''Not Necessarily the News'' (shortened as ''NNTN'') is an American satirical

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series that first aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. For most of the run, the series featured

Anne Bloom Anne Bloom (born Anne Pearson on April 18, 1947) is an American former film and television actress. Biography Bloom's television acting career, which spans three decades, began with an appearance on ABC's medical drama ''Marcus Welby, M.D. ...

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, Rich Hall, Mitchell Laurance, Stuart Pankin and

Lucy Webb Lucy Webb is an American comedienne and actress, most famous for her work on the 1980s HBO series ''Not Necessarily the News''. She was raised in Cookeville, Tennessee. She has appeared in multiple films and television programs, including '' Corri ...

. For the final season, the series switched to a live, up-to-the-minute format and also included reports from many other correspondents including

Will Durst Will Durst (born on March 18, 1952) is an American political satirist. He has been called a modern mix of Mort Sahl and Will Rogers. Early life Durst was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to 14 different schools before graduating from ...

Merrill Markoe Merrill Markoe (born August 13, 1948) is an American author, television writer, and occasional standup comedian. Early life Markoe was born in New York City. Her family moved several times including stays in Miami, Florida and San Francisco, ...

, Richard Rosen and

Harry Shearer Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member ...

. The series was the birthplace of Rich Hall's

sniglet A sniglet () is an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists. Introduced in the 1980s TV comedy series ''Not Necessarily the News'', sniglets were generated and published in significant numbers, along wit ...

s, which spawned a number of books. It also included early appearances from

Jan Hooks Janet Vivian HooksJan Hooks obituary
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, and, among the many writers the show employed, was the first credited professional television writing gig for Conan O'Brien,

Greg Daniels Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office'' f ...

Al Jean Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...

and

Mike Reiss Michael L. Reiss ( '; born ) is an American television comedy writer and author. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series ''The Simpsons'' and co-created the animated series '' The Critic''. He created and wrote ...

. The show was considered an inspiration and a predecessor to future news satirical programs like ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'', ''

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'', and '' Last Week Tonight'', among others.

Synopsis

It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from

overdubbing Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

or editing actual news footage. It was based on the British series ''

Not the Nine O'Clock News ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-cur ...

'' that had just ended earlier in 1982. The original format lasted until May 1989, when the series switched to a live, up-to-the-minute format in the style of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and Friday's Friday Edition. ''NNTN'' came to an end in December the following year with its final episode, a "Not Necessarily the Year in Review" special for 1990.

Cast

(1982–1990), as Frosty Kimelman * Rich Hall (1982–1990), who did a regular feature on "

s". *Tommy Koenig (1982 pilot) *

Sam McMurray Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...

(1982 pilot) * Audrie J. Neenan (1982–1984), as Jacqueline Pennell *

(1983–1990), as Steve Casper *

Mitchell Laurance Mitchell "Mitch" Laurance (born Mitchell Dycoff) is an American film and television actor and sports broadcaster. Early life, family and education Mitchell Dycoff was born in Queens, New York City, New York and raised in Hewlett, New York. He ha ...

(1983–1990), as news reporter Pete Kimelman. * Stuart Pankin (1983–1990), as anchorman Bob Charles. *

(1983–1990), as Helen St. Thomas *

Annabelle Gurwitch Annabelle Gurwitch (born November 4, 1961) is an American author, comedic actress, television host most recognizable from her stint as hostess on ''Dinner and a Movie on TBS','' and activist associated with environmental issues and secular huma ...

(1989–1990) *

Tom Parks Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

(1989–1990) *

(1989–1990) * Richard Rosen (1989–1990) *Joe Guppy (1989–1990) *

(1989–1990) *Jon Ross (1989–1990) *

(1989–1990)

Theme and episodes

The show's first theme song was the instrumental bridge of

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

's cover of "

Motherless Children "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time", also known as "Motherless Children", is a gospel blues song recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. It is a solo performance, with Johnson singing and playing an acoustic slide guitar. Johnson recorded t ...

". It was switched to " Hooray For The City" by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack in 1985. The series also spawned two specialized episodes that aired as occasional specials: ''Not Necessarily the Year in Review'', and ''Not Necessarily the Sniglets''.

External links

*
1985 TV Guide review
HBO original programming Television series about television 1980s American satirical television series 1980s American sketch comedy television series 1980s American television news shows 1990s American satirical television series 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1990s American television news shows 1983 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings American television series based on British television series English-language television shows American news parodies HBO Shows (series) WITHOUT Episode info, list, or Article {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub