Jiminy Glick
Encyclopedia
Jiminy Glick is a fictional character
portrayed not entirely by Martin Short
in the TV series Primetime Glick (2001–2003), the subsequent film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
, and Short's Broadway show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. He began as a recurring character on The Martin Short Show
; when that show was cancelled, he was spun off into his own series, Primetime Glick, which ran for three seasons.
(although he has claimed to have been born in Omaha, Nebraska
, or Baton Rouge, Louisiana
), Jiminy Glick was the middle child of ten children of Omar and Isabella Glickman. Jiminy was often a loner and would be made fun of regularly because of his weight at a young age. He was also very sickly until he was thirteen, when doctors discovered that he had a small Tonka
truck stuck in his duodenum
. At a young age, while riding his bike and listening to the song Michael Row the Boat Ashore
, he lost his virginity when he fell on the "boy bar." After graduating Gale Gordon High School, and continuing on to DeVry Institute of Technology, his life changed forever when the play, Forty Carats
, starring Lana Turner
came to town. He was asked to join the show and traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma
, where he played Onlooker Number Two in the cast, which he said was "Like a Dream!" After his short acting career, Jiminy became the personal assistant to Charles Bronson
, for about five years. He had planned on working for Robert Vaughn
, but as Jiminy said, "But he didn't pay!" However, Bronson was very cruel to Jiminy and threw him off his boat one time, mistaking him for Sebastian Cabot
. Luckily, Jiminy was picked up by George Maharis
from the TV show, Route 66
and his cousin, Leon Maharis. Since being cast away by Charles Bronson
, Jiminy was out of work, so Leon asked Jiminy if he wanted to work at Chasen's
in Beverly Hills, California
with him as a bus boy. Jiminy jumped at the chance. While there, he ran into numerous Hollywood celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake
, Madonna
, Britney Spears
, James Dean
, and Charlton Heston
. Then, one day, while catering a party at Roddy McDowall
's house, George Schlatter
from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, offered Jiminy a pilot episode deal for a daytime talk show that Jiminy accepted and started at the Beverly Garland 'Motel' as opposed to the Beverly-Garland Hotel. And, as Jiminy has said, "that's how it all started!"
Jiminy is currently married to a heavily-medicated, alcoholic Southern
woman named Dixie portrayed by Saturday Night Live
and Designing Women
veteran Jan Hooks
. Together they have four wonderfully strapping young boys: Morgan, Mason
, Matthew and Modine
(named after the actor, who is Jiminy's favorite). Morgan and Mason are teenaged twins and Matthew and Modine are ten-year-old twin
s; in one episode Jiminy casually commented that they were actually triplets
, but he sent the third one away because "two was so much already." The Glick family currently resides in Tarzana, California
.
is that he doesn't remember to take it). Glick is also very overweight, and during interviews he will sometimes aggressively stuff his face with junk food (which is always present on the table on set) at a moment's notice. Glick would occasionally offer food to his guests, but if they reached for it without being offered, he would snatch it away, growling, "No! All for me!" On top of his many other eccentricities, Glick has an unforgettably peculiar voice, shifting within a single sentence from a high, effeminate whine to a deep growl.
), who also resembles Lawrence Welk
from the Lawrence Welk Show. Adrian plays a full classical harp
, leading a band of scraggly-looking immigrants (they do a very poor job of synching up their "performance" with the music that is playing). While Adrian generally attempts to conduct himself in a professional manner, he occasionally loses his patience with Jiminy's idiocy and constant, usually unintentional put-downs. He can sometimes be heard muttering disgustedly about Jiminy ("You are fat...sloppy fat") but Jiminy remains blissfully unaware of Adrian's hostility.
Prior to his role on Primetime Glick, Adrian had been admiring Jiminy from afar for many years, but had been laid up with a skin condition, thus putting him out of work. He then began to send Jiminy fan letters and finally asked him for a job saying, "I think you need a harp." However, it was a typo and Jiminy thought Adrian said tarp
. Jiminy was doing some work on his pool at the time, so he called Adrian back. While waiting for Jiminy's response, Adrian boarded the cruise ship S.S.S. Statadam, and conducted the cruise's band while on board. After Jiminy's search effort for Adrian upon the ship's return, he finally met up with him, and then, Jiminy says, "The next thing you know, Van Vorhees is part of the Glick world."
Glick is also often assailed by Short's long-running, Bette Davis
-esque drag character, Miss Gathercole, a bitter, ancient woman who is a regular in Glick's studio audience (alongside her increasingly short-tempered nurse) and freely offers commentary on Glick's various failings and her own latest adventures.
In addition to the interviews, the show also featured many Second City TV-like parody commercials and Glick reading storybook tales to a group of young children, appropriately called, Lalawood Fables. These stories were usually Hollywood Babylon
-like tales of Tinseltown degradation, acted out by puppets. However, most of his stories tend to go right over his young audience's heads. The show sometimes had a more fanciful side, as when the puppets would apparently come to life, such as, on two occasions when Jiminy and Jason Alexander
spent too long in a steamroom and emerged dwarf-sized, and when Jiminy accidentally crushed Robert Downey Jr.
