The most memorable television I watched in my teens consisted primarily of those “not ready for prime time players” at Saturday Night Live. They had cutting edge music and hosts whose acting I respected for the most part. There was a variety of entertaining laughs and I was always in a good mood by the end of the show. Not to mention they had wonderful comedy writers, including Michael Myers and Dana Carvey. These two each had their wonderful niches. Carvey had the Church Lady and Myers had Dieter and Simon. And when they worked together to produce the Wayne’s World sketch, I never thought I’d love a pair of naïve losers more.
I was surprised when I heard that this sketch was going to be a feature film. After all, adults who don’t want to grow up can only be interesting and fun for a certain amount of time, say five minute sketches, but a full ninety minutes? I knew that Carvey and Myers were talented writers but was doubtful. Carvey had participated in a few failed attempts (not really his fault, poorly written material) at the film world like Opportunity Knocks and Myers was pretty much getting his start with this film. The last time Lorne Michaels had produced a successful film based off an SNL sketch was with The Blues Brothers, twelve years previously. I can’t say much for those produced since, though I am still surprised by how well Tommy Boy did at the box office.
To top it off, Wayne’s World was to be directed by Penelope Spheeris, who was infamous by that point for her classic observation of punk rock artists in Decline of Western Civilization (which had also been over ten years previously to the making of this film). She has also directed other urban portraits like Prison Stories: Women on the Inside and Hollywood Vice Squad. Asking a director to switch from this documentarian style to a comedy about two innocents in the midwest with a cable access show is quite a leap of faith. Of course she went on to do another SNL spinoff production of the Spade/Farley variety with the horrendous Black Sheep, but that’s probably all about getting a paycheck. She has been able to gain back some of her earlier esteem by yet a third installment of Decline.
