Humor

SF Classiques 013 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

1983, the "Summer of SF", rolls on... There was a local theater in town--I use the term loosely, as it was housed in a former pet store, with an audience of 40. If you sat in the front row, you were in danger of getting trampled by actors downstage. Anyway, I had been involved with the theater for a few years, and decided it was time for me to direct. My musical review idea was shot down, so I found an obscure (cheap) one act play called "Sociability". When I went to cast it, of course I asked SF members. Sharon, Beth, Mike, and Steve didn't say no quickly enough, and we were off. Another "director" did a second one-act play, and we added a musical number from Lynda (with kibitzing from Eric) to make the whole thing long enough to make a handful of people come to see it.
Read More

SF Classiques 012 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

SF finished 1982 with another political special (Confusion '82), and by this point we apparently decided that Reagan had won the 1980 race, since we spent some time either praising or bashing him. There were some small pre-written bits, which became painfully obvious as the production went on. We ended up spending half the tape doing commercial parodies--Eric, Bill, Steve, Lynda, Mike, Beth, and new member Brenda Bader (Badger) joined in the fun. Brenda lived just two blocks away from me, so I had known her since elementary school. She eventually became the SF Historian--in fact, for this blog, I have been referencing a book she put together for my wedding documenting SF's history. She was involved with SF for several years, but I haven't heard from her for awhile (if you read this Brenda, please e-mail me through the site or find me via FaceBook!).
Read More

SF Classiques 011 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

1982 was a tumultuous year for SF--we graduated from high school, several members joined the team, and we all moved toward our college years. The last point was a particular concern for me. Sure, it would it be difficult to get the team together to do more tapes, but the main issue was Eric's move to Annapolis and the military.
Read More

SF Classiques 005 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

I've always been fascinated by the hoopla surrounding Presidential election coverage at the news networks. All the unnecessary gadgetry--it's like the IT dept got a blank check. So, when SF covered the 1980 election, we introduced the "NBS Election Computer", aka various handheld electronic games of the era blooping and bleeping.
Read More

SF Classiques 003 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

We're now in 1979, as the history of SF Productions rolls on. I was a voracious TV watcher--listen to the "Vast Wasteland" podcast for evidence of this. So, the announcement of the Fall TV schedule was a big event to me--I was always on the lookout for the TV Guide Fall Preview issue at the checkout. (I still have a collection of TV Guide Fall Previews going back to this time).
Read More

SF Classiques 002 /  by MELINDA Schmidbauer

When I last blogged, it was 1978 (not when I last blogged, but that's when we are in the story), and I was just about to see if Eric Fenton was the right person to make strange noises with me into my tape recorder. I had received an Atari 2600 as a Christmas present, and something told me that it would be great audio to record us playing it while doing bad impersonations--hence the first SF Productions tape, "Celebrity Video Games", on June 20, 1978 (now known as SF Anniversary Day).
Read More