March 22, 1978: “The Rutles" Debut

March 22, 1978: The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a parody of The Beatles, premieres on NBC. The fake band had previously appeared in 1975, on an episode of Rutland Weekend Television. The show's title was also a parody: The largest local channel in Britain, "London Weekend Television," in the capital, became "Rutland Weekend Television," based in Rutland, in the East Midlands, the smallest "historical county" in England. Hence, "Rutles."

Eric Idle of Monty Python fame played Dirk McQuickly, based on Paul McCartney, although Ollie Halsall provided the voice and bass playing for the actual recordings. Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and an occasional Python collaborator, played Ron Nasty, the stand-in for John Lennon. Ricky Fataar, the drummer for Bonnie Raitt's band, played Stig O'Hara, their version of George Harrison. And John Halsey, who had worked with Innes on the British comedy series Rutland Weekend Television, played Barrington Womble, a.k.a. Barry Wom, the analogue to Richard Starkey/Ringo Starr.

As with the 2007 parody of rock star biopics Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (which also featured a version of The Beatles), it wouldn't have worked had they gotten the music wrong. They got it right. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became "Hold My Hand." "Help!" became "Ouch!" "Get Back" became "Get Up and Go."

Mick Jagger and Paul Simon played themselves, and Ron Wood played a Hell's Angel. Terence Bayler played their Brian Epstein, Bianca Jagger (Mick's real-life wife at the time) played their Linda McCartney, Gwen Taylor played their Yoko Ono, Henry Woolf played their Maharishi, and Jeannette Charles played Queen Elizabeth II, as she had done many times before, and would after.

Idle's Python mate Michael Palin played their version of Derek Taylor. From Saturday Night Live, Bill Murray played "Bill Murray the K," John Belushi played their Allen Klein, Gilda Radner played an interviewee, and Dan Aykroyd played the idiot record company executive who turned the band down. Gary Weis, who had directed several short films for SNL, co-directed the film with Idle.

The real George Harrison was willing to participate, playing a TV interviewer, and was willing to back the production with his own money. The great irony of the film is that, unlike the actual Beatles, their behind-the-scenes "Paul," Halsall, really was the first to die, from a drug-induced heart attack in 1992, only 43 years old. Or was that an irony? Maybe not, because, onscreen, Halsall also played the Stuart Sutcliffe stand-in.

In 1996, as a parody of The Beatles Anthology, the surviving Rutles got together for a new "mockumentary," Archaeology. After the 2000 TV special The Beatles Revolution, a new film was released in 2003: The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch.

Innes died in 2019. As of March 22, 1978, Idle, Fataar, Halsey and Weis are still alive.

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March 22, 1978 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the great daredevil Karl Wallenda fell to his death during a performance in Puerto Rico. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-99 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.) Bernard King, not yet the star he would become, had 33 points and 18 rebounds.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-99 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 124-109 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-108 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.)

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 124-106 at The Summit in Houston. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 31 points for the Lakers, Calvin Murphy 36 for the Rockets. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Buffalo Braves, 97-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Within 15 months, the Bullets and the Sonics had played each other in back-to-back NBA Finals, each team having won one; while the Braves had moved to San Diego and the Jazz to Salt Lake City.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-1 at the St. Louis Arena -- or, as it was known from 1977 to 1980, during Ralston Purina's ownership of the team, the Checkerdome. Ron Greschner, a defenseman, had a hat trick. Phil Esposito scored 2 goals, and Pat Hickey scored the other Ranger goal.

* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Isles had 6 different scorers: Lorne Henning, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Harris, Bob Nystrom and Stefan Persson.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Washington Capitals, 6-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. This would be the only season, out of the 6 they played in Denver before becoming the New Jersey Devils, that the Rockies made the Playoffs.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

There were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 5-3 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, where they were playing home games during the repair work on the Hartford Civic Center. (It's now named the MassMutual Center.)

* The Cincinnati Stingers beat the Houston Aeroes, 9-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum. (It's now named the Heritage Bank Center.)

* And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

Also, Josh Heupel was born. He quarterbacked the University of Oklahoma to the 2000 National Championship. He is now the head coach at the University of Tennessee.