Results: Martin Mull: A Memorial Survey For A Unique Comedic & Musical Talent

Actor, writer, comedian, recording artist, songwriter, guitarist and painter Martin Mull died at the age of 80 due to a long-term illness in late June 2024. Even if you're not familiar with any his work, were you at least familiar with Mull's name before reading this question?

My first exposure to Mull was likely via his role on the 1970's Norman Lear-produced soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (I can't seem to find any clips of him on it); his character on that show was soon spun off as host of the Lear-helmed talk show spoof Fernwood 2Night, later reformatted as America 2Night, where he was cast with his frequent comedic foil on subsequent productions, Fred Willard (who died in 2020) As for Mary Hartman, I was arguably too young to watch a show that dealt with rather mature themes in the satirical, sometimes dark contexts in which they were handled on that program. Did your parents let you watch programming as a child you didnt or wouldn't let any children of yours view?

A few years prior to becoming a TV actor, however, Mull was a songwritrer and recording artist; as the latter, he specialized in music-based comedy and funny songs of the likes he plied as a regullar attraction in Southern California nightspots in the late 1960's and early '70's. The closest Mull may have come to a hit single is an instrumerntak: "Dueling Tubas," a bassy brass recasting of "Dueling Banjos," Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell's bluegrasssy ditty from the soundtrack of the movie Deliverance. It amuses me, but how about you?

Mull accumulated an extensive resumne of work on television series (including Arrested Development, Roseanne, and Sabrina The Teeage Witch) and movies (among them Clue, Jingle All The Way, and Mrs. Doubtfire) up to 2023. In a statement after her father's passing, however, his daughter kidded about Mull's starring role in 1990's commercials for hotel chain Red Roof Inn. Do you enjoy it when comic personailties add humor to TV advertising?

While reading an obituary of Mull, I learned of a special for the premium cable channel Cinemax in which he starred as an investigative reporter: The History of White People in America. The 1985 faux documentary, to my mind, is a hilarious spoof on many matters (supposedly) racial. Have you seen this mockumentary or would you like to do so?