Martin Mull

Martin Mull & His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room
$9.49
Nice to have this album available cheaply, but the tags on the MP3s cause the files to show up under two different Artists. Some tracks are by Martin Mull, others (the spoken ones) are by Fabulous Furniture. The person who created these files apparently had some fun with that, but may be confusing or annoying when someone downloads the files and then tries to find them in a music library (like iTunes).

Serial
$14.95
Of course a comedy mocking Marin County in the 1970s is bound to aggravate the progressives, but that's EXACTLY what it set out to do. It was, after all, based on McFadden's sarcastic and mocking book of (about) the same name. But beyond the loony charicatures (and they abound), the writing snaps and the dialogue is pitch-perfect. I'll just give one short example: When Harvy Oldroyd (Martin Mull) goes bonkers at the goofball Indian drum ceremony wake of his best friend (William Macy) and has to be sedated by the neighborhood shrink, he groggily awakens a day or so later in bed. A friend's kid, "Stokely," comes by to visit Mull in his bedroom and they have a short chat, to wit:

Harvey: "So . . . what are people saying?"
Stokely makes a circling motion by his head, indicating insanity.
Harvey (nodding): "Oh well."
Stokely (quoting): "In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane."
Harvey (surprised at the kid's erudition): "Where'd you hear that?"
Stokely: "Star Trek."
Harvey (after a beat): "God, I miss that show."

Look for prime performances from Christopher Lee as a gay weekend Hell's Angel, Tommy Smothers as the doofus "Reverend Spike," and the enchanting Tuesday Weld as Harvey's flummoxed wife. Not for all tastes, just those of us who remember the 70s and longed for someone to mock them as they deserved. "Serial" is just the ticket.

Martin Mull & His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room
$11.98
Nice to have this album available cheaply, but the tags on the MP3s cause the files to show up under two different Artists. Some tracks are by Martin Mull, others (the spoken ones) are by Fabulous Furniture. The person who created these files apparently had some fun with that, but may be confusing or annoying when someone downloads the files and then tries to find them in a music library (like iTunes).

Mulling It Over: A Musical Oeuvre View
$15.98
I'd been looking for this cd for a long time. When I finally found one under $40, I was content to purchase it.