To help remind us that “it’s always something,” Williamsburg screening room Videology will show a retrospective of comedian Gilda Radner’s work from her Saturday Night Live days during the 1970s and 1980s.
This will be the third in the Pajamarama series, which are screenings of old comedies meant to replicate innocent sleepovers — back when it was common to sit around with friends watching movies or television.
The Radner party comes after two Pajamarama bashes featuring “Earth Girls Are Easy,” a 1988 sci-fi comedy starring Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum, and the raunchy camp of John Waters’ “Hairspray” — all films that feature funny women being funny.
“We wanted to come up with programming that was very women-centric,” said Videology co-owner Wendy Chamberlain. “So many things tend to be — I don’t want to say targeted to men — but sometimes they tend to forget the ladies.”
Radner was an original Saturday Night Live cast member who was on the show from 1975 until 1980. In her Saturday Night Live days, Radner was known for creating much-loved characters such as Roseanne Roseannadanna, a brash news commentator; Baba Wawa, a parody of Barbara Walters; and Emily Litella, a hearing-impaired old lady.
She went on to do a handful of movies with her husband Gene Wilder and died from ovarian cancer in 1989.
Pajamarama host Ayun Halliday said she chose Radner because she heard that a Midwestern chapter of Gilda’s Club, a support group for women with cancer, was going to change its name because young people hadn’t heard of the comedienne.
“She was brilliant and she died young,” said Halliday. “It sends a really bad message when she used her fame and experience to create this center for people with cancer and 20 years later, they decide they’ve honored her long enough.”
The audience at the Pajamarama parties are not required to wear pajamas, but it is encouraged.
“We want to create a very homey experience,” said Chamberlain.
Gilda Radner sketches at Videology [308 Bedford Ave. at S. First Street in Williamsburg, (718) 782–3468, www.videology.info]. Jan. 23, 8 pm, $8.
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.
