I found it, turns out he was in the sketch on Will Ferrell’s last appearance as an SNL regular. 

I’m pretty sure Alex Trebek likes the SNL sketches - he had a cameo in one once. 

I forget the name of the video store, but it was definitely not a chain. But I do remember where it was and I can still mostly picture the interior. All the videos were along the wall behind the counter in black cases, the regular display ones were on the racks you could browse. Very seventies dark paneling, except in…

The Robin Williams Popeye was the first video my folks rented for us when we got our first VCR in like 1982. I still believe that’s the only time I saw it.

Which reminds me that the local video store had a whole separate room for kids movies, and they had all the Disney films available to that time, including all the…

Yeah, a weekly show would’ve been a great idea - Leno’s prime time show was less talk show and more variety show anyway. Jay Leno’s persona would be perfect for that.

The Willys Jeep Station Wagon - which is the car I mentioned and is seen in the video- was not. All steel body, sometimes factory painted to resemble a wood body.  

Things started to get bad for Maserati in the 70's, during the oil crisis and the recession*. Sales tanked and Citroen liquidated the company, eventually selling it to Alejandro DeTomaso. The company limped along till Fiat took control and started investing in it again. 

Here in the Middle West, they don’t even exist. They just dissolved after a few winters. 

A Jeep station wagon painted as a woodie drives by at the very beginning, and appears again on the bridge (I imagine it was part of the film crew?). Another woodie, a Ford wagon, is in the parking lot. 

At least they’re not naming them after streets. “Here’s little Hennepin, and over by the sofa is Pilot Knob!” 

Tomato, tomahto. 

Nothing quite as satisfying as a peevish wank. 

The head tilt is because they’re looking through the wrong part of their trifocals. 

We are calling it FPCOC, pronounced “Efpeecock”

Signage note from a car dork: many if not all of the license plates on cars in LA are the 80's California style.

Right? I remember seeing these glasses at my friends and they’d all have faded to white with just black outlines. No color at all. 

No, they were pretty thin - I find these at the flea market and always consider buying a set, but I know they’d break before I get them home. Amazingly I have an aunt with the muppet set and they’re still in regular use. 

Don’t remember that at all - I wonder if it was regional, like a test item? 

The thing I actually remember wasn’t a Happy Meal toy (we rarely got those, my folks would just get us a cheeseburger and fries), but the glasses from the Great Muppet Caper - they were the same size as a regular soft drink so if you ordered one they just served your pop in the glass with the standard lid and straw,…

Well yeah, it’s an economy car. You don’t buy a supermini because it’s sexy, you buy it because it’s practical. And I agree, the 50 and first generation Polo are very nice looking cars, especially for their class. Excellent choice!