“Tonight from Fernwood, Fernwood 2Night!”

These ferns in our yard are one of Angus & Scout's favorite places to play hide & seek. For some crazy reason, sitting next to each other like this, they remind me of Martin Mull and Fred Willard on an old silly talk show comedy no one remembers, but me.

Fernwood 2Night begins with Fred Willard’s shouting “Tonight from Fernwood, Fernwood 2Night!” Then, as he announces the evening’s guests, the camera zooms across a studio audience full of expressionless Midwesterners. Once introduced, Marin Mull , in an easy chair to which he’s permanently affixed, launches into a monologue/prepared statement that’s always obsessed with himself.

Martin isn't above admitting how bad his show can be at times, particularly when he's interrupted, which he is every night, by Fred, a Fernwood local who got the job as sidekick because his brother is the TV station's general manager.

Then there's the show's bandleader, Happy Kyne, of Happy Kyne and the Mirthmakers. Happy wears an eternally dour expression.

Part of the fun of Fernwood 2Night is that its cheap production values and thrown-together nature are both a parody of small-town TV. Silly is the only word for it.