Wooster Footlights

The members of Footlights loved Wooster.They also loved making fun of both it and themselves. Only a few words of explanation are needed to make some of the sketches make sense today. The first is who this Henry P Copeland guy is who shows up in one sketch. He was the long-serving president of Wooster from 1977-1995, and was often the target of the troupes good natured ribbing. However, to our knowledge, he never owned a pet goat named Olivia. The second is the story behind the Tim Russell fan club sketch. It was a secret birthday present from the group to one of its members. He had no idea it was coming until he heard it broadcast live in studio. And finally, yes, as one of the sketches explains, Footlights was actually briefly syndicated in a town 173 miles to the southwest. We never quite understood why either.

Footlights attempted many kinds of parodies, so it was inevitable that soap operas would make the list. Our in-house soap opera was called As the Minutes Tick By which began as an extended one-joke sketch about a drama where everyone was named Bob. This grew into a regular series that made fun of the genres conventions, eventually becoming so convoluted that the only way to end it was with a huge atomic explosion. The episodes are presented here in order as they were broadcast in the early nineties, which means a lot of static, bad sound quality, and mistakes galore! We hope that youll listen past the limitations and enjoy this artifact of the days when serial shows were actually called Soap Operas, and where you could extend a joke well past its freshness date. Something Saturday Night Live has now perfected. The final episode reuintes several of our regular characters such as Eric the Undead, Helmt and Gnter, Captian Capybara, and Sound Effects Man.

Footlights had several recurring segments such as Footlights Presents the Classics, Art Forum, Candidate Watch, and Great Moments in History. This episode brings several examples together from recordings of live FM broadcasts in the early 90s on magnetic cassette tapes. Lucky you!

Footlights had several recurring segments such as Footlights Presents the Classics, Art Forum, Candidate Watch, and Great Moments in History. This episode brings several examples together from recordings of live FM broadcasts in the early 90s on magnetic cassette tapes. Lucky you!

This episode brings three random subjects together. Monster parodies were always fun to do even when it was not Halloween. Although when it was Halloween it usually made more sense. Because Footlights members were all college students, academic life itself was often a topic. Because they were college students, so was sex. Enjoy these random memes and please remember all masters were made from magnetic cassette tapes that recorded live FM broadcasts in the early 90s, so sound quality is not ideal. Apologies in advance, for everything.

Ad execs dream of broadcasting nothing but commercials. Footlights often did. They were the easiest kind of sketches to write after all. Please note that in the Artful Persuasion commercial, we did the subliminal ad bit long before the guy on Saturday Night Live. So not all of our humor was derivative. Sometimes it was predictive. Please also note the sound quality is not ideal because these masters were made from cassette tapes recording life FM broadcasts in the early 90s. But dont let that bother you. Operators are standing by.

Television parodies are a staple of every two bit sketch show, and Footlights was no different. Back when we still had analog TV, these masters were made from magnetic cassette tapes recording life FM broadcasts in the early 90s, so sometimes their quality is no better than most of the tv in the early 90s. Coming up next, Footlights Presents Television.

Footlights did not often do movie parodies. Instead, they did movie commercial parodies. Their fictitious Hollywood studio was called Sunny Day Pictures, a subtle ironic reference to the weather in Wooster. The obsolete technology used was magnetic cassette recordings of life FM broadcasts in the early 90s, so quality is more Roger Corman than Kurosawa. And if you got that reference, enjoy Footlights Presents Movies.

Three of the writers for Wooster Footlights were Classical Studies majors at the College of Wooster. This meant that many sketches centered around the ancient Greek and Roman worlds (and contained many a inside joke intelligible to only a Classics dweeb. This show collects together eight examples (9 if you look carefully).