, also in Jiminy's steamroom.
Martin Short played the character in an episode of MADtv
. An interactive, constantly updated website is kept by "Jiminy Glick" http://www.myspace.com/jiminy_glick filled with photos, video clips, commentary, blogs and postings from over 9,320 friends of Jiminy Glick...and Martin Short.
Martin Short also made an appearance as the character on the April 16th, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live
hosted by Tom Brady. He appeared as a guest on the Weekend Update sketch plugging a fictitious "Best of Jiminy Glick" DVD, including a clip of Glick interviewing SNL creator Lorne Michaels
supposedly shot in the 1970s.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
portrayed not entirely by Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
in the TV series Primetime Glick (2001–2003), the subsequent film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
Jiminy Glick in Lalawood is a 2004 comedy film. It stars Martin Short as Jiminy Glick, a movie critic who is involved in a murder case at the Toronto International Film Festival.-Storyline:...
, and Short's Broadway show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. He began as a recurring character on The Martin Short Show
The Martin Short Show
The Martin Short Show was a syndicated talk show, based on the late night model, hosted by actor Martin Short with announcer/sidekick Michael McGrath. The talk show aired for one season in . It was produced by King World Productions...
; when that show was cancelled, he was spun off into his own series, Primetime Glick, which ran for three seasons.
Character origin
When Short hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1996 season, he played a character named Pinky Nye who seems to have been a proto-Glick: similar physique, voice, and attention span, and forever forgetting to take "ginko bilobo" (as both Nye and Glick pronounce it).Fictional Biography
Born in 1948, in Akron, OhioAkron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
(although he has claimed to have been born in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, or Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
), Jiminy Glick was the middle child of ten children of Omar and Isabella Glickman. Jiminy was often a loner and would be made fun of regularly because of his weight at a young age. He was also very sickly until he was thirteen, when doctors discovered that he had a small Tonka
Tonka
Tonka is an American toy company most known for its signature toy trucks and construction equipment.-History:On September 18, 1946 Mound Metalcraft was created in Mound, Minnesota with three men as partners, Lynn Everett Baker , Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch. The first products produced by...
truck stuck in his duodenum
Duodenum
The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals, reptiles, and birds. In fish, the divisions of the small intestine are not as clear and the terms anterior intestine or proximal intestine may be used instead of duodenum...
. At a young age, while riding his bike and listening to the song Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Michael, Row the Boat Ashore is an African-American spiritual. It was first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina....
, he lost his virginity when he fell on the "boy bar." After graduating Gale Gordon High School, and continuing on to DeVry Institute of Technology, his life changed forever when the play, Forty Carats
Forty Carats
Forty Carats is a play by Jay Allen.Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down during a vacation in Greece...
, starring Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
came to town. He was asked to join the show and traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, where he played Onlooker Number Two in the cast, which he said was "Like a Dream!" After his short acting career, Jiminy became the personal assistant to Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
, for about five years. He had planned on working for Robert Vaughn
Robert Vaughn
Robert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
, but as Jiminy said, "But he didn't pay!" However, Bronson was very cruel to Jiminy and threw him off his boat one time, mistaking him for Sebastian Cabot
Sebastian Cabot (actor)
Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and television actor, best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman, "Giles French," opposite Brian Keith's character, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. He was also known for playing Dr...
. Luckily, Jiminy was picked up by George Maharis
George Maharis
George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66...
from the TV show, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
and his cousin, Leon Maharis. Since being cast away by Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
, Jiminy was out of work, so Leon asked Jiminy if he wanted to work at Chasen's
Chasen's
Chasen's was a restaurant in West Hollywood, California that was a hangout for entertainment luminaries. Located at 9039 Beverly Boulevard near Beverly Hills, it was the site of the Academy Awards party for many years and was also known for its chili. In 1962 Liz Taylor had several orders of...
in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
with him as a bus boy. Jiminy jumped at the chance. While there, he ran into numerous Hollywood celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
, and Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
. Then, one day, while catering a party at Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
's house, George Schlatter
George Schlatter
George Schlatter is an American television producer and director, best known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and founder of the American Comedy Awards....
from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, offered Jiminy a pilot episode deal for a daytime talk show that Jiminy accepted and started at the Beverly Garland 'Motel' as opposed to the Beverly-Garland Hotel. And, as Jiminy has said, "that's how it all started!"
Jiminy is currently married to a heavily-medicated, alcoholic Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
woman named Dixie portrayed by Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
and Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
veteran Jan Hooks
Jan Hooks
Janet V. "Jan" Hooks is an American actress and comedienne best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live , on which she appeared from 1986 to 1991...
. Together they have four wonderfully strapping young boys: Morgan, Mason
Morgan Mason
Alexander Morgan Mason is a politician, film producer and actor. He was born in Beverly Hills, California, and is the son of the late Academy award-nominated British actor James Mason and his wife Pamela Mason, actress and commentator. He is a former Acting Chief of Protocol of the United States,...
