Let's set the scene, May 28th 1998, a little more than six months after Chris Farley passed away, the great Phil Hartman is shot dead by his wife, Brynn Omdahl Hartman. I liked Hartman, not as much as Farley, Sandler and Spade when they were on SNL, but I liked him. I enjoyed Phil's movie, with Schwarzenegger, Jingle all the Way. Well as much as anyone else right, not enought to buy it on DVD, but enough to pick it up and look at it when I saw it was rereleased as a special 10th anniversary edition, well maybe when it hits the Walmart $5 bin I will rethink it and possibly buy it. But getting back on track, although I was sad to see Phil go, it didnt hit me like it did when Chris died and therefore instead of going through the motions of mourning, I sat there, like a selfish Chris Farley nerd, next to the TV, with VCR remote in hand, and my finger on the record button looking for something, anything with a possible Chris Farley connection. To my suprise, I scanned across it, on CNBC out of all channels, CNBC with Charles Grodin, The Charles Grodin Show it was called. I guess him and Phil had been great friends and he was paying tribute to his buddy. Well as the last segment rolled, Mr. Grodin said "and I leave you with this:"

I recorded the entire segment that was aired. It was actually a clip from a show that aired, I believe in 1992 from a show titled Talk Back Live. From what I remember that show had special guest hosts and on this particualr show it had Phil as the host and Farley as the guest. What an odd coincidence. This combo would be repeated on Phil's last show on SNL in another coincidence (see picture below). Anywho thanks to Charles Grodin I was able to see a segment from what I assume was an entire episode with Farley and Phil. Unfourtunatley, in September of 1998, I had this tape in the VCR with "Bobcat's Big Ass Show" scheduled to record, and that is what it did, recorded over this moment in history. Well thanks to a Phil Hartman fan collection at http://www.adequatulence.com/hartman/vault/video/video.php, the coveted video that I have been looking for since 1998 can finally be seen, in a very short form. I am still looking for the orginal complete show, but this is quite a happy suprise. Thanks again.

Picture from Phil's last SNL show:

Phil lets Chris, as Matt Foley, finds solace on his shoulder as he addresses the audience and those at home by saying "You know, I can't imagine a more dignified way to end my eight years on this program, (sings) Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye."