“If my doctor is watching, I just want to say that this week I broke my back, last week I broke my neck, the week before I broke my knees. Stop bugging me about my cholesterol!”
The character of hapless stuntman Super Dave Osborne was created and performed by comedy writer Bob Einstein and made his first appearance on the 1972 TV series The John Byner Comedy Hour. Einstein revived the character for the sketch comedy series Bizarre and was a regular guest performer on The Tonight Show and Late Night WIth David Lettermanbefore finally being given his own series in 1987.
The Super Dave Osborne Show was broadcast from the fictional “Super Dave Compound” – a 500-acre super stunt complex. The initial season was, in fact, taped live at CTV television headquarters at CFTO-TV in Toronto.
Permanently dressed in his patriotically themed red, white and blue jumpsuit, Dave was assisted by several recurring characters, including announcer Mike Walden, whose loud suits were frequently the subject of mockery; Fuji Hakayito (Art Irizawa), Super Dave’s barely comprehensible stunt coordinator; Donald Glanz (Don Lake), the manager of the Super Dave Compound; Super Dave’s midget attorney Bernie Weinthal, and a Trinidadian steel drum band led by Pan Man (Pat McNeilly) that only knew how to play Barry Manilow‘s Copacabana.
Guests on the show included Carol Burnett, Steve Allen, the Smothers Brothers, Sonny Bono, Glen Campbell, Ray Charles, Celine Dion, Thelma Houston, KD Lang, Jerry Lee Lewis, Melissa Manchester, and Kenny Rogers.
