Oy Vey, it's 40 years later


We enjoyed paying tribute to those who inspired us. Oy Vey, It’s Mr. Goldstein! is one of those efforts. For those who are too young to remember, Mr. Bill was a recurring, clay-sculpted character on NBC’s Saturday Night Live within its first five seasons. While it can be labeled a blatant rip-off, it was fun to do this effort at parody. 

As we shot this, I truly had some empathy with the original Mr. Bill creators. One could do anything that they wished to do with pieces of Play-Doh as it was proved on Saturday Night Live. My favorite moment was when Mr. Bill met then-cast member John Belushi. Mr. Bill asked for an autograph. Belushi obliged but the result was quite tragic.

We somewhat created that moment in the film when Mr. Goldstein receives a true “knuckle sandwich” and is then, spoiler alert, doesn’t do too well with my childhood Mighty Casey train set. 

As for the fullscreen titles, I’m not sure where Dan was going with those, but I think they still get the point across. I can tell you these many years later, focusing was always challenging, both literally and figuratively.

All in all, it’s fun to watch us take our then-teen angst out on a piece of Play-Doh.

When we held our short film fests, this one stood out for the audiences.

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