, Matthew and Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
(named after the actor, who is Jiminy's favorite). Morgan and Mason are teenaged twins and Matthew and Modine are ten-year-old twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
s; in one episode Jiminy casually commented that they were actually triplets
Multiple birth
A multiple birth occurs when more than one fetus is carried to term in a single pregnancy. Different names for multiple births are used, depending on the number of offspring. Common multiples are two and three, known as twins and triplets...
, but he sent the third one away because "two was so much already." The Glick family currently resides in Tarzana, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
On The Martin Short Show
In the show, Glick is a famous television interviewer who has been around Hollywood for a long time. Despite this, he remains laughably ignorant about pop culture and most entertainment news, though he considers himself just the opposite. His interviews with stars are characterized by his patronizing attitude, often bizarre questions about obscure matters, and awkward body language. For example, he'll often cite another celebrity with whom the interviewee apparently shares a birthday (but in reality does not) and ask how it makes them "feel." He is extremely forgetful, and takes ginkgo biloba as a memory aid (although, as he often points out, the catch twenty-twoCatch-22 (logic)
A Catch-22, coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, is a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired with an action that will lead him to that very situation he is already in; therefore, the acquisition of this thing becomes...
is that he doesn't remember to take it). Glick is also very overweight, and during interviews he will sometimes aggressively stuff his face with junk food (which is always present on the table on set) at a moment's notice. Glick would occasionally offer food to his guests, but if they reached for it without being offered, he would snatch it away, growling, "No! All for me!" On top of his many other eccentricities, Glick has an unforgettably peculiar voice, shifting within a single sentence from a high, effeminate whine to a deep growl.
In Primetime Glick
On the series, Glick is joined by long-suffering, heavily made-up announcer and band leader, Adrian Van Voorhees (Michael McKeanMichael McKean
Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...
), who also resembles Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
from the Lawrence Welk Show. Adrian plays a full classical harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, leading a band of scraggly-looking immigrants (they do a very poor job of synching up their "performance" with the music that is playing). While Adrian generally attempts to conduct himself in a professional manner, he occasionally loses his patience with Jiminy's idiocy and constant, usually unintentional put-downs. He can sometimes be heard muttering disgustedly about Jiminy ("You are fat...sloppy fat") but Jiminy remains blissfully unaware of Adrian's hostility.
Prior to his role on Primetime Glick, Adrian had been admiring Jiminy from afar for many years, but had been laid up with a skin condition, thus putting him out of work. He then began to send Jiminy fan letters and finally asked him for a job saying, "I think you need a harp." However, it was a typo and Jiminy thought Adrian said tarp
Tarp
Tarp may mean:* Tarpaulin, a large sheet of strong, flexible, water resistant or waterproof material.* Tarp, Germany, a municipality in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.TARP or T.A.R.P. may mean:...
. Jiminy was doing some work on his pool at the time, so he called Adrian back. While waiting for Jiminy's response, Adrian boarded the cruise ship S.S.S. Statadam, and conducted the cruise's band while on board. After Jiminy's search effort for Adrian upon the ship's return, he finally met up with him, and then, Jiminy says, "The next thing you know, Van Vorhees is part of the Glick world."
Glick is also often assailed by Short's long-running, Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
-esque drag character, Miss Gathercole, a bitter, ancient woman who is a regular in Glick's studio audience (alongside her increasingly short-tempered nurse) and freely offers commentary on Glick's various failings and her own latest adventures.
In addition to the interviews, the show also featured many Second City TV-like parody commercials and Glick reading storybook tales to a group of young children, appropriately called, Lalawood Fables. These stories were usually Hollywood Babylon
Hollywood Babylon
Hollywood Babylon is a book by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger which details the sordid scandals of many famous and infamous Hollywood denizens from the 1900s to the 1950s. First published in the US in 1965, it was banned ten days later and would not be republished until 1975...
-like tales of Tinseltown degradation, acted out by puppets. However, most of his stories tend to go right over his young audience's heads. The show sometimes had a more fanciful side, as when the puppets would apparently come to life, such as, on two occasions when Jiminy and Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
spent too long in a steamroom and emerged dwarf-sized, and when Jiminy accidentally crushed Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
, also in Jiminy's steamroom.
Other appearances
In Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Glick interviews (through complete improvisation) an audience volunteer tasked to become the show's "new star" after Martin Short is struck by lightning (a ploy to allow Short enough time to don the Jiminy Glick make-up).Martin Short played the character in an episode of MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
. An interactive, constantly updated website is kept by "Jiminy Glick" http://www.myspace.com/jiminy_glick filled with photos, video clips, commentary, blogs and postings from over 9,320 friends of Jiminy Glick...and Martin Short.
Martin Short also made an appearance as the character on the April 16th, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
hosted by Tom Brady. He appeared as a guest on the Weekend Update sketch plugging a fictitious "Best of Jiminy Glick" DVD, including a clip of Glick interviewing SNL creator Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
supposedly shot in the 1970s.