right and decide to go back to the way they were. Of course, by not actually showing this happening, it leaves the whole thing very vague and ambiguous.

I agree...it is left very vague. The only resolve I could think of is on "The Pen" which aired 5 mo.s after "The Deal", where Jerry explains to his parents why Elaine and him are just friends. Jeremy

I don't think so, because in the episode where Jerry and Elaine go to Florida, his mother thinks that they are still together, and Jerry explains that they are not. I forget why exactly, I think it was because they thought it would be bad for the friendship. Even though this episode came much later in the original airing, I think this was intended to answer this point. It was the only other episode where it was brought up.

Alexande59 wrote:

Rich Little is a Canadian performer who made it really big in the US. His specialty was impressions of politicians and enertainers. He had a very good act built around the impressions - did a lot of TV, Vegas shows, etc... He had a TV show and did many guest appearances on other shows. He was big in the 60's and 70's mostly..

Fred Mertz was the Ricardo's landlord and sometimes Ricky's manager in I Love Lucy!

Fred and Ethyl owned the building Lucy and Dezi lived in when they were in New York.

Now don't you feel a little old? I saw the post, but didn't want to be the one to answer it! (Besides, you did a way better job describing Rich Little).

Fred Mertz was my favorite on I Love Lucy. I always felt he got picked on the most, but loved that he seemed to be such a grump!

Bugsbunny

The question was: So who is Rich Little? He might be before my time - I was born in 1982. I've never heard of him.

        ** Rich Little does imitations.  In his heyday,
           he had his own weekly show on NBC.
                                                   ML

G'day, Michael

I've

Rich Little was not before my time (I was born in 1945...sigh). I vaguely recall him as a comedian who was well known for doing impersonations of other comedians such as Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Shelly Berman etc. (you may not have heard of them, either <BWG>), and other personalities who were in the news at the time. I THINK that he was an Afro-American (I believe that is the socially correct term), and I'm not sure that I should be writing about him in the past tense.

Allan

Allan Pengelly wrote:

LOL - He was from Ottawa so... Cano-American... may be the socially correct correct term.

Rich Little is a stand up comedian and voice impersonator. He does mostly political/inside the DC beltway humor.

Fred Mertz was the landlord and next-door neighbor to the Ricardos on I Love Lucy

Alexande59 wrote in article ...

and he

am